This continues the story begun on January 14.
From the letters today, we see that it took a lot of people and agencies from across the globe to help my grandmother: Simon Brod and the JDC, Vitali’s relative (?) Yomtov in Istanbul, Helene’s nephew Robert in England, and her children in San Francisco. Managing to make such a thing happen with today’s technology would be frustrating, overwhelming, and time consuming – it’s almost unimaginable what a hurdle this must have seemed to Helene and her children. Thank goodness there were so many people concerned with her welfare who went out of their way to help. It’s amazing to see that all of this happened in just a few weeks’ time.
A final note: I continue to be amazed by how fluent people were in multiple languages. Yomtov lived and worked in Istanbul and I have letters written by him in French and German. Eva and Harry always talked about how many languages Vitali spoke - if I recall, it was about a dozen! It appears that this was not unusual.
Istanbul, January 24, 1946
Dear Mrs. Helena,
I have read your valued lines of December 31, 1945 with great attention.
I looked for Mr. Brod again, and since I could not find him, I wrote a letter to him about your issue and received his answer, of which I am sending you a copy.
You will see that Mr. Brod sent a wire to your daughter in order to get the necessary information about your departure.
Yesterday I received a telegram from Bridgeport, according to the enclosed copy. You will learn from it that people are dealing with your situation in America and asking that you be patient. Hopefully your situation will be resolved very soon.
I remain, as always, ready to be of further service to you.
Your
Signature
Istanbul, January 30, 1946
Dear Mrs. Helena,
You must have already received my letter of the 24th.
Today I received the following telegram for you, dated the 28th. from San Francisco:
“Received wire from Robert mentioning delay because cost of tickets if money or anything needed wire me at 3494 21 Street please let me know your exact address awaiting your arrival anxiously Love - Harry”
It is, thus, a telegram from your son, who is also working on these matters for you in America.
Also, I wrote to Mr. Brod today, and I am enclosing a copy of my letter to your attention.
As you see, I am following this matter with great interest, and I hope that it will be resolved satisfactorily in the near future.
In the meantime, I remain
Your
Signature
Istanbul, 30/1/1946
Dear Mr Brod,I received your letter of the 14th of this month, the contents of which I am giving my best attention.
Please let me know if you have received any instructions from the Jewish-American emigration office related to the departure of Mme. Helene Cohen.
For your information, I am sending you copies of the contents of two telegrams sent from America to Mme. Helene Cohen care of my company.
1. Bridgeport 22/1/1946: Harry allright everything soon settled keep patient Love Robert Zerzawy
2. San Francisco 28/1/1946: “Received wire from Robert mentioning delay because cost of tickets if money or anything necessary wire me at 3494 21 Street please let me know your exact address awaiting your arrival anxiously Love - Harry”
I would like to believe that these two telegrams are perhaps in response to your letter from the 9th of this month to Mrs. Eva Goldschmidt, daughter of Mme. Helene. In any case, it appears from these two telegrams that money is the cause of the late intervention in the departure of Mme. Helene.
If the emigration office has not yet provided you with the cost of the ticket to reserve a place on a boat leaving soon, please let me know the amount and whether the payment could be made in Turkish lira so that I can assist you in the departure of Mme. Cohen.
In case a place can be reserved on a boat and that the ticket must be paid in dollars, please let me know also, letting me know the price of passage to New York including meals, so I can inform by telegram Mr. Harry, son of Mme. Helene Cohen in response to his telegram of the 28th.
Please send me your answer as soon as possible, and in the meantime, I offer you, Dear Mr. Brod, my most sincere greetings.