August 22

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On July 11, we saw letters written in 1950 and 1953 from Helene’s friend in Vienna named Paula. She kept Helene’s hope alive for Vitali’s survival. Today’s letter from 1952 is signed by Pauline. Before the letters were translated, I thought Paula and Pauline were different people, but all refer to her daughter Annemiechen.  

Vienna, 22. August 1952

Dear Helene!

Excuse that we are only writing to you today and not before, but we couldn’t do it before because we had lost your address and we had to wait for your letter to come. We thank you for sending the dear package. Annemiechen was really happy because a package came from Tante Helene. That caused such joy for her, as you can imagine.

Don’t worry about Vitali. He is living safe and sound in Turkey and we believe he will come to Vienna in the next months. You can fully believe in his return. He knows where you and the children are. If he shows up here first, we will let you know right away. So believe in it and don’t let yourself get discouraged, one day he will be there.

We couldn’t explain why you were silent for so long and thought maybe you were somewhere else, that you had moved or that you were sick. Perhaps you would have thought what do I need friends in Vienna for, it’s probably best if I let them go one at a time or something like that.

Now you have written again and we are happy you are still thinking of us. We are sorry to hear that you’ve had such a hard lot, but believe it will eventually go better for you. When Vitali is there, you will be finished with your troubles. It is the same there as it is here, people who work have nothing but burden and the other ones have the money.

The number of unemployed is increasing constantly here. The prices are awful, especially for food. The taxes are high and they keep going up so that a worker cannot really afford much. Then business doesn’t work very well either, because the main consumer, the worker, cannot buy anything. All the political considerations in the world do not work out to our advantage, because we are living on loans from other countries. What is said to us from the west, the east takes away so that nothing remains for us except debt. It is really not nice to live here right now. Maybe later a better time will come, but right now it’s really not interesting to live here.

Annemiechen is almost as tall as her mother and she is studying hard. She now has 2 more years of school and she will be glad when this time is over. She is a good girl, but she’s not really enthusiastic about going to school.  

Pauline seems very calm and she was so happy to get your letter and is expecting further reports from you. You haven’t written anything for a long time, so you must have quite a bit to tell. We in any case will all be happy when we hear from you and get a longer report.

We are sending this letter from to you from our neighbor land. You must know that we still have censorship and that no letter comes from a foreign country or goes to a foreign country without censorship.

Don’t research where Vitali is - he is living under another name and doing so might be a disadvantage for him. He didn’t do well at first but now his living conditions have taken a turn for the better. We hope that he will not have to remain missing too much longer and that he will show up either here with us or come to you soon.

We are sending a picture of Annemiechen at her confirmation which was 2 years ago. She is now wearing her mother’s clothes and her mother is wearing the old well-worn rags, because she only wants the new ones. Normally it’s the other way around - the children wear the old rags from their parents.

Elsa is over there also and is telling horror stories about Pauline. How much did Pauline help her after the war and gave her dollars so that she would have some money on the trip and as a way of thanks, she said that she helped Pauline so much. There are many of her relatives who do not want to see her in Austria anymore because she’s been so insincere.

We hope to hear very soon from you and wish you all the best. Most sincere greetings from all of us

Your
Pauline

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Living in Vienna after the war continues to be difficult – poverty, censorship, few opportunities. Paula/Pauline has had a difficult life and feels betrayed by those she had helped. As she begins to refer to herself in the third person, my mistrust of her assurances about Vitali’s situation grows. Paula/Pauline has suffered a lot of trauma over the years, and who knows what is real for her anymore?

August 21

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In the June 21 post, we saw several attempts by Helene from 1947-1955 to find out what had happened to Vitali at the end of the war. Today we have a few more letters, this time from 1947 and 1949. She never lost hope that her husband was still alive.

In the earlier post, the form dated July 7, 1947 was addressed to Georg Weil who was writing from Frankfurt on Helene’s behalf. I do not know who he was but from the August 30, 1947 letter below, it appears that he and Helene had a personal connection.

Dear Mrs. Cohen,

We were happy to receive your letter of August 21 and to see that we really were able to help you by taking away a small amount of your troubles. Now we just have a sincere desire to find your husband.  That has not happened yet. However, every morning at 9:15 on all radio stations in Germany, we now hear reports of missing persons.  We have asked to have your husband’s name mentioned in these reports.  If he has perhaps already left Germany, possibly someone knows something about him. We hope so.

My wife and I send you warm greetings.

Georg Weil

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From August 17, 1949 via the Zionist Organization of America in San Francisco to the Jewish Agency for Palestine in Jerusalem:

Subject: Inquiry into whereabouts of Haim Cohen
Nationality: Turkish
Last Place of Residence: Seidlgasse 14 Vienna, Austria
Born: 1888
Place of Birth: Istanbul, Turkey
Migrated to Austria: 1919

Gentlemen:

I have last seen the above, my husband, in October 1943, when I was transported to Ravensbruck, while he was arrested and interned in Buchenwald. I received his last letter in February, 1945 from Buchenwald.

I have received on July 7, 1947 information from the I.R.C. Search Tracing Division in Wiesbaden that my husband was registered in Buchenwald under the number 31452, that the reason for his imprisonment was “political”.

Last information available: “Alive in camp at time of liberation.”

Inasmuch as my husband does not know of my whereabouts, I am most anxious to have him traced wherever there might be a chance to find him. Ther eis still hope that he might have entered Israel recently.

I would be extremely grateful to you if you could conduct an inquiry as to whether this is the case and have me informed. 

Should you desire any further information I would only be too pleased to furnish it. 

I wish to thank you heartily in anticipation for the trouble you are taking.

