A brief biography

Helene (or Helen) Loewy Cohen was born in 1886, the youngest of 13 children (not all of whom survived until adulthood) in Bilin, a small spa town in Bohemia. Her father was a printer and published a weekly newspaper. He was active in the synagogue. Helene was curious, loved her family, and wanted to see the world and live somewhere more cosmopolitan. By 1917, she was living in Vienna where her brother and perhaps other relatives lived. She always wanted to have children but hadn’t found a husband by the time she was 30. She worked in a stationary shop on the Stubenring. She loved Viennese cafe society and music.

Helene met Vitali in 1919 or 1920 while he was on a brief visit to Vienna. He was a charming Jewish man from Istanbul who had studied and lived in France and spoke several languages fluently. They married in 1920. Eva was born in 1921 and Harry in 1924. Helene’s happiest times were those with her young family, enjoying life in Vienna, playing in Stadtpark, having musical soirées at home, and celebrating birthdays.

As Hitler approached, she sent the children first to Istanbul to obtain passports since they were considered Turkish citizens, and then to safety to relatives in San Francisco in October 1939. She and Vitali tried to follow, but were unable to get the money and paperwork in time. Life in Vienna was difficult, cold winters with nothing to burn for heat except pieces of furniture, clothes becoming more and more threadbare, little food available, and even less money to buy it with. She wrote letters constantly to her children, relatives, and friends all over the world.

Germany made an ultimatum to Turkey that it had to take back its Jewish citizens or they would be sent to the death camps as Austrian and German citizens had been. The final deadline was September 30, 1943. Vitali and Helene were arrested on October 15, 1943. Vitali was sent to Buchenwald and Helene to Ravensbrück, where Helene she arrived on November 5. Little is known of the time between Pearl Harbor and their being sent to the camps. They had to move out of their home on Seidlgasse and move to an area where the few remaining Jews lived in Vienna. In 1945, Helene and 18 other Turkish prisoners were part of a trade and were sent on a ship to Istanbul. She lived as a displaced person in a hotel and did not have freedom to leave or visit Vitali’s relatives.

Helene was reunited with her children in San Francisco in 1946. She continued her voluminous correspondence, including unsuccessfully trying to find what had become of her husband. She found work as a housekeeper. As from an early age, she wanted to be a published author. She wrote about her youth and other stories and memories. She submitted a few for publication but was unsuccessful. She loved being a grandmother. In her last years, she ended up with what may have been Alzheimer’s. In her mind, she retreated to the happiest time of her life, those days in Vienna with her children happily playing in Stadtpark, when the world felt like a safe and happy place. She died in 1981 at age 94.