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As we saw in the letter of March 17, 1941, Helene was finally desperate enough to ask for financial assistance from her relatives in San Francisco to help her and Vitali come to San Francisco.

Today’s letter is written from Paul Zerzawy to Erwin Fulda, a (distant?) cousin of Helene’s – you can see a photo of him visiting Helene in Vienna in the post of February 18. In the letter from that day, she is adamant about not wanting to ask him for money. Presumably this letter would have been used as proof for the American immigration authorities that if Helene and Vitali were allowed to come the U.S., they be able to support themselves or have the assistance of American relatives. You can see that $70 went a long way in 1941.

Paul makes it clear in this letter that the expectation is that Helene and Vitali would find a way to make a living in America, or that Paul and Helene’s children would support Helene and Vitali until they could do so. This letter is a back-up plan should they be unable to come up with the money. We know that Paul had been having a difficult time earning a living in San Francisco and at this point Harry was finishing high school and Eva was in her first year of nursing school, so it’s likely they would have needed this assistance, at least in the beginning. According to this letter, Paul expects to assist his brother Robert as well. Presumably when Robert comes to the U.S. from England (which he never does).