Yours very respectfully,
Helene Cohen

Without the computer and telecommunications tools we have today, somehow people found each other after the war. There were millions of pieces of papers in disparate locations around the globe. In the first letter above, we see that one method of searching was to name missing persons on the radio. Amazing that anybody found anyone. Helene’s requests went to organizations around the globe.

August 13

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Today we have a letter from someone named Baky, a friend from Istanbul. Helene left Istanbul in April and has been in San Francisco for three months.

Istanbul, August 15/46

My dear friend Mrs. Helene Cohen,

I received your letter and I was happy to read it and to know that you live with your dear children. But I am unhappy for you about your husband. I hope he is alive and you will be glad with him very soon. My dear it is very kind of you to write me all about you and I thank you for it.

You know very well that I am interested in your own happiness. My dear I was always waiting for your letter, and my opinion about you was right. Everybody asked me if I had news from you, adding “she has certainly forgotten you.” I answered “If she writes me or not it’s just the same, I love her the same.”

And now here is your dear very dear letter after long silence, you told me that you are longing for me; honestly? Thanks; you can believe me dear friend that I am longing for you too. I have never forgotten since our last handshake in ? [perhaps Eminönü? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emin%C3%B6n%C3%BC] when you told me “Baky; I have the impression that it is not our last interview” but I think San F is so far, is it possible? But near of heart. Now my dear friend you ought to take care of your own health; you have suffered so much in Mme Lovenstein’s and Mme Sarna’s [?] or Dr. L…’s [?] country isn’t it?

My very dear friend, I read with great attention all about your voyage with their disagreements, then your happy meeting of your dear children and all about the life in San Francisco, you said that there is abundance of fruit; you are lucky it is just for you the best food, don’t forget but the best luck is to live with a nice gentleman like your son-in-law.

My dear, time and time again when I come across all your things you gave me I kiss them because I feel that I see your own gay, light and frank face.

You no need going to school, but I think that I need more than you.

Here the same life: from hospital home and from home to hospital, I am working working then I write nothing but English to write you more correctly. Give my best regards to your dear children. My parents send their compliments.

With affectionate kisses I remain yours

Baky

P.S. Dear I couldn’t answer you sooner because I was unwell, excuse me please.
Don’t forget me.

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I do not know who Baky was – this is the only letter I have from her and I haven’t seen her name mentioned anywhere else. In the letter posted on March 4, Helene wrote about being hospitalized in Istanbul for a “nervous breakdown.” Baky writes of working at a hospital – I wonder if they met there? I assume that the names I can’t decipher refer to officials at Ravensbrück who caused Helene and others so much suffering.

One thing that strikes me from this and other letters to Helene is how much people seemed to love her – these letters paint a picture of someone endearing, generous, and charismatic. It must have been such a disorienting and disturbing time for everyone – both those who fled and those who stayed: the trauma of the recent war; economic hardship; one’s near and dear ones often spread across the globe with little expectation of ever seeing or connecting with each other again, or certainly not in the intimate way they were used to.

August 12

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In the August 8 post we saw a letter from Robert Zerzawy written on August 11 in German to his aunt Helene. Today’s letter was written the following day in English to his cousin Eva. Perhaps he wasn’t sure how much German Eva remembered.

12 August 1964

Dear Eva,

Yesterday I posted a letter to Helen. I didn’t find the time to address you at the same day as I had in mind. I had also first to read over our last correspondence to try and find out where we stopped the last time and how far we are informed about each other in very broad outlines. What I found is a charming letter from you dated 10th April 1963 adorned by a delightful snap of Paul’s of Helen, i.e. Helen-Rose, on her fourth birthday. I just remember with a shock that I completely forgot her birthday in March which is a shame and at the same time symptomatic for my state of mind. We agreed once that our birthdays are useful links in our contact – moral impulses without which there is the risk that any communication might stagnate. Alas, you did not respond to my request for disclosing your exact age – I somehow mislaid the note of your birthday. You didn’t reach the stage where you might wish to conceal it. Which leaves the explanation that you want to protect me from committing myself. That’s nice of you but I take the risk. So please let me know and give us the treble chance to write each other within a calendar year.

My letter to Helen (senior) must have sounded very dry and factual. It is difficult to write if one knows so little about each other’s life, environment and happenings – that’s why I appeal to you to inform me with a few lines about your mother’s health and doings. I trust you will bring me at the same time a little up to date about the Goldsmiths and Lowells in general and Helen Rose in particular. – I wished she could pay me a visit as she wanted to do on a first impulse. We shall have to wait for a few years. Instead of it I got quite some visitors who bring the past back. The other day a couple from Valparaiso turned up whom I had seen in Brüx [now Most] 42 years ago and today a girl phoned to bring me greetings from Hermann Zerzawy from Vienna. She is herself a Zerzawy by birth from the “aryan” lineage around Brünn [now Brno]. – Hilda had unexpectedly sent a Xmas card from San Francisco with a hint that she might come to Europe. I had hoped that she might then bring some news from you but so far she hasn’t turned up. Is she still in San Francisco and what are her latest exploits?

Last but least, I should like to know how you are getting on. In your professional life as well as in the home. And I fear it will mean an effort but I hope you do it all the same.

With my love to you all,

Robert

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As with many things in my archive, although this letter refers to another letter, they were found in 2 different locations. My mother Eva kept this letter, which had ended up together with a letter from 1966, so it was only recently that I figured out which pages went with which year. Eva’s brother Harry saved his mother’s correspondence, which included the August 11 letter.

In this letter, Robert speaks of forgetting to send a note on my 4th birthday in March of 1963. I assume he is referring to the photo below taken by my father (who used his middle name Paul in the U.S., just to confuse things).

Robert’s letter tells us that the cousins made a “pact” to mark birthdays in order to make sure they kept in touch –the more birthdays to be celebrated, the more connected they would feel. Yet, here it was, more than a year since their previous contact.

