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Today we see another letter from Helene to her children in San Francisco.

Vienna, 7 October 1941

My dear children!

Well today although I know that you are working on our issues, despite that I am going to start talking about it again. So please don’t believe we are impatient. You can just assume that this matter is really urgent and that it’s getting more so from day to day and even hour to hour. Papa has given me the assignment to write to you that if there is no other way besides the path via Cuba, then you should go down this path as well. Papa has absolutely no doubts that he will be able to use his knowledge as a tobacco expert and then be able to reimburse any expenditures. Do you remember? Robert, who was really just a cigarette smoker, was enthusiastic about the sample cigars which Papa’s correspondent sent to him. We have come to terms with the fact that we may need to stay wherever we end up for a while at least where he has the possibility of making his livelihood. To live with you in the same city certainly would be wonderful, but it’s something we can only do when we have paid off the expenses that people have paid on our behalf. Papa is a specialist and this will happen. Unfortunately, he has been out of touch with his friends in his profession since the war broke out, but we know that they will give him a hand as soon as we’re over there. I must emphasize the request that I have also made in letters in the past to send us a telegraph if you have any positive news to tell us. It’s possible that the cable might be of use to us or we might need it as a document. Besides that, all of our exit documents for travel have expired. It doesn’t make much sense to renew them unless we know that it’s a done deal. The renewal of the papers will take quite a while, so it’s very important that we start working on it even before we have everything in black and white in our hands. Many of our friends and acquaintances are going to the district where Paul’s friend Edi has his business, but they are not happy because they are afraid that the climate will not agree with them.

We are - well, that’s nothing new - here without any mail from you for a long time. Our acquaintances do get mail regularly and so we’re thinking maybe the fact that we don’t get any is because we have foreign citizenship. But we haven’t heard anything from the relatives in Istanbul for at least a year either.

Papa just brought me a piece of paper which he got in the religious community: “get Cuba papers for entry as soon as possible.” This is from the Cuban Embassy in Berlin – send a telegram for immediate processing.

Robert is supposed to send the address of Papa’s friend Drummond, which he will be able to make use of as soon as we land over there.

In my letter of March 21st, I asked you to get 2 brochures for Papa. Since you didn’t react, Papa really needs these - I am repeating: “The Mystic Mandrake” by C.J.S. Thompson and “Deadly Magic” by Colonel Hayter - both appeared in Rider Publications and the address of that is: International News Company, 131 Varick St., New York.

OK, that’s enough duties for you to fulfill today and I will send more information later on. I close by assuring you that we are in good health and we hope that it will stay that way. I long for news from you.

Please give everybody my best greetings, and I will write to Hilda and Bertha soon. How is Tillie’s brother? Is Everl’s friend already spoken for or perhaps married already? Please answer these questions too. I’d like to get the address of Al and Maxine.

I kiss and greet you most sincerely and I ask you not to be mad that we ask so much of you and we’re causing you so much of an inconvenience. At the same time, I can’t even say that I’d rather be doing all this for you, and dealing with the trouble. I don’t know if I’d want to take that on. I am happy that it’s the other way around. A few more kisses! 

Helen

P.S. Harry’s address!

Helene and Vitali’s plans for traveling on July 15 to the U.S. did not materialize and theyare trying their best to find a way out of Europe. As has been true since German occupation, nothing is easy or straightforward. The rules and goalposts keep changing just as Helene says – day by day and hour by hour. They had pinned all their hopes on being reunited with their children in San Francisco. By this point, they are ready to go anywhere and have set their sight on Cuba. I found a movie trailer about what happened to some of the Jews who successfully made it to Cuba.

Vitali continues to emerge as an unusual man – in addition to his interest in metaphysical matters, according to Helene he was also an expert on tobacco products, or at least cigars. We learn that Robert’s smoking habit from 1918 (see October 3 post) continued at least another 20+ years.

Apparently Harry and Eva never received the March 21 letter requesting books on mandrake root – it is not in my archive. Both books from the 1930s are extremely rare. There is little information readily available about F.J. Hayter, who was an anthropologist and wrote primarily about Australia.