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Vienna, 29 May 1941
My dear children and Paul! Well we’ve got it now. The American Consulate General has decided that the reasons we have listed are worthy of consideration and has sent us Form 20 which says that there is nothing standing in the way of our trip. Of course, we have to have all of the necessary formalities taken care of in a satisfactory manner. Papa is right now at the religious community to get some information about what they may have taken care of in our interest. We imagine that after the Pentecost holiday our matters will take a general step forward.
You must excuse me that I keep talking just about us, but first it is the most important thing right now which is why I am telling you about every last phase of this. And secondly, my thoughts of the trip to you have not come back, so there’s a vacuum in my head. There ought to be a note stuck to my forehead: Nobody home.
We have a lot to do and Papa has even gotten up early to sort out and ponder what we really have to take with us and what, although with a heavy heart, we will have to leave behind. For days he has not managed to get his sun bath on the balcony. I suggested that he put his freckles in with the things we need to send. Or at least one, because it seems like his whole face is a freckle. He is afraid that when we get to the dress rehearsal for our packing, and if it takes any longer his beloved freckles are going to fade and he’s now thinking that he should be using the Pentecost holiday time to get a tan. We’ll see what the weather god has to say about that. My objection that the Spanish sun in July will give him enough opportunities to give his skin color a southern patina is ignored. I am curious how many degrees of fever I will get as a reaction of my pale skin because I haven’t had time to go chasing after every ray of sun, and there haven’t been that many anyway. I am thinking that might have been good to avoid getting a Spanish-Portuguese sunstroke. I haven’t had one since Cesenatico, but I am looking forward to one. The number of kilos we are allowed to take with us will give me plenty of chances to take a sun bath. While I am teasing Papa that his face is a freckle, I believe he is going to get back at me and discover that my body has become a water blister. I will stock up on Brandöl [a burn ointment] but of course I’ll only do that if our trip doesn’t get put off until the winter. I do not want to tempt fate or jinx this. I am so sure that we will be leaving soon that I can hardly imagine having to spend another winter here. Harry’s longing to stick his big toe in the snow and to flirt with the snow on his smaller toes is at this point something that I just can’t understand. Maybe I’ll get it when I’m down there. Easier for me to understand is the fear of pork roast with dumplings which are a good substitute for the Kipfler potatoes we won’t have. I am amazed that you don’t seem to have those, because as far as I can remember from my school learning, Bramburi [another word for “potatoes”] is a tuberous plant that was imported from America. Since Kipfler were unknown either in the the Altreich, I must assume that our dear good Kipfler potatoes were an Austrian specialty. But we can’t even get those in the Ostmark area. What an outrage! Where have our potatoes gone? It was just as hard for me to hear the story that one does not know the kitchen cart. I cannot really take all of my weights with me. Otherwise, I’d have to leave behind my head or some other part of my body.
Because of the stamps, I will have to end again. Take a deep breath. But a few more kisses more or less is not the issue. I will make this concession. I kiss, kiss, kiss you.
Helen
In this letter to her children and nephew, you can hear Helene’s hope and giddiness as it seems that all the pieces are coming together and that she and Vitali will be reunited with her children in a few short months. As we will see in a future letter, they have tickets to leave on the Ciudad de Sevilla in July, thus the reference to the Spanish sun. Like in the letter posted May 27, she continues to take an inventory of belongings, trying to figure out what to take and what to leave behind.