Harry and Eva had far less of a connection to Robert than to his brother Paul. He was more than 20 years older, and never lived in Vienna or the U.S. with them.

It’s nice to see that Robert maintained connections to people from their past. We saw a letter to Hermann Zerzawy in the April 23 post.

August 9

I have posted earlier documents from the Joint Distribution Committee (the Joint) that I found in the JDC Archives. Today I am including text from some of the memos written in August 1945 regarding the Drottningholm passengers stranded in Istanbul since April. We read about Helene’s experience in the February 2 post where she describes her nomadic life during her first few months in Istanbul. She had no idea what was going on behind the scenes.The letters below help us understand the complexity of the situation. We see that despite the best will in the world to free prisoners and help them reunite with their families, politics, bureaucracies, diplomacy, and economics served to make life for these refugees difficult indeed.

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From an August 8, 1945 from Arthur Fishsohn in Istanbul to Judah Magnes at the Joint in Jerusalem:

Ref. No. 92

Dear Dr. Magnes,

Re: Drottningholm refugees

I was in Ankara on August 2nd and reviewed with Mr. Packer the entire matter of the Drottningholm passengers still detained here. Mr. Packer arranged an appointment for me with Mr. Celal Osmarr Abacıoğlu, Director General of Turkish Consular Affairs (of Ministry of Foreign Affairs). 

Mr. Abacıoğlu insisted that the Turkish Government did not know of the presence on board of Drottningholm of any of the Jewish passengers until the ship was about to arrive at Port Said (he stated that the boat had been reserved only for Turkish diplomats and students). The Turkish Foreign Office, he said, then promptly cabled London stating this group was unknown to the Foreign Office; had no right to be on the ship and asked London to permit all of the group to be landed at Port Said and from there to be permitted to go to Palestine. However, by the time London was advised, the boat had already left Port Said and was Istanbul bound. At the request of Mr. Packer and for “humanitarian” reasons, the group was permitted to land here. Mr. Abacıoğlu took the further position that much latitude has been shown by the Foreign Office in accepting as nationals a number of persons who had really forfeited their claim to Turkish citizenship. With respect however to the group that is still interned, Mr. Abacıoğlu stated that not only had they lost their Turkish nationality status long before their arrival here but that they have no documents, no relatives, no resources and little, if any, connection with anything Turkish. He felt, under all the circumstances, that his Government had been very fair and that the United States or any other Government would not have acted differently.

Before visiting Mr. Abacıoğlu I had thought to point out that the Swiss representative action on behalf of the Turkish as well as the German Government had permitted the Jewish passengers to board the Drottningholm; that accordingly the Turkish Government was bound by the act of its agent and for that reason should, at least, free from internment the entire group and permit them to stay here as refugees until arrangements could be made for their emigration to Palestine or other countries. Mr. Packer (with whom I discussed this prior to my appointment with Mr. Abacıoğlu) however, felt that it would serve no useful purpose to bring up this point. Accordingly in my discussion with Mr. Abacıoğlu I asked that the interned group be freed on a bond or guarantee to the effect that any member of the group would be produced whenever the authorities wanted him. Mr. Abacıoğlu at first stated this could not be done, later asked what was done in such matters in the U.S. When I explained they would be freed either on their own recognizance or on bond, he inquired how much “time” I wanted. I asked him a minimum of 3 months and he replied that he would take the matter up “unofficially” with higher officials but thought that it would make his presentation of the case more difficult to ask for “such a long period”. …

I related to Mr. Packer my discussion with Mr. Abacıoğlu who agreed that it was difficult enough to do anything even in three months. Of course, Mr. Packer will do what he can to press the matter of release of the group at least on bond.

In my letter No. 87 I mentioned that 21 of the group of 46 persons who had been released on June 21st, were ordered reinterned but that Mr. Brod’s personal guarantee was accepted by the police here, so that these people still remained free, although of course their nationality status is now in doubt. I had thought to discuss this matter with Mr. Abacıoğlu on two counts; first, to inquire into the reason for the reinternment; second, to ask that the form of guarantee given by Mr. Brod for the 21 should be accepted for all of the remaining internees. However, it was brought to my attention before I met with Mr. Abacıoğlu (through a very responsible source) that it might be best not to refer to this matter at all, at this time, as the Foreign Office might be unaware that a guarantee for the 21 had been accepted by the police and accordingly I might be stirring up some unnecessary trouble.

Certificates have been obtained and arrangements are being made for 17 additional persons to leave for Palestine within the next ten days to two weeks. …This will reduce the number of people in hotels to 49.

As I indicated in a previous letter (Ref. No. 87) we expect to have available the children’s camp in Burgas for use by about 40 refugees. We had hoped this would be by the 20th of August. It appears now, however, that we cannot get the camp until the middle of September. Expenses will be sharply reduced. However, this will not solve the ultimate problem of repatriation of these people. All of them are in fact “stateless”. It may be possible in a few individual cases to convince the Consulates of the countries where they were previously residing to grant them visas (so far we have had no luck in this respect). The only solution I can see is obtaining Palestinian certificates for some more of these people and getting the assistance of our own State Department and War Refugee Board (I understand the W.R.B. is going out of existence at the end of this month), in interceding on behalf of the remaining refugees with the Governments of the countries where they should like to return.

Sincerely yours,
Arthur Fishsohn 

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From an August 16, 1945 letter from Arthur Fishsohn in Istanbul to Donald Hurwitz at the American Joint Distribution Committee in New York:

Ref. No. 46                             August 16, 1945

Dear Don,

Your letter dated June 6th reached me only today. It had been misdirected by the postal authorities to Tehran, but finally found its way back to Istanbul. …

The volume of work here has increased greatly in the past few months, specifically since “V E Day”. A good deal of this work has had to do with detailed arrangement concerning shipments of supplies into the Balkans. You know what a headache it is to arrange for shipment of human cargo – you had the experience when you were in Lisbon, but you will probably find it hard to believe that so many involvements can develop when one tries to arrange for shipment of supplies to the Balkans….

