Today we are so used to being able to communicate with friends and family instantaneously, regardless of how far away we are from each other. It’s easy to forget that this is a relatively recent experience.
Before, during, and after World War II, the only (somewhat) affordable way to keep in contact with people was by mail. Even that was expensive so letter writers often wrote on the lightest weight paper possible, filling up every inch of space front and back. This can make some letters difficult to decipher!
When the Nazis took over Austria, even letter writing was a challenge. Helene and Vitali had very little money to spend on the luxury of correspondence, the price of postage continued to rise, letters were censored, and mail often didn’t arrive at its destination. Helene began numbering her correspondence, asking her children to do the same, in order to know which letters were getting through. Helene experimented with different ways to send mail, most often relying on Clipper, a service that used “flying boats”.
In those days, people often kept copies of the letters they wrote in order to remember what they wrote about, since often a response took weeks or months. In addition, family members would share the letters they received with each other. For example, my grandmother’s nephew Robert Zerzawy would apparently sometimes send letters he received from Helene (originals? copies?) to his brother Paul in San Francisco to share with everyone there.
Amazingly, prisoners were able to write letters to each other between the camps - we have one written by Vitali in Buchenwald to Helene in Ravensbrück.
See translation of camp rules below
Translation of rules about what can be received and sent to and from the camps:
“Excerpt from the Camp Rules:
Each Prisoner may in one month receive and send 2 letters or postcards. Submitted letters cannot be more than 4 pages of 15 lines per page and they must be neat and easily read. Money may be sent by Postal order only, giving first name, surname, birthday, prisoner’s number, but without any messages. Including money, photos and sketches in letters is forbidden. Letters and postcards, which do not follow these rules, will not be accepted. Letters that are not neat and are difficult to read will be destroyed. In the Camp one can buy anything. National Socialist [i.e. Nazi] newspapers are available, but have to be ordered by the prisoner himself in the Concentration Camp. Food packages may be received at any time and in any quantity.
The Camp Commander”
Prisoners were allowed to receive letters and care packages from friends and family via the Red Cross, although there were very specific rules about what a package could contain. Helene reported that sometimes the food in the care packages was the only thing standing between prisoners and starvation. Writing to her friend and fellow Ravensbrück prisoner Lucienne Simier after the war, Helene says: “I thank Heaven for saving your family and share with you the joy as we have so often shared our bread and the contents of our valuable parcels.”
Three letters on one page. Note censorship numbers and Clipper letter # at top of page
Official postcard from the 1940 Golden Gate International Exposition San Francisco. Courtesy of Morton Beebe