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In addition to family letters and photographs, Paul Zerzawy saved a number of bank ledgers and letters about transfers of funds from April of 1939. While preparing the April 3 post about assistance for refugees, it occurred to me that the money referred to in the letters and bank ledgers pertained to the assistance Paul was given to emigrate. Today’s letter is a copy of one Paul sent to a bank in Amsterdam explaining how funds should be distributed.
Dr. Paul Zerzawy
Currently at 8, Belsize Grove,
Hampstead, London N.W.3London, 10 April 1939.
To: Amsterdamsche Bank
Amsterdam.Regarding: Deposit Account 41987.
You have probably received in the meantime my letter of the 6th of this month in which I requested that you transfer money of 300 to Marjorie Shaw in London and I also asked that you notify Robert Zerzawy in London.
Today I am writing to tell you that I did not make use of the credit that you established for me with Cook Amsterdam for a ticket from Bentheim-London-New York because I traveled to London in a different way and I will also travel to New York in another way. Therefore I ask that you reverse the regulations regarding this and to charge me the appropriate fees.
Further I would ask that you liquidate my entire remaining amount in my account in the following way:
1.) I politely request that the amount of $100 (one hundred USA Dollar) is sent in the same way as the $300 I mentioned in the letter of the 6th of this month - in a cashiers check in Pounds to London or English Pounds in cash to Mrs. Marjorie Shaw, 21, Hampstead Hill Gardens, London, N.W.3 and please make that transfer and send a notice to my brother Robert Zerzawy, 8, Belsize Grove, Hampstead, London NW.3.
2.) For the amount remaining after the transfers have been made and after all fees have been covered, I ask you to establish a credit in US dollars for me at a New York Bank of your choosing or to issue me a cashiers check so that I may make a withdrawal there personally by showing my passport or possibly I could also do this in writing by mail. In the latter case, the number of my passport 1358 could be agreed upon as a code.
3.) The notice of transaction, the final reckoning of the amount, and the names of the New York bank which you have chosen I ask that you send to me as an official copy to the following two addresses:
a) “Herr Robert Zerzawy, 8, Belsize Grove, Hampstead, London N.W.3.”
b) “Mr. Louis Weisglass, 408 East 23rd Street, New York, for Dr. Paul Zerzawy”.The transfers to Shaw, London and the transfer to New York are both urgent. I would therefore be very thankful for your prompt execution of this.
Very truly yours
Below is the bank’s response from April 13, indicating how the money was transferred and that the account was now settled and closed.
At this point, Paul is in England, a stopping off point on his way to the United States. This may be the last time the brothers spent much time together, since Robert lived the rest of his life in London. Paul’s law degree must have come in handy — in the midst of uprooting his life with no resources, he at least knew how to deal and communicate with bureaucracies.
Ship’s manifest from Southampton to New York. Paul Zerzawy’s name is underlined. Note: he gives his profession as “Merchant.” Found through Ancestry.com.