The Drottningholm matter has become almost a cause célèbre, but even here the situation is becoming brighter. Out of an initial 116 people interned in hotels, we now have 50. They are not Turkish nationals and so cannot be repatriated here. We are doing everything possible to get the consuls of the various countries where they resided before the war, to grant them visas even tho’ they are not nationals of such countries. 

Heretofore, the Consuls were adamant in their refusals to consider these cases. Now however, it looks like they are beginning to give way. It will still take a lot of urging and pressure but we hope that in the not too distant future we will be able to get these people back to their “old” countries….

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From an August 18, 1945 letter from Arthur Fishsohn in Istanbul to Judah Magnes at the Joint in Jerusalem:

Dear Dr. Magnes,

Re: Drottningholm

There are now 50 internees left. Since my last letter on this matter (Ref. 92), the possibilities of getting visas for the internees for the countries where they had previously resided and to which they wish to return, appears somewhat brighter. There are 16 persons who wish to return to Belgium and the Belgian Consul here will now accept their applications for visas and has indicated he will do everything possible to obtain their issuance. The Dutch Consul (there are 14 in this category who wish to go back to Holland) will consider the question of granting visas and hopes to advise us shortly on this matter. The Italian group (there are 10 people) also appear to have fairly good chances for visas to return to Italy. As a matter of fact, three or four persons have already received visas in the past several days and also the required permission of the Allied Central Commission in Italy to return to that country. We have 3 persons in the French group and the French Consulate is presently considering their applications.

This change of thinking on the part of various consulates has taken place very recently as up to now they have refused consistently to consider visa requests for persons other than their own nationals.

Such people as obtain visas will of course be looking for transportation costs because none of them have any resources. Should the matter of such costs be left to the HICEM here? If not, I should like to receive authorization to pay these costs. I will have to use American Dollars so that it will be necessary to obtain additional funds from New York for this purpose or New York might permit me to use some money from the $50,000 recently sent me for freight transportation charges…

I have heard nothing yet from Ankara with regard to the matter of the guarantee for the interned group, but have written Mr. Packer about it and hope that he may soon have some favorable news…..

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From an August 27, 1945 letter from Arthur Fishsohn in Istanbul to Simon Brod in Istanbul:

Dear Mr. Brod,

On Saturday Mr. Mazon spoke with my Secretary on the telephone and indicated that the Burgas House will be available to us for the “DROTTININGHOLM” Refugees beginning September 10th, 1945.

It is necessary however to make arrangements to sign a lease or contract for the premises before we take possession. I would appreciate it if you would have Mr. Mazon confirm this conversation and obtain any other details that may be necessary, in order that we do not have any further hitch in connection with this matter. It is possible also that we may have to visit Burgas for the purpose of being in a better position to make plans for the number to be admitted etc. If so let me know and we will arrange a fixed time to make this visit….

August 8

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Today we have an aerogramme letter postmarked 11 August 1964.from Robert Zerzawy in London to his aunt Helene in San Francisco. Robert’s birthday was July 27 and he would have been 65 years old.

 Phrases written in English are in italics.

Dear Helen,

It is hard to describe what joy and relief your birthday telegram brought. Almost a year had passed by without my hearing anything from you. I was seriously worried but I didn’t have the courage to ask what was going on. The Cablegram had been sent from Berkeley from which I can figure out that either you are or were with Harry and his family. To be on the safe side, it had been sent on July 26th so it would have reached me punctually on my birthday and really would have topped off my birthday if we hadn’t been having a postal strike here right then. It also was sent to my former address and so I did get it but somewhat late. Despite that, I thank you sincerely for thinking of me and I accept the big Kiss in lieu of unwritten letters in the hope that this bad habit will finally be broken by one of you and that I will find out about how you and your children and their children are doing. I only hope that you are all doing well and that the children are thriving and that you my dear Helen are staying young with them with your wonderful vitality.

Apparently you did not get my letter in November that I sent for your birthday or you didn’t make a note that my address had changed. I told you at that point that we had managed to get ourselves a small house, somewhat outside the city limits, but on the way to Richmond. It is located in London in a fairly wealthy area, 200 yards from the Thames, with sport grounds in front and enough garden in the back to give us the privacy we desire. I probably also reported that my company was changed into an office of the paint factory Bayer over which I preside. Not too much longer, in the next year I would like to retire if the firm grants me a pension, remains to be seen because I don’t have an entitlement to it. Anne is still working with me. We are also lucky in that we got with the house the opportunity to keep the cleaning lady who (pssst!) is very good and very willing to do things. After those lean years which we had to put up with for a quite some time, we are now doing pretty well. We ought to be happy with our life then. Unfortunately, it is human nature that one forgets easily and then creates problems that shouldn’t even really matter. But that’s probably the case everywhere.

Now I have told you in sort of an outline form about us. I would be glad to write in more detail when I know more about how you are doing. But in the meantime, I wish you, dear Helen, good health and much joy in the family. Greet Eva and Paul, Harry and his wife and the offsprings on both sides. Anne also enthusiastically joins me in these wishes.

I give you a hug to represent our old connection

Your Powidl

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Although Robert was not able to join his brother Paul in San Francisco, it appears he was able to make a more comfortable life for himself in England than his brother did in the U.S. Of course, he lived longer and had more time to establish himself.

As we saw in letters posted earlier this year, Helene and Robert had gotten out of the habit of letter writing by the 1960s. It appears they don’t manage to write except for birthdays, and sometimes only sending a telegram.

