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Today’s Red Cross letter between parents in Vienna and children in San Francisco has many different dates, including a postmark from September 18, 1943 which is why we see it today. It includes a note signed by Vitali (Haim), addressed to Eva at her nursing school address, and a reply from Eva dated October 7, 1943.
75 Postage taken
20 January 1943German Red Cross
Foreign Service Headquarters
BerlinApplication to the Central Agency of Prisoners of War, Geneva — International Committee of the Red Cross — to send a message
1. Sender: Haim Seneor Cohen
Vienna, II./27 Haasgasse 10/16Requests to send this to
Relationship: Children2. Recipient:
Eva Maria Lowell
2200 Poststreet – Nursingschool
San Francisco, California, USA(Maximum 25 words to transmit the following)
My Beloved!
On Harry’s birthday we received the first answer back. We are overjoyed, also healthy. We hope that soon additional answers will come. Birthday and other kisses to all.
Signed: Haim Seneor Cohen
Date 14 January 43
3. Recipient answer on back of letter.
4. Recipient answer
(25 words maximum)We are all well working successfully. Hope to see you after the war. We think of you constantly.
Love,
Signed: Eva LowellDate: Oct. 7, 1943
This letter traveled between the two countries over the course of a year, beginning on January 14 when their parents wrote to wish Harry a happy 19th birthday and with a final postmark of December 18, 1943. There are German postmarks from January 20, February 10, and December 16; American postmarks dated August 24 and September 18. The letter that began its journey in January appears not to have reached its original destination until 7 months later. Given that I have the letter in my possession and the last postmark is an American one, all I can figure out is that the letter was returned to Eva to show that her reply had been received by her parents.
Clearly, they were seldom allowed to correspond, and even then, they were limited to 25 words – not quite as long as a Twitter post.
We saw an earlier Red Cross letter from May 1942 in the May 12 post when their parents wrote to send Eva birthday greetings. That letter went in only one direction and took a little more than two months to arrive. In 1942 Helene and Vitali were still at the same apartment they had lived in with their children. By the time of today’s letter, they had been forced to move to an address at Haasgasse in the Jewish quarter. According to historian Corry Guttstadt, before the occupation the building had originally been a home for Jewish girls. By this time, it housed Jews who had been evicted from their own apartments, usually the last address in Vienna before being deported.
Location of Vitali and Helene’s addresses in Vienna.
No matter how dire the situation, Helene and Vitali wanted their children to know that they were in their hearts – they couldn’t let a birthday go by without acknowledging it.