Link to Family Tree to understand family relationships.
Today we have a letter from Helene’s daughter Eva in Istanbul to her cousin Paul Zerzawy in the U.S. — Eva and Harry’s parents Helene and Vitali are in Vienna trying to arrange for their family’s departure to the U.S.
Istanbul, 12 June ‘39
Dear Paul!
We got copies of both of your letters from Mother. It is very nice of you to help us but I don’t think your efforts will have much success because there are a lot of people here who are waiting for their emigration to America. It’s not a bad place to wait in Istanbul. At first I didn’t like it here, because in the best and most elegant streets the cobblestones are as bad as in the worst suburbs in Vienna. Going through the entire city as far as I know the city, there is like one street which goes pretty straight and is fairly good and there are to the left and the right small streets that go downhill to the sea and uphill to the other side. To make walking even more difficult, on the sidewalk there are what appear to be half inch high steps which one has to climb up. Now finally I am starting to see what beautiful buildings there are in the streets, because at first I was just paying attention to my feet so I wouldn’t fall. In the first month we were here, we had no money at all, but then as if some sort of miracle, a donation came for which I could buy some material for making silk flowers. Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot to be done with that here, although most women run around like flower shops. I did get some orders from the two biggest stores, probably because I’m an immigrant, but unfortunately just once because they don’t need anymore. I was working while cooking on the gas flame, trying to save as much as possible, and I earned just about enough that I could buy myself a French textbook and dictionary.
For the last week I have a position as a seamstress in a laundry. And I am getting 15 Turkish lire a day. To translate into hours, I’m getting the equivalent 8RPF an hour. At the moment I’m not getting much done because the idea is that you’re supposed to work quickly, and I don’t even understand how to use the machine very well yet. People in the store are very nice and don’t treat me like an employee. They know that I’m not someone who knows how to do this kind of work and they hired me anyway. I am trying to learn as fast as I can. I do have an hour lunch break that I use for that purpose. One of the bosses speaks German very well and with the other female workers I speak French, but it’s anything but correct. Now I’m actually mostly learning Turkish since I probably have a lot more chance of getting a good job and one that is well paid with that. I must save my money in order to pay for our stay with the relatives because they are being burdened by our stay here. I will them give 7 Turkish lire - that’s all I can give them - because I need the rest for my travel and lunch.
I unfortunately can’t write anymore today because I have to leave and it’s 7:30. My greetings to the Schiller family and I wish that your attempts to find a job will soon find success.
Many Kisses,
EvaP.S. Send the letters to us together with those from the parents to save postage.
This is one of the few letters I have written by my mother. It’s wonderful to hear her voice and see her handwriting, both of which were virtually the same at 18 as it was at 80. Even at that young age, she was practical, independent, making the best of a difficult situation, spending nothing on herself except for necessities. At least on paper, she sounds optimistic and fearless – she will do whatever it takes to support herself and succeed. She doesn’t complain or rue the things she can’t control or the dreams that are dashed, or at least delayed. At the same time, she is concerned about her own (much older) cousin’s financial situation and asks him not to worry about them. (I was not able to figure out what 15 Turkish lira/8 German Reichsmarks were worth to get a sense of how little or how much Eva was making and spending.)
We heard some of the same news from Helene when she wrote to her nephew on May 30. In that post, we saw examples of Eva’s flower making tools. Helene mentions how amazed she is at the practical streak in her children – they are figuring out how to survive in Istanbul on their own, since the relatives cannot afford to support them. Knowing that her children could thrive independently must have been both heartening and bittersweet – it must have helped her immensely in the years of separation to come to know that they would likely land on their feet.