I don’t know anything about Robert’s wife Anne. I found a marriage registry list on Ancestry that shows that Robert married a woman whose last name was Lock in the last quarter of 1949. This photo was in an envelope of Paul Zerzawy’s family photos and may be Robert’s wife:

In this and another letter, Robert signs his nickname – Powidl – a plum jam made in Bohemia. In a few of her stories about her childhood, she fondly remembers eating Buchteln filled with Powidl. I assume Robert liked the jam as much as his beloved aunt. I decided to find a recipe and make a batch in honor of today’s post and to have a taste of my grandmother’s childhood.

July 31

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Today we have an aerogram letter from Robert Zerzawy in London to Helen Cohen and her family (including one-year old me) in San Francisco and Berkeley. For those too young to remember, an aerogram was the cheapest way to send letters internationally in the mid- to- late 20th century. The paper included its own stamp, was very light and did not require an envelope – you folded it up in a specific way and it became its own package.

Robert’s brother Paul died in 1948. After his brother died, Robert was the last survivor of his siblings. The Paul in this letter refers to Eva’s husband. Robert was born on July 27, 1899 and would have been 61 years old. Harry’s son Jonathan was 10 months old.

English in italics.

35 Matlock Court,
Kensington Park Rd.,
London, W.11.

 28.7.1960

Dear Helene, Eva, Harry, Paul and Helen Rose,

When I got your telegram with the good wishes, it was like a stone fell from my heart in a dimension that you must have heard it fall in Berkeley.

For months I had the depressing feeling that something wasn’t right. I wanted to write or send a telegraph, but that really would have been too drastic and I was also about to make a phone call. But I didn’t have any phone numbers. (It wouldn’t be a bad idea to let me know them) and to book a conversation just for the address would be very inconvenient. I was also afraid that I would just stammer on the phone and not say what I wanted to. I guess I am lazy and opportunistic and I put it off and I thought, oh you’ll hear when it’s your birthday. But I didn’t get anything yesterday and my feelings were increasingly sneaking into sadness. Today I wanted to send a telegram, and then to my great joy and relief, your telegram arrived. Thank you so much. You now understand what a burden has fallen from my soul.

Of course, I am a scoundrel: why didn’t I send something to congratulate Helen Rose on her first birthday, which is the only one I know of all your birthdays except for the one of the big Helen. Don’t you want to make that right? What are you all doing? The first two named as junior and senior come first, and Eva the leader will write to me of course (which I do give her a lot of credit for). And Harry? —well the title which I gave to myself at the beginning of this paragraph [scoundrel] I guess he can set that behind the various initials of his degrees —he has earned it too. But then it comes to me that there may be mitigating circumstances. I was probably also mistaken when before I said that Helen Rose was the youngest child of the family. The telegram speaks of grandchildren! Harry’s issue and a boy or a girl? His wife he’s withheld information about too so he is not quite the white sheep he makes himself out to be.

It is not necessary to say how much I am looking forward to the letter and photos you mentioned. I will not write again until then. I hope you are all well, which I can also say for Anne and myself. Unfortunately, we are too incapable at making any money; otherwise, I would threaten that we will show up in San Francisco someday. But probably we will have to wait for a reunion until the children are old enough and you make a jet over the weekend to London.

I don’t dare to reread the stupor I have now put on paper. I am afraid I would not send it if I did. So, I am sending this outpouring with confidence that it at least shows my great joy that you have given me a sign of life. And in case that letter hasn’t been sent yet, I am giving you the necessary push.

With my nephewish and cousinly love and affectionate greetings in which Anne wishes to join,

Robert

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I am sorry that my family didn’t have the benefit of the internet and cheap telephones and the ability to be in instant communication with loved ones no matter where they were. I am particularly sad for Robert, the only one of his family who was not able to come to the U.S. Letters obviously brought him great joy, but it appears that they were few and far between, unlike the habit of letter writing of decades earlier. As we’ve seen in earlier posts – see yesterday’s post – Eva took on the mantle from her mother of family communicator. Unlike Robert’s brother Paul, I don’t think Eva and Harry knew their older cousin very well. He did not live in Vienna near them, so they probably saw him only seldom in Vienna and perhaps once in California after the war.

July 24

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Today we remember Paul Zerzawy, Helene’s beloved nephew.

Paul was born on October 2, 1895 and died on July 24, 1948 at the age of 53. He was born in Bilin in Bohemia, as had been his mother and aunt. He was a soldier in Romania in World War I, survived the 1918 flu, lived and worked as an attorney in Vienna, and came to the U.S. in 1939. He helped his young cousins come to the US and tried in vain to help their parents do so. He found it difficult to make a living in his new home. He was unable to establish himself as an attorney, but found that he could make use of his musical avocation.

The doctor who signed Paul’s death certificate was Dr. Gropper. I remember that name because Dr. Marc Gropper was my mother’s physician until he retired. Like my mother, he was born in Europe and his family escaped Vienna in 1938 and eventually landed in San Francisco. Although he would have been too young to have been a doctor in 1948, his father was also a doctor so it appears that his family cared for mine for decades.

When Paul came to San Francisco, his mother’s cousin Hilda and her husband Nathan Firestone welcomed him into their home. Nathan died in 1943. Paul’s will shows how grateful he was to Hilda for all she had done for him.

As I was preparing this post, it occurred to me to look for an obituary for Paul. I found it in the San Francisco Examiner. In addition, I found two brief items mentioning him in earlier editions of the Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle.

His death notice on page 11 of the July 26, 1948 issue of the Examiner reads:

“ZERZAWY – In this city, July 24, 1948. Paul Zerzawy, cousin of Mrs. Nathan Firestone; a native of Czechoslovakia, aged 52 years. A member of Musicians’ Union, Local No. 6.”

