In Helene’s papers, I found a few letters from people unrelated to my family. It is fascinating to hear different voices and experiences of the war and its aftermath. So many lives and families destroyed, no one left unchanged or unaffected. Yet, people are resilient and, happily, despite her physical problems, Marga was able to take joy in her husband and family. In just a few pages, we get a sense of a stranger’s life and family over 20 years, from pre-war Prague to post-war Sweden and Switzerland.
Hotel Wüscherhof [?] Zurich 7/6/59
Seehofstrasse 15
My dear good Helene,
Now finally I want to answer your letters in detail as long as my hands don’t go on strike. You cannot imagine how much I am troubled by pain in my hands, arms, shoulders, and now also it’s starting in my feet. For the last 2-1/2 years I have been keeping myself mobile by taking cortisone preparations which of course have terrible side effects. For example, they seem to cause water retention and that’s why I’ve gotten so fat. I am sending you a picture of all of us. It was taken in April on my 60th birthday. You probably hardly recognize me? Then I will introduce you to my husband. You recognize Inge I imagine and the girl is my granddaughter Sandra, a real little Swedish girl. We spent my birthday in Bad Homburg, where I was taking some treatments and Inge and the child came from Stockholm.
Now let’s get to you dear Helene. Life was so full of excitement for you and I can appreciate what it meant for you to be separated from your husband and children. You were always a real delight for your family. I hope you are enjoying your children and that they are making it up to you in your older days and helping to make life easier for you. As I can remember, they were both very good, brave children. It is so sad that Vitali probably did not get to experience the end. His children would have been a great pleasure for him as well.
But everything is kismet and we must bear our crosses. Now you want to know how it’s been with me. When I lived in Prague (and Inge was already in Sweden), I could not leave my mother, and this Nazi gang picked me up there and stuck me head over heels into the K.Z. [abbreviation for Konzentrationslager – concentration camp] Thereseinstadt. I got a telegram in Prague which told me that I had gotten my Swedish citizenship back, and then they picked me up there the same day. I was there for 2-1/2 years and all the intervention from the Swedish government didn’t help, only that they did not send me to be gassed. After the end of the war, I came out of there and got my Swedish passport from the consulate in Prague right away and then traveled all the way across Europe in various types of transportation: going from Prague - Nuremberg - Bamburg - Belgium - Holland, and then back to Germany - Hamburg - Copenhagen and finally after five weeks — I was in animal cars, fish cars, bus, and even a ferry where I landed in Malmö [in southern Sweden]. In the K.Z., I of course picked up my illness. You can imagine the Germans considered my illness to be 100% caused by persecution and they are paying me a large pension. You can fathom how I am doing. Often, especially when the weather changes, I can’t even hold a spoon. My husband has to help me get dressed and undressed since I can’t get my arms to go back. But now I’ll report further. I was in Sweden for 5 months, then I had to go back to Prague to take care of some things. Then, after I came back after a year, Inge came and she was not married yet, but I took care of her household for her. She was working in the state theater in Malmö, but then she married the theater boss. I then simply went to work in a factory and then I managed to work myself up to a more important position in 4-1/2 years and then I met my current husband at a dinner where I and my boss had been invited. We met on Easter Saturday and on Easter Sunday he came with flowers and proposed to me. I told him definitely not, but you know how people are - they are inconsistent - and we got married that same year in August 1951.
My husband was an old bachelor but I must tell you Helene, there is no better man in the world and I really won the lottery with him. He spoils me, he’s true to me and he’s a great support to me. We are moving on the 16th of this month into our new house, the address which I will enclose for you. We want to get out of the big city and all the noise and we want some peace and quiet. It is a charming house, 1000 square meter garden, and we have a view fields and meadows and forest. It’s a mile and a quarter from Zurich and about half and hour from Bern. Helene, I don’t know your financial situation, but if you can afford a trip to Switzerland, you are most warmly welcome to stay with us to relax. Our house has 5-1/2 rooms and plenty of room for you.
You probably heard from Fredy that my mother died in the concentration camp.
Inge is fine, her child is already 11 years old. Inge has her own theater production. She is going on tour throughout Sweden and she’s directing. She’s very industrious with all this. She is still taking care of the house. My son-in-law is director in Stoikh [?], and he’s the only goy who is successfully directing by Habima [perhaps the national theater of Israel]
Now Helene I’ve got to go. My hands are telling me that it’s time to end the letter.
Please don’t be mad at me because I was silent for so long. I have made up for it today, haven’t I? Didn’t you write an interesting book? I heard about it from Fredy. Do you have it available to buy? Please dearest Helene, write soon and give my best greetings to your children, and greetings and kisses from everyone here.
From your old Marga
Please send me a picture of the children.
I would be so happy to see you again. Greetings also from my husband.
A Little bit of sleuthing — a lot of information!
In preparing this post, I decided to see what I could learn about Swedish theater and perhaps find something about Marga’s daughter. Marga gave a lot of clues in her letter. I looked up the theater in Malmö. At first I thought Inga might have been married to Ingmar Bergman, since he ran the theater in the 1950s, but that would have been too late for her to have an 11-year old child. On a site about Bergman’s work at Malmö, I found an article that talked about the different people who preceded him. It mentioned Sandro Malmquist. The Wikipedia page for him lists Inge Waern as his second wife. His page confirms that he directed for Habima. Inge’s Wikipedia page tells us that her mother was Margarethe Waern, née Schlesinger. According to the letter, Inge’s daughter was named Sandra, presumably in honor of her father.
At some point when I have a few extra hours, I’ll see if I can find out more about Marga and how my grandmother knew her.