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Today was the day Helene and Vitali were to have boarded the ship to America. Instead, they found themselves still in Vienna. Due to the disappointment, Helene confused the date when typing the letter. From the contents, it’s clear she wrote it on July 15 -- as I assume Paul Zerzawy wrote in pencil to clarify. Paul often noted the arrival date on letters he received.
Vienna, 15. April 1941 (in pencil: July? Arrived August 5)
My dear children! It’s more than 30 degrees in the shade [86 degrees Fahrenheit] and it’s pretty extreme when you don’t know whether you’re a man or a woman. I do in fact know that we should have been on a ship today had things lined up right both in heaven and on earth, but we are doing nothing but wiping sweat from our brow. I just came from one of those paths from which the devil must have been responsible. I went with Papa. Result? “And here, poor fool, I stand once more; No wiser than I was before.” Papa who apparently thought that he hadn’t run around enough yet, said good-bye to me so that I could prepare the meal for him and he decided to keep wandering around in an attempt to gather memories of his existence in Vienna.
Yesterday there was a terrible thunderstorm. For us it was a grandiose nature spectacle; for others whose nerves reacted differently, spent a fear-filled sleepless night. We, however, were ecstatically breathing in large gulps of the air that had been cleaned by the storm, enjoying it to the fullest. How appropriate, I want to Züge! [a pun meaning both to board a train and to breathe] When there are temperatures like this, it is not really much of a pleasure to travel, but perversely we seem to be assessing it differently, because we are really looking forward to it. We would really just like to know when, where, and where to. To find this out, we have both needed to hurry up. But the heat paralyzed me – otherwise I would have been behaving like a volcano -- Etna and Vesuvius could have learned from me.
Since it’s really not sure yet when we will be able to grace the Western Hemisphere with our presence, I am going to switch over to waiting for the mail again. Get started! A few days ago, it looked like I would be able to get the mail myself, but the storm was so bad that that idea went away as soon as it showed up.
What did that old shoe maker say? Oh, don’t ignore it. Bravo. Today in my dream, a cavalry officer known to me - well this is to amuse you - well, he did a somersault with his horse and he did it in a goldfish pond. I don’t think I’ll have to do a dangerous jump to entertain you.
Until then, many letters will be written. I’m at 114, how about you?
Many, many unnumbered kisses from the old world. Greetings to everyone, whose names I will not list because it would probably cost too much to mail. Please don’t forget anybody.
Helen
Helene is still hopeful that all will work out despite the delay. I so admire her resilience. She will not lose hope that she will see her children soon. She is full of puns and word play. As usual, the quotation is from Part I of Goethe’s Faust: “Da steh ich nun, ich armer Tor, und bin so klug als wie zuvor.”
I assume it was not a coincidence that the sentence about getting the mail herself included the words “helen können” -- a play on her own name. Helene gets right back to letter writing, continuing to number her missives to keep track of how many make it to their destination. At the same time, her kisses remain numerous but unnumbered.