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Today we have copies of letters sent from Paul Zerzawy in New York to Bohemian Union Bank in Prague and to Leo Schauer. We saw earlier letters from Leo Schauer in the July 4 post.
Paul has been in New York for a few months and has had trouble finding work. Paul seems to have been an unreliable correspondent, apologizing for how few letters he has written. Helene consistently complains about his silence. Paul seems to have written when there was important business to attend to. I sometimes wonder whether it was a sense of embarrassment and disappointment at not having been more successful that kept him from writing more often. His life in the U.S. was difficult, he did not find consistent work to support himself, let alone to have enough money to help his relatives abroad. Very different from being a successful attorney in Vienna.
The “emergency bank notes” Paul mentions may be related to the newspaper article we saw in the April 3 post.
From what I’ve been able to piece together from my letters and papers, Leo is Paul Zerzawy’s father’s 3rd wife Elise’s brother. Although he calls Elise “mother”, Paul was in his mid-20s and on his own when they married. Otto was some sort of Zerzawy cousin and worked at Union Bank. Fritz Orlik is Elise’s son from a previous marriage. We saw a letter from him from 1940 in the January 25 post.
New York, 24 July 1939
To the Bohemian Union Bank
Prague I., Graben.
I have on deposit with you K120,000 [Czech crowns] in emergency bank notes which are mortgaged with K60,000.
Hereby I communicate to you that I have changed my permanent address from Prag VII., Belcrediho 68. I ask that you make a note of my new address:
Mr. Paul Zerzawy, 718 West 178th Street, c/o Cooper, Apt. 44, New York City, U.S.A.
Very truly yours:
24 July 1939
Dear Leo!
I am sending this letter to you to tell you that I followed your advice exactly and I thank you for the advice. The letter is for all of you though. I ask you not to blame me if I did not write directly to you. Up until now, rather, I sent my greetings through my mother and I let you know my news that way. Since you have read my letters, you are informed about me. You understand what it is like to write letters in the famous New York heat, or humidity rather. You see it in my spelling errors. I imagine the number of letters I owe is about 60, but you understand however that one has psychic considerations, one feels sort of stuck because one cannot yet really say what would be by far the most interesting thing about my letters: that I can in fact support myself. Except for that I am doing well and I don’t really worry about myself, but only abut about you, how it’s going in the other half of the world and what the future may bring. I thank you that you are taking care of Mother and our affairs. I would like to know that Anny is in England and hear that Fritz and Hanne have sent news. Please when you write to your loved ones, please greet them for me too and I will write in time myself.
Many greetings from your
[On side of letter:]
If provisions should be necessary for my affairs which could not be taken care of in letters that I wrote before I left to my mother, please get in touch with Otto Z who has my written power of attorney.