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Today we have three letters written on the same day. One to each of her children and one to her nephew.
Vienna, March 26, 1940
He, Hi, Hu, Honey, Harry!
Do you know if Jo and Paula are our only acquaintances? I have had some contact with the following: Frau Imi, Frau Ata, Herr Vim and Mr Fex. I have more to do with them than I would really like. Other acquaintances you might like such as Jarzebinka, Griot, Cherry, Brandy Marilowka and some other Polish citizens [includes little drawings - probably brands or flavors of alcohol]. “If you have problems, you also have liquor” and we have enough liquor [from H.C. Wilhelm Busch from Die fromme Helene – “Pious Helene” or “Helene who Couldn’t Help It”]. Now you will see why my letters are kind of weird sometimes. Papa says I’m going to get a red drinker’s nose, but Jo and I drink competitively and Papa just watches us and says “Oh, jeez, too bad about every single word.” In the land of Prohibition I will probably become a solid coffee drinker again.
How is my ROTC boy doing? I am looking forward to the next illustrated newsletter. I got a letter from Eva today which only took 47 days to get to us. That seems almost normal. Paul wrote on it too so I am a little more oriented as to what’s going on now.
There was a man from the air command here looking at our apartment because we have received notice that we will have to leave the apartment soon. Papa acknowledged that we received that notice but that we are not at the present time thinking of giving up our apartment. How much I would like to since so many people have shown interest in seeing us elsewhere and maybe will help us to figure that out.
Papa tells me I need to finish this up because it’s time for him to leave and I want to add a few lines to Paul as well. See you later and don’t forget me!
Kisssssssssssssssssssssssssss…..s
HelenHandwritten note at bottom: Greet Hilda & Nathan, Tillie and Julius
Handwritten note on top: Hi Harry, Jo, Cheers!
As usual, Helene keeps her sense of humor in her letter to her son, drawing pictures of alcohol bottles, quoting a German humorist from a book with her name in the title. At the same time, she alludes to the difficulty of their situation: having few friends left, drinking alcohol to ease the pain, and wishing there were a way out of Vienna when it’s been made clear that they are no longer welcome there.
Vienna, March 26, 1940
My much beloved Eva-child!
I was just writing to you when the post brought me your letter from February 7. My suspicion that you are not getting all the letters I send comes from Harry’s letter - he got 7 but you only got 5 letters from me. I have been keeping to the order pretty carefully although I may have inserted a birthday letter to him which would not have been in order. My letter of today is the 23rd Clipper letter.
I am thrilled that school and school materials are free. I believe that if I ever do make it across the big pond, I will go to school again myself. Marie Theresia studied languages when she was 72 years old. Since the study of nursing takes 3 years and you may have the chance for further study, I am on board with your idea. I might have wished for you an easier profession, as you can probably tell.
In a recent letter I gave you a list of every letter I received and it would help if you kept track of them in a similar manner. I’ve made copies of most of them and then I can tell if certain important communications have gotten lost and repeat that information if it is of importance.
Lizette let us know about the kind letters you wrote. She let us know right away. It seems to be a lovely fellow who has now been born into this family. I don’t mean Fortuné and Beppo but the well-born Macka-Linie. Since we are thinking of Istanbul, I mention that nothing has changed in our matter. I’ll ask Paul if has time to go to the Turkish Consulate in Frisco and ask if they can maybe give us a tip. Because of the name, I don’t want it from you. I don’t promise myself much from this intervention, but in these times you shouldn’t leave any stone unturned. Papa could earn money in Europe. For example, Switzerland would be wide open for him in Koppl’s opinion, but without our passports we really can’t do anything - we have to let dear God be a good man. Even though this passive way of acting fits our lifestyle, my impatience would lead me to go to a place where at least I could get normal postal communication with you. I suppose that’s a lot to ask.
How are your teeth Eva - girl? Why didn’t you write to me about that? Please make up for this. Sometimes I get after myself that I didn’t ask Dr. Ornstein right away when you had the flu. But Dr. Schneider was so sure that I was convinced that he was a good diagnostician. Don’t worry about it my child - you will get used to the dentures and they have very good dentists over there.
Papa and I took an Easter walk yesterday. We walked through the city park. Not only was there a lack of flowers, well-dressed people weren’t there either. Even those people couldn’t make up for the spring flowers we didn’t see. We looked for the little ones at the smaller and the larger playground and I felt like we were looking 10 years into the past. I saw you in my mind playing ball or playing in the sand or just looking out to see if the man with the “sticks” [?] was around. After we put ourselves in such a sentimental mood, we left that place which connects me with some of the most beautiful memories of my life. Papa said “At least you can visit your grandchildren here sometime.” We went home via the Ring, Kärntnerstrasse, Wollzeile. The streets were very lively, because the first spring air lured everyone out of the house. We were gone for more than an hour and we didn’t see a single face we knew.
Now I’ll end and I’ll write you a few more letters by hand. Farewell my child and let yourself be kissed in spirit.
[Many handwritten notes all over both pages:
At the top of first page: Prosit. Why haven’t you written to us about the letter we sent on the 21st of this month?
Upside down at top of first page: Best greetings to the Schillers
Upside down at the top of the second page: Today I have no more paper. Next I will write a long handwritten report. Kisses from Helene
At the bottom of the second page: My dear child, I am so ashamed that you want a handwritten letter. I once gave up something because I couldn’t type … because you can’t read my handwriting. Maybe my Istanbul letters have been misunderstood. ]
In this letter to Eva, Helene revisits her guilt about her daughter’s teeth. We learned about this in the letter posted on January 28.
At the end of her life, Helene lived at the Jewish Home for the Aged in San Francisco. She no longer spoke English and she had no memories of the present – she may have had Alzheimer’s, but it didn’t have a name at the time. She was happy, sang opera, and in her mind she was living in pre-war Vienna. When I went to visit her once in 1979, I was taking a course in German and understood a bit of what she said. She did not know who I was and talked to me as if we were in a park in Vienna. She asked if I knew her children. I think she must have been living the very same memory she described in this letter. So although Helene didn’t get to visit her grandchildren in Stadtpark, her granddaughter visited with her there in spirit.
Vienna, March 26, 1940
Dear Paul,
Congratulations on the apartment! It’s a step forward, slowly but surely. We don’t live in the land of milk and honey nowadays, but if we are patient and can wait, we can accomplish something. Soon you will have regained your independence and achieved a sphere of influence appropriate to your enthusiasm and knowledge. In a country where you are still in the process of learning the language for practical use, it may take a bit longer. I am reminded of what an acquaintance, who now lives in London, once told me: “What good is it that I can read Wilde or Galsworthy in the original, but I don’t know how to say ‘rain gutter’?” We looked it up right after that, but I don’t think this knowledge would really help me make progress in the USA. I only wish I knew if it would serve any purpose for me to learn Turkish, Chinese, Spanish or English. But what does a goose dream about? Just about corn. (something is wrong about that word, but I don’t know what). So I dream about reuniting with my children. While I work with a broom and duster, I wander through California’s blessed fields with you. Let me hear from you soon, and don’t worry about whether the letter will arrive or not. That’s all for today, and break a leg!
Helen
I am in awe of Helene’s seeming fearlessness at facing uprooting herself, finding a way to earn a living and learning a new language. As we see in her letter to Paul, since they don’t know where they will end up, she doesn’t quite know which language to learn. In thinking about learning new things, in her letter to Eva, Helene refers to the Habsburg ruler, but for once she had her dates wrong. Maria-Theresa lived to age 63.