 Although the newspaper lists his age as 52, he was 53 at the time of his death.

On page 50 of the February 25, 1940 issue of the Examiner in the “Music and Art World” section, a small advertisement appears:

“New Piano Studio. Formerly of Vienna and Prague, Paul Zerzawy has opened at the Heine Piano Company, 279 O’Farrell Street, a piano studio for instruction, for coaching in ensemble and for accompaniment.”

On page 55 of the May 11, 1941 Chronicle, an item on a meeting of the National Council of Jewish Women mentioned that Paul Zerzawy would be a “guest musician” during the intermission of a presentation.

My mother often spoke of the musical evenings she enjoyed as a child at their home in Vienna. I now realize that the music was often supplied by her older cousin Paul. Fortunately, his love of music and avocation of playing piano allowed him to make at least a meager income in San Francisco.

In item 4 of his will, Paul leaves his personal effects to Hilda and his brother Robert in England, and indicates that whatever is left should be destroyed. Under item 6, he states: “I assume that Hilda will contact my cousins Eva Goldsmith and Harry Lowell to find out if there is anything of interest to them.” Eva kept Paul’s photo albums and official papers and Harry kept a box with copies of letters and loose photographs. Paul’s gifts to our family in life and in death were invaluable.

July 11

Today we have 2-1/2 letters from a friend of Helene’s from Vienna. They appear to be from the same person, although the ones from 1953 look and sound very different from the one written three years earlier. In letters Helene wrote from 1939-1941 (see January 28, February 25, March 26, May 4 and May 30 posts), she mentions two different friends named Paula, one who seemed to visit often. I assume this is the same woman.

When my friend Roslyn translated these letters, I finally understood why Helene and her children hung on to the belief that they would see Vitali again one day.

Vienna 11 July, 1950

Our dear little Helen,

Once again, it is a long time since we’ve heard from you.  We have written two letters to you, but they remain unanswered.  We have no explanation as to why you don’t write to us or even answer our letters.  Today, we actually have good news.  We haven’t given up searching for Vitali and researching this, even though it doesn’t seem humanly possible.  Yesterday, we received word that he is alive and knows how you and the children are doing.  But he can’t come home, or to you, right away.  It will take some time, but it will happen.  But surely it will only be a fraction of the time that has already passed since 1945.  You know his capabilities and they will help him keep up on whatever interests him.  We must stop doing further research, because it costs a lot of money, which we don’t have at the moment.  As soon as we are doing better, we will get back to the search and we will succeed in finding out where exactly he is.  We need time and money, so please be patient, but it will happen.  At least you do know that he is alive; that is a lot.  Now you know what to think about and you don’t need to be plagued by doubts.  He is working in his profession there, and one day he will show up here.  Pray to God that this happens soon.  We do hope to be able to make progress not too long from now.  You know your life has meaning and that you did not go to America and wait, not knowing, in vain.  We are very happy that we finally have some positive news.

How are you doing otherwise?  Well, we hope.  It’s getting almost unbearable again here, the prices are going up so much that no mortal can afford them.  And, as before, there is war psychosis.

Annemarie got a good report card, and in the fall she starts secondary school (Hauptschule).  The school is not far from the apartment, so she’s got a short way to school.  She will go to the school associated with the teachers’ college.  It is supposedly quite strict there.  She will learn a lot and have to be industrious. But she will push on, and succeed.

Dear Helen, please write soon so that we will have news from you and share your joy. 

Warmest greetings from all of us, and kisses from Annemarie

Your
Paula, Annemarie and Franz

---

At first, Roslyn and I thought that the letters from 1953 were a single letter, but it appears they were written a few weeks apart and have different censorship stamps. There is an interesting blog on Mail Censorship in Allied Occupied Austria 1945-1953 which explains the continuation of mail censorship long after the war had ended.

Vienna, 2.July.53.

My dear dear Helene! Please don’t be mad that I haven’t written for so long, but I have waited for the packages to arrive so I could let you know that everything had arrived and what you wrote - I will dye the costume and it will look good on Annemiechen. We three thank you very much for it and I will still have the possibility to thank you as soon as our dear Vitali comes to Vienna then he will stay with us until he has decided what he is going to do but I believe he will stay with us in Vienna and we will have the great luck that you will come to us again. My dear Helene I can only tell you that it will all be good for you when Vitali is here and believe that he is coming now, he is doing much better. We don’t know anything about his relatives and they really wouldn’t help and also he is not recognized as a Turk anymore so you will understand that he does not want people to write to him. We know he’s alive and he has brought it along so far that he will be able to come soon and that is the main thing. You know his talents and his capabilities and he has to do everything the way he sees fit now but dear Helene don’t doubt then if you did that you would not have the strength to keep going. I see him often at night and he’s packing his suitcase and you know that he can show himself. I am so happy that I will be able to send you the letter that he is healthy and safe and sound and that he has arrived and this time will come faster than we think.

My dear little Helen, we are just sad that you have it so hard that you have gone through enough, but when the need is the greatest then God’s blessings is closest. Believe that. You will know that Vitali is informed about everything that is going on with you one would only hurt him if we would do anything that he does not want. He sees everything better. Maybe you can write to his relatives that you have the feeling that Vitali is alive. Maybe they’ll think differently but I don’t think you can really promise yourself much from them.

