13 Nov First weeks in Tegel Prison

In Alfred Delp’s first surviving letters there is an element of self-pity–“How have things come to this terrible state?”–but also a realization that he has been stripped of everything and has been called into the darkness of his own misery.

He quotes a psalm in one letter: “I’ve become very alone and miserable”, and then says later, “God has profoundly entrapped me and challenged me to keep my word from former times: with God alone can one live and deal with one’s destiny.”

In the early weeks of his imprisonment, Delp alone of all the Kreisau prisoners was denied visits from the chaplains who regularly came to the cells.  This intensified his isolation and he was forced to rely on the letters smuggled in by the two Mariannes for outside news.  He also received snippets of news from the other prisoners during their daily circle walk in the prison courtyard.