Link to Family Tree to understand family relationships.
Today we have another letter from Helene to her nephew Paul Zerzawy in New York. Her children are in Istanbul in order to obtain passports to allow them to travel to the US.
Vienna, 6 July 1939
Dear Paul, do you know how many letters there are now to which you owe me an answer? I don’t mean this in a bad way, I can’t really imagine that it’s a matter of time or that you don’t have the inclination to write to me. But I am also considering that you have other readers and I hope at least that I am pretty high on the list. This jargon must remind you of Zelinkagasse and your previous domain. Across the street from there now is some kind of financial office which has invited me to come by for a visit. When I am there, I will do a little wave to you, at least mentally. By the way, I met in Meistersingerstrasse recently (now you’d probably like to know where that is), it used to be known as Mahlerstrasse, I met the Pomweiser [?]. He asked about how you were doing. He was upset that he hadn’t heard from you. I had to come up with a plausible reason for that, because he asked me for your address so he could write to you. There’s no reason to worry, but partly to amuse you and partly to give other reporters a chance to write about Vitali, I am enclosing an article of the Volkszeitung in English translation. In the last letter I sent to you a copy of our registration cards. What do you think about the number 53? We don’t have very many front men and I believe that it would be our turn soon if we were in possession of an affidavit. Can you make it plausible to our relatives that we would not be a burden on anyone? Vitali’s achievements are unsurpassed and I wanted to ask you to go to some newspaper and ask maybe based on the articles and the material I am sending with this letter and the brochures you asked for so we could have current articles and information about Vitali’s work and that might help us to get the affidavit. It would be wonderful for me if we did not have to bother our relatives who have already done so much for us. As soon as the children are over there, you will get beautiful postcards from me.
For today, just lots of kisses
HelenSay hello to the Schillers.
According to the Zerzawy family tree, Paul’s law office in Vienna was located on Zelinkagasse. In looking up this address, I found his home address on Geusaugasse. I was delighted to discover that he lived just around the corner from Helene and her family – my map program says the two homes were just 400 feet apart!
As I read Helene’s letters, I often think about how disorienting life must have been. Life was growing ever more dangerous, rules and bureaucracy changed daily, the country she lived in was now Germany, and even the street names changed – in this case from the name of a Jewish composer from Bohemia to the name of an opera by Wagner. Helene must have had a complicated relationship with Wagner’s music – he was one of her favorite composers, yet was known for his antisemitism and was a favorite of Hitler. Helene named her daughter Eva after the heroine in the Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
The newspaper article that Helene mentions might “amuse” Paul was the hateful article we saw in the April 7 post. Helene continues to be hopeful that Vitali’s occupation would be accepted and thrive in San Francisco.
Meistersingerstrasse no longer appears on a map of Vienna. According to a website of Vienna street names Mahlerstrasse was known as Meistersingerstrasse from 1938-1946 and then reverted back to its previous name.
In the July 1 post, we saw the document Helene sent to Paul about their number of 53 on the Turkish waiting list to emigrate.
Possibly Paul Zerzawy’s law office on Zelinkagasse