My dear, now I will write to you about us. The little one is really excited because she will probably be able to leave. We have found a place for her where it is not so expensive that is out in the country and that’s near Peierbach [about 100 miles from Vienna], and my husband and I will eat very simply so that we can put the money away which we need for our child and vegetables are becoming cheaper now and potatoes and we can fill up on those and it doesn’t cost so much and Annemiechen needs more because she is very tall and now in the age where she’s always hungry and there dear God will help us as well to get through this and I tell you my husband is an angel. He’s such a sweetheart and he makes a sacrifice. What my husband does is not to be described. His love and his thought is just that he wants to make things easier for us so I don’t have so many troubles and he does without everything dear Helen, yes I thank God every day for this good person and for the child that they are all so sweet together and I really couldn’t complain about anything. Everything is good, know that life is quite a struggle. When Franz has something secure, maybe it will be easier to take. But that will come and as soon as Vitali is with us we will discuss everything together and how to do everything there my dear Helene. Keep hanging on. The evening of life will be a little nicer for all of us.

My dear Helene, I must now finish knitting a cardigan for Annemie because then she has something for when the evening is cooler. When you have time, then write and when we find out anything from Vitali how far away he is, then we will let you know, but don’t be misled. The main thing is that he is alive and that he is coming and you can bear everything else. So my dear I thank you for the precious things you sent, but I ask you don’t spend any money you must have to work so hard to get it and we love you just so and we are happy when you write to us because our friendship is so deep that it is impossible for anyone to destroy it. It’s very hot here now and we are going on Sunday morning to the Vienna Woods and it’s very nice there.

My dear Helene, now I must go shopping and today there are mushrooms and potatoes and everything is cheaper if we buy it from the farmers than at the market hall. Many many thousand kisses from all of us many greetings from the Krell family.

As soon as I know anything I will write to you again. Kisses

Paula

---

[note at bottom: Received 12. August.53]

...that you are followed the night every night and that we have debts. Dear Helene, you write about Vitali, he’s already left there, he really ought to be here by now but everything gets put off, even with Vitali and believe me we are waiting as enthusiastically as you, we are really missing him, because we know that it will be better for you and then you can come back to Vienna because Vitali will want to settle here because it’s been much nicer here but don’t be in despair — as long as we know that he is alive and then there is no reason to be sad or despairing. Maybe we can find out something more. But now we need to wait. There’s nothing we can do because we don’t know where he is. I have seen a few times the way he is packing his suitcase. You know his talents and he will get together what he needs and now I have no more worries about him. Someday we will get there because he is coming to us first.

Dear Helene, I thank you for the packages. Some of them aren’t here yet but that always takes longer than I think. But really don’t send anything more for us it’s really so hard to send something because you have to pinch pennies too and you must have pity on me because you have it so hard too. Vitali knows about it too but he can’t really move around yet the way he would like to. As soon as he is away from Turkey then everything will be so much faster. We just have to wait, everything takes time. My dear Annemie is coming to Vienna on August 19 and now I can start fattening her up again.

My dear little Helen, how much I would like to have you here, it would be so much nicer. Franz also says it would be so much better for you here. Here you would be able to get the compensation for reparations and get everything replaced which you lost. But also you would get a pension which you could live on. You should have put in for it as I told you. All your relatives have done that and are getting it. Yes, I think even when Vitali is here he needs to report all of his losses.

My dear little Helen, I can also tell you that friends have sent me a document detailing how I helped her but it did take quite awhile. Dear Helene, my husband will also write soon because he runs around every day and when he works at home he is also the one who repairs all our shoes so that we can save some money for other things. I must tell you that this person can do everything and I thank our dear God for the grace that I have gotten this good man. He could not be better than he is.

So my dear I need to close now because I want to take the letter to the post office. Dear good Helene, hang in there and it cannot take too much longer until our dear Vitali comes. I tell you as always that Vitali is coming and then you will not have that dark mood anymore and for your nerves it will be good. Just believe in it. All bad things do come to an end.

With many many greetings and kisses I am ending my letter and many greetings and a kiss from my husband.

Paula-Franz

---

These letters give me an appreciation for the clarity and humor in my family’s writing. Paula writes in stream of consciousness – almost one long sentence with little or no punctuation. Paula sounds absolutely certain that she has been in touch with Vitali. Can we believe her? She writes in 1953 that she sees “him often at night and he’s packing his suitcase,” which is clearly a dream. Is it all a dream? It may be that we will never know.

Today’s letters illustrate the trauma of war — no one was untouched and the effects could last years and even generations. In 1953, eight years after the war ended, Paula and her family have lived in an occupied country. Life is difficult and they barely have what they need to survive day to day. And yet, she tells Helene how much happier she will be returning to Vienna. A wish that as soon as Vitali somehow reappear and Helene has joined him in Vienna, they would return to the lives they left behind.

July 10

Link to Family Tree to understand family relationships.

As we learned earlier in the year, Helene’s travails were not over upon her release from Ravensbrück. She boarded the Drottingholm in Goteberg in March 1945 and arrived in Istanbul in April. In the April 16 post, we learned of the hurdles that the released prisoners faced upon arrival in Istanbul. In the April 20 post we saw that although the passengers were allowed to leave the ship, 112 of them became prisoners again, being interned in hotels in Istanbul. Today, from excerpts from documents found in the JDC archives, we see what little progress had been made in the previous three months for many of these people, including my grandmother.

From a July 16th, 1945 memo from The American Joint Distribution Committee c/o American Consulate General in Istanbul:

Subject: Drottningholm Jewish Refugees not yet permitted formally to enter Turkey

The Drottningholm, Swedish diplomatic liner, arrived in Istanbul on April 10th, 1945, from Goteborg, Sweden. The sip carried several hundred Turkish repatriates who were to be exchanged for German nationals, then interned in Turkey.

One hundred thirty seven of those people were Jewish, every one of whom had been taken directly from concentration camps such as Buchenwald, Ravensbruck, Bergen Belsen, Auschwitz, etc. They were brought to Goteberg and there placed on board the Drottningholm. With few exceptions, they carried no documents establishing their citizenship or even identity, since such documents had, in most instances, been confiscated by Nazi camp commandants or other Nazi authorities.

