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Today, we have the 48th letter from Helene in Vienna to her children who have been in San Francisco for ten months. It was written on August 30, 1940.

Clipper # 48

My dear children. It is the 30th of August and no news from Harry, and Everl’s letter from this week either failed to materialize or did not arrive, nor did I hear anything from the other side, which might have been a comfort to me.  My head is just a depository of ghosts. I feel like I’m in Dante’s circle of hell. I’m not in the mood to write and please don’t be hurt by that. As soon as I get the letters from you which I wish for I will write in more detail. The letter to Everl arrived yesterday and I apologize for opening it, but I’m enclosing it without having read it. In order not to damage the stamp that we needed, Papa had to cut open the envelope which had already been damaged by the long journey. After this second operation the original envelope wasn’t in good shape anymore. Also, if I had sent it in the original, the letter would have taken another 9 months, as you can see from the postmark.  

Papa is in a hurry, he has some things to do, so I am going to end for today and I hope that next time I’ll have a reason to tell you more and nicer things.

I wrote to Paul months ago that he should ask at our Consulate what should be done about our situation. The information which I got here did not seem competent. Do you remember how the American Consulate took up your case in such a different way than the one we have here? Even when you consider that the one I just mentioned is not so busy as the one here I still think that I would get better information from over there. Since Paul didn’t answer, I’m assuming he didn’t get the letter because otherwise he would have at least sent me a message, even if his news was negative. It’s really necessary to give Fate a kick in the pants.

We’ve had a visitor, and I’ll tell you all about it in the next letter.

Kisses.
Helen

At this point, Helene has stopped even hoping for letters from Harry, noting only that the weekly letter she could count on from Eva has not appeared. The post continues to be unreliable. Apparently, Eva received a letter in Vienna that was sent from someone the previous year. Postage is expensive and resources are tight, so Vitali and Helene conserve every stamp and piece of paper.