Heart of a Wife: The Diary of a Southern Jewish Woman

Helen Jacobus Apte

1944–1945

Tampa—Tuesday, June 6, 1944

D-Day at last. The invasion started about 1 a.m., and I have been listening to the radio since 8. My first reaction, and I’m sure everyone else’s—“Thank God, and God keep us,” each one naming someone near. Someone extra-near: George is no doubt there, as they say the paratroops were among the first.

David sweeter than…

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Creator Bio

Helen Jacobus Apte

1886–1946

Born in Hawkinsville, Georgia, Helen Jacobus Apte spent the majority of her life in Atlanta and Florida. The daughter of German immigrants who had each come to the United States at young ages, Apte identified strongly as both an American and a Jew. Although illness forced her to leave school at the age of sixteen, Apte was a gifted writer who might have pursued the craft professionally had she been born in another time and been in better health. She settled for keeping a diary, which she began following her marriage at the age of twenty-two.

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