Twenty one Jewish passengers were permitted to debark on the day the ship docked. The Turkish nationality status of the remaining 116 individuals was questioned by the Turkish authorities and so this entire group was interned in small hotels, under police surveillance, pending investigation and decision by the authorities with regard to their nationality.

Costs for their maintenance were and still are being paid for by the American Joint Distribution Committee.

On June 21st, after many weeks of investigation, 46 individuals were released (presumably on the theory that they were Turkish nationals)….

Today (July 10th) six more individuals …were sent to Palestine….and need no longer be considered part of this list.

Accordingly, there are, at this writing, 63 persons still interned in the hotels and there is no indication at this time what the Turkish authorities propose doing with this remaining group.

When the Drottiningholm reached Istanbul, everyone of these refugees… told the local police who were investigating their cases that they were Turkish nationals. In many cases this was so. In other instances they did not honestly know whether their nationality status was Turkish or not. However, in practically all cases they have been Turkish by birth or through marriage, although, as frequently happened, they failed to renew their Turkish citizenship. All of these people have lived for many years – in some cases all of their lives – in Belgium, Holland, Italy, Austria, France, Germany and Czechoslovakia. They did not ask to be brought to Istanbul and it is therefore the responsibility of the Turkish Government to either return them to the countries where they last resided, or else accept them in Turkey

• as Turkish repatriates or
• as refugees with the right to remain here until arrangements can be completed for their departure to other countries.

The Turkish authorities have taken the position that the entire group of Jewish passengers were placed on board the Drottningholm without the knowledge of the Turkish Government. This can hardly be possible because in an exchange of nationals especially during war time clearance of passenger lists must have been made by the Turkish Government.

Certainly, there is no reason why the refugees still remaining here should be penalized by continued internment because of an error or misunderstanding on the part of the Turkish authorities, over which situation, these refugees had no control.

This group has already been interned in hotels without freedom of movement for three and a half months. As previously pointed out, everyone was in a concentration camp – some for several years. It is injust and inhuman to continue to confine them especially now with the war in Europe over.

It is respectfully urged that steps be taken for these people by our State Department, War Refugee Board and other interested agencies looking toward:

• their immediate release from internment
• acceleration of decision of the Turkish Government concerting their Turkish nationality status.
• granting permission to those not recognized as Turkish nationals to remain in Turkey as refugees on their own recognizance for a reasonable period (perhaps 6 months or a year).
• whenever possible to return them to their countries of previous residence.

Arthur Fishsohn,
For American Joint Distribution Committee,
Istanbul

---

Helene Cohen was listed on the July 14, 1945 document entitled “Drottingholm Jewish Refugees not yet permitted to formally enter Turkey” that accompanied the above memo.  For each prisoner, the document lists name, age, date and place of birth, pre-war residence, evidence of Turkish citizenship and its loss, desired destination, and remarks including relatives to contact of the 68 remaining prisoners. Here is a screenshot for the entry for Helene:

 COHEN, Helene; 50; Nov 23, 1886; Bilin (Czechoslovakia) (Austrian in 1886); Austria, Vienna; Turk citizen by marriage to Haim COHEN, who remained T. citizen till 1943, when he was interned in Buchenwald; America United States; Her daughter, Mrs. Eva GOLDSTEIN, 2319-21st Ave. San Francisco – United States citizen. Has also a son – Harry SOWELL - in U.S. as U.S. citizen

As with the newspaper article we saw yesterday, the information is not entirely correct – the last names for both of Helene’s children, Eva’s address. The list includes the different “locations” of Bilin during Helene’s lifetime.

July 7

Link to Family Tree to understand family relationships.

I often think about the events and changes in the world that my grandmother experienced – no one would have imagined the life she led, beginning in a small town in Bohemia and ending up in San Francisco, with a full life and several years of nightmarish hardship along the way.

I suppose one might say the same when looking back at almost anyone who lived a long life. I’m sure that as a child my mother Eva never imagined the life she would live and the places she would go.

After a childhood in Vienna, several months in Istanbul to obtain a passport, and completing high school in San Francisco, Eva received a nursing degree in 1943 and went to work. As we have seen in letters from her brother Harry in the army, she had dreams of doing her part for the war effort, or at least of traveling the world. After she married, she continued her education and received an MA in Education from San Francisco State College (now University) in the late 1950s. [More than 20 years later I studied in the Counseling program at SF State and had a course with one of the same professors!]

The MA degree made her eligible to work as a public health nurse for the city of San Francisco, which she did for 20 years through the 1960s, 1970s, and into the early 1980s. As with her mother, Eva had a front row seat to the cultural changes, since she was working with city residents who needed health care and assistance. She made home visits, worked in the public health center clinic, was a school nurse, gave health education presentations. In the 1960s, she made home visits in the Haight Ashbury (I don’t know whether there was a disconnect between a nurse with a European accent who had a strict code of conduct and high expectations working with hippies during the summer of love, etc.). She saw huge changes in the social safety net: many of the single room occupancy buildings that provided cheap housing for many of her clients were razed to make way for new high-rises and offices downtown and changes in mental health care. As both a city resident and an employee, she was shocked by the events of November 1978 – the mass murders at Jonestown and the murders of Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone (and Dianne Feinstein becoming mayor). By the time she retired in July of 1984, the AIDS epidemic had a name and was in full force.

July 5

Link to Family Tree to understand family relationships.

Today’s letter is the reply to Helene’s query in the June 21 post.

Special Registry Office, Arolsen

6 July, 1955

Dear Mrs. Cohen,

As an answer to your letter of June 21 re searching for your husband Chain Cohen, I must inform you sincerely that my office has no information.  The International Search Service in Arolsen has only the information that the State Police in Vienna took your husband to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp near Weimar on November 5, 