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Helene writes from Vienna to her children via Eva in San Francisco.
Vienna, 26 September 1941
My dear children! I am in the pleasant situation today to be able to tell you that I have received a letter from the 2nd of this month. However, we can cross out the ones that are from the 23rd of July to the 2nd of September. But Everl’s letter contained quite a few things worth knowing. For example, we know that our letters have arrived and I am not forced to foolishly repeat everything as I have been; I know that you are working on our very pressing matter, that Harry is still in Sacramento but unfortunately I don’t have his address and so I have not been able to write to him even once. I was quite shocked to hear that cousin Al is still not out of the woods health-wise. Everl, I am grateful that you wrote to me that I should write to Tillie directly. I am not mad at you, I am, rather, thankful. You just have to bear in mind from the many letters that I have written that those that you wrote to me probably contained details were never received. If I write about things that I was informed about but of which I still have no idea, it is because I didn’t get the letters – you might assume that I am not interested or that I am just quite superficial. I therefore ask you, in your interest, to clarify this. I have received quite a few letters in the last few years, not only from Tillie but also from Bertha Schiller. I’ve written to Stella without receiving any answer. Everl, you yourself wrote that Tillie is so busy with Julius’s correspondence that she doesn’t have time to answer. And it is not a matter of affront to my vanity that I have given up on writing to them directly lately, because I assume that Tillie who is being kept up to date by you doesn’t really value this direct, brief contact with me. Hilda also owes me quite a few letters and why even bother to talk about Paul anymore. I can hardly count the number of letters that I have written to him. He has germs that keep him from doing anything that absolutely has to be done. You can tell him that I am very disappointed in him. He can follow my example. I have gotten over my pathological dislike of writing letters and now I write letters even when I’m completely exhausted. My letters probably seem like that, but what did it matter when I got a “pinch” from your professors. The main thing is that you understand me and that the letters arrive. At first, I was bothered by the knowledge that other people were reading our letters, but I’ve even gotten used to that and the Mr. Censors should turn a blind eye to that if they find my spelling or my grammatical errors a problem.
I had quite a bit to tell you today, but I don’t have time. I will follow up next time. Heartfelt greetings and kisses.
Helen
As I read many of my grandmother’s letters this year, I felt the guilt her children and relatives must have felt every time Helene was disappointed when she didn’t hear from her loved ones. In today’s letter, I recognize something that often happens– when one is unhappy with someone’s behavior, more often than not the person one vents to is an innocent party – one communicates one’s displeasure to the person who shows up, rather than the one(s) who didn’t. So, ever-reliable Eva hears all about the letters not received from Paul, Harry, Tillie, and Hilda.
This is one of the few letters where Helene acknowledges the fact of the censors – I always thought she avoided mentioning them for fear that her letters wouldn’t go through. At this point she realizes how often her letters don’t reach their destination, so she has given up being discreet.