FIRST PART 1956-1998
Section 1
On March 20 , 1968, the editor-in-chief of Germany's
major national newspaper 'Hamburger Abendblatt' wrote in his daily front page column "From a human perspective". The article can be seen th in facsimile, including in Danish translation
About helping others The purpose of life is to help people in need. At first it was Germany's mixed-race children whom she placed in Danish homes, and last year victims of the war in Vietnam. Anna Lorenzen, Hamburg, manager of Terre des Hommes, had a lot to do last year. This was not least true in Hamburg's hospitals to provide beds for seriously injured war-disabled children and provide help for them. Anna Lorenzen, who was not a well-known name and did not have a bank account, but only lives on her pension, thanks to her vitality and incomparable energy, brought 20 Vietnamese children to our hospitals for treatment. The slim woman with the narrow face understands very well people who have had a difficult fate. Nor has her own fate been a bed of roses. Anna Lorenzen is Danish. She married a German who died in World War II. She herself was badly injured and lost her right arm. In 1945 she was taken prisoner and was only released again in 1956. Today, Hamburg is her home, and her purpose in life is to help those who have often been considered 'half people', as she herself expresses it. In that relationship, it doesn't matter to her whether it's a child from Vietnam, from India or from Germany. "But the Vietnamese children have the greatest need for help at the moment ," she believes. Right now, she visits the 15 most seriously injured children and young people in Bernbecker Hospital every day. They know her and are happy every time she comes. A happy child's laugh is the biggest thank you that Anna Lorenzen could wish for.