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Today’s letter is from 1941 from Helene in Vienna to her children in San Francisco.
Vienna, 10 October 1941
My dear children! Hopefully, even before this letter reached, you were already able to send us a message that our matter has been definitively and positively taken care of. If that was not possible, we hope that you can send us a letter to that effect after the receipt of my letter today. Which is really necessary in case your news should reach us here. We have to plan for all eventualities. There is a housing shortage and it is leading to some unusual arrangements. The neighbors just said their good-byes, probably forever. I wonder whether the disabled woman will be able to handle the different climate? We are in excellent health. We would just be glad to make room for others. I enjoyed living here, but when they don’t want us, I don’t want to stay, and I will leave, preferably of my own free will, or go where we want to, not where someone wants to send us.
I haven’t received any letters, although I have written not only to you but also to Paul, Tillie, and Hilda. Do you have Olga’s address? It is Alter Kornmarkt 16. I am really hungry for a few lines from you and I hope I will get mail from you soon. The old Zentners were over here yesterday. They get news regularly.
See you later my dears and I hope all goes well with you, okay? Paul should oil his brain machine and invent some sort of way by which we can take you into our arms soon.
I love and kiss you.
P.S. I have tried in the last letters to arrange, if nothing else should be possible, for us to emigrate to Cuba, and notify us by telegraph immediately should you have gotten one of our letters from us. Papa feels strong enough to be able to pay back all costs as soon as we have gotten ourselves on our feet in Cuba.
Helen
In her previous letter, Helene makes it clear that getting out of Vienna is becoming virtually impossible. She and Vitali decide that Cuba might be a more viable destination than California.
This is the last regular correspondence that Eva and Harry received from Helene from Vienna. I have no idea when their parents lost hope of being able to leave Vienna – the former city of Helene’s dreams, which has become the source of her nightmares. Once the U.S. entered the war, the children received a few Red Cross letters (see May 12 and September 18 posts).