Today we have a newspaper article that Helene’s nephew Paul Zerzawy kept in his files. Earlier this year after my translator Roslyn had finished translating all the letters she could read, we began looking at other items in the archive that were in German. This article is one of the only items that Paul Zerzawy kept that was not specific to him or his family.

5 March 1939 Prager Tagblatt Nr. 55

[This article must have been from one of the last issues published of this paper since it ceased publication after the German occupation on March 15. Although you can see issues in the Austrian National Library, 1939 is not included.]

England’s Help for Emigrants
The implementation of the English-Czech-Slovak agreement

Who is considered a refugee?

Prague. In the last days, the agreements were made which the delegates of the English government, Mr. Robert Stopford about the conditions for implementation of the English-Czech-Slovak refugee agreement in Prague.

According to this pact, the following people are considered refugees:

1)    People, regardless of their religious persuasion, also not considering their political leanings or their race, those who had their official place of residence in the annexed region and then found in Czechoslovakia then or now a place of refuge, and who either could not opt for Czechoslovakia or if they were entitled to this option were not in a position to make a living in Czechoslovakia. All of these people fall in the category of refugees from the annexed region.
2)    Those people are considered refugees who are foreigners who had or have German or Austrian citizenship before 30 September 1938 found temporary residence in Czechoslovakia.
3)    Considered under this pact are people who in the future reach the Czecho-Slovak region and are declared to be refugees by the British government.

Execution of money orders from the English refugee bond.

First, the parceling out of such monies to people who have the cash money to purchase their quota for 30,000k and in the second instance to those who have no such means and for whom the quota will be provided without remuneration. They must prove their lack of funds through an official document, such as a certificate of poverty or their last tax return. The money is not paid in cash to any refugee. He only will get the ticket to his destination, which will be bought by the refugee office and will get a check to be paid to a bank at the destination. The necessary transactions are taken care of by the London branch of the Anglo bank and the [Czech] bank. The money orders themselves will be taken care of by London, and where the bonds are deposited. The distribution process is set up to make sure there is no governmental or technical complication. If the emigrant should die during the trip, his family will get the money order.

Anyone who applies for a cash distribution will have to arrive at the refugee office where in the next instance it will be determined in the sense of this pact he is actually a refugee and is eligible under this agreement. Only after that point will the further arrangements for the purchase of the ticket be carried out. If the transport company has made the price of the ticket available to the refugee office, the transfer of funds to the appropriate bank will be made for the release of the funds for the ticket. The travel agency will transmit the ticket to the refugee, but there will have to be confirmation of the situation. He will also get some pocket money for travel. The emigrant will have to arrive at the refugee office twice: 1. for the acceptance of his particulars, 2. after the amount of the cost of the trip is determined, he needs to report to arrange for the emigrant quota (either free or for purchase). The British government is in each case to provide the invoice.

A part of the refugee amount was reserved for the emigrant group of the former German social democrats and German democrats who were under the direction of Deputies Jasich and Taub. 

From this group, there are about 800 family groups who are supposed to go to Canada and the rest are going to other overseas destinations. The Canadian government is in this case not insisting that immigrants must be only farmers, but it has declared itself willing to accept immigrants and retrain them. Therefore, the distribution of the normally determined quote of $1000 in this case will be 50% higher. For the normal emigration to Canada from Slovakia or from the Bohemian lands, the amount of $1000 will be demanded in Canada for the purchase of a farm. Immigrants from the group Jasich-Taub will be able to form a collective. These families will be able to found their own town.  

In this group of emigrants, we also include former Hungarian social democrats from the annexed region, especially farmers, and 1300 people of whom 500 are non-Aryan. This group is going to be under the direction of the former Senator Balla.

Over 40 million

Up till now, there have been over 40 million crowns distributed to refugees separate from the large amounts reserved for the large group of people who are emigrating to Palestine. In the sense of the separate Palestine pact, for the legal emigration to this country, a half million pounds are reserved. That means 500 emigration certificates for 1000 pounds each. Considered in this group exclusively are Jewish families who with this amount as capital are emigrating to the land of destination, because 1000 pounds at today’s exchange rate are the equivalent of 140,000 crowns. Several hundred people have already left on this trip. This amount of money is however deposited in a bank in London and will be sent directly via the national bank in Prague for payment at the destination. Of the target amounts from the refugee loan in the total amount of 4,000,000 pounds there is therefore a half million attached to the needs of the Palestine group and a further amount for the emigrants in the German Democratic group. Prague wishes that this amount will also be increased to a half million pounds. The further 3 million are also to be used exclusively for the purpose of emigrants.

Where?

The question where the emigrants will be directed to has generally not been decided yet. Especially the negotiations with the south American states have not led to any positive results yet, because the states in the first instance are only willing to allow farmers to immigrate and in the second instance they are putting up some oppositions to the immigration of non-Aryan people. The Jewish emigrant problem is therefore especially difficult to solve.

Paul Zerzawy left Europe just a month or so after this article was written. I imagine that he fell under the quotas mentioned. I do not know whether he received any monetary assistance. The work of Robert Stopford was mentioned in the January 25 and March 21 posts.

Yesterday I was looking at the JewishGen site and found the following reference to him (with his birthday off by a year) saying that his German citizenship had been revoked and property seized, so at this point he probably had few personal resources. At this point Paul was considered German because Germany had annexed Austria and Czechoslovakia.