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Today we have two letters written on the same day.
Front side of Helene’s letter to her son Harry.
Vienna, 19. March 1940.
My only little Harry boy.
In what I sent to Eva, you will have realized how few pieces of news get through from you and you see how hungry I am for even the littlest bit. If I did not have my imagination, which allows me to imagine what you’re doing, I would have to be very sad. Papa is trying his hardest to distract me and he is such a good person. For other reasons I am looking forward to Sunday because the following day is Monday and I might have a chance to get some mail that day. Last Monday brought us a letter from Eva but the fact that you’re worrying about us and doing things for us is making me sad. No sense in worrying. It’s not in the cards - it would be so easy to solve the problem that we are separated from you - but that would not even be normal. Parents are always interested in what their children’s lives are about. One of the oldest things in the order of the world, which nowadays has really come into a certain amount of disorder. I feel like I am a country cousin who is sitting at the train station hours before the train is scheduled, waiting for the train. The waiting period seems so long, but finally I hear the whistling of the locomotive. The heart pounds a bit more and you get to your destination.
How are you doing in school? Do you have nice classmates and what do you do in your free time? Easter is just around the corner, are you going to work as a clerk again? When I imagine you doing this job, I think about all the Hanseatic books once occupied my imagination. From “should and have” started to “Max Havelar.” We live in our world of thoughts and that’s not really such bad company.
Your letters are the only thing we have to read because we don’t really have to concentrate on those.
Yesterday I wanted to go to procure for E&H Lowell some shaving cream for Papa for March 21 [Vitali’s birthday] but our account was overdrawn. We have an advance until July and so can’t really buy anything.
Yesterday, there was a family scene and I thought about the fact that you were not here really didn't think it was possible to win the following fight without help. I wanted to get Papa’s nightgown, the one with the Indian pattern, to be washed because you could barely see the design anymore. But Vitali went wild and was making crazy gestures. I had to laugh how he was defending his piece of clothing and I could almost not win this battle. He was afraid that washing his nightgown might ruin its “elegance” and the expression on his face was so fearful that I promised he could borrow my morning parade outfit. That lasted 1/4 hour and then his nightgown with its one-time Indian pattern was indeed sent out to be cleaned. My promise was kind of a ruse because I knew Papa wouldn’t be able to use my clothing because it wouldn’t fit him. He didn’t take me at my word but he bought himself another one for the points he still had so he could change and he’s quite proud of his new acquisition. It was a really nice Busch family scene. Unfortunately, I can’t use your camera. That’s too bad because you would have gotten a kick out of this. What is your Baldina doing? Is she working? Is she out of a job? Not making movies anymore? It seems like maybe she’d make 5 schillings, but that seems unlikely.
I’m glad that my waiting will bring me the reward of a detailed letter. I will soon join the ranks of classic “waiting women” like Penelope, Solveigh, etc.
So that’s it for today, greetings to all the dear ones.
Kuuuuuuuuuss
Helen
Front side of letter from Helene to Paul Zerzawy
(handwritten note that it was received April 3)
Vienna, 19. March 1940.
My dear Paul! I assume that you did not just leave it at the one card from November 4 and that letters from you and from the children are still on their way. So I am answering one of these imaginary letters. Please excuse me if I don’t respond to any questions that you might have asked. You can’t really accuse me of superficiality in this case.
If I were to give you a description of our days you could be forbidden to fish because you are yawning so much. That’s why I can only assure you that it’s not an easy task to go from being quite busy to being forced to do nothing. Well, doing nothing is not quite the right expression because my time is really taken up with cooking, washing the dishes and the laundry, straightening up, and other kinds of housework. However I have enough leisure during these activities to think about a lot of things. This thinking is what reminds me in a painful way that in our matter we must take consciousness of our situation. In addition, there’s the matter of the mail dragging along and that just makes me have dark thoughts. But I don’t want to foist off my melancholy mood on you. It goes away as soon as I get one of those letters that’s on the way.
Now you’ve been in San Francisco for 5 months already and we only know from you that you’ve arrived well, you live at Bertha’s house, and that you are studying language with Hilda and paying for it by the clearing certificate. That’s quite a bit, isn’t it?
For the care of my children in New York I have not really thanked you, because I only recently found out from a letter from Harry from October 21 in what a selfless way you cared for the children. I will make up for all of this and I hope that I can pay back all the love that was shown to my children.
I am afraid I have today against my will have let myself go here and I hope I haven’t ruined your mood. Sometimes one is so melancholy and it would be better to not write letters when one is feeling that way, but today is the last day for Clipper post. Even though I know that it will still lay around, I don’t want it to be my fault that you are delayed in getting mail.
Paul, get yourself together and write me a very, very detailed general report. Maybe send it as a package so it’ll be cheaper.
I am wishing all the best for you. I am your
Helen
Although written on the same day, the letters posted today were translated 18 months apart — we get a fuller picture when both are read together. Like the letters from March 17, Helene’s letters to her son Harry and to her nephew Paul were very different. To Harry she tells a story of family life filled with literary references. To Paul, she is much more direct. We learn that Paul met Eva and Harry when they arrived in New York and how he helped them make their way to San Francisco.
Helene’s likening herself to the “waiting women” of myth and literature paints a vivid picture. From a summary of characters from Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt, “Solveig, Peer’s ideal love, always beautiful and always patient. Although she grows old and almost blind while waiting for Peer’s return, she has power to defy the Button Moulder by her belief that her faith and love reveal the real Peer. She seems to represent love, holy and remote but everlasting.” Edvard Grieg wrote music to accompany the play, including “Solveig’s Song.”
Even when asking Harry about his job as a clerk (probably for the Levy-Zentner wholesale fruit and vegetable company), she brings in references to old international merchant and trading companies and efforts, painting a more interesting picture than the mere title “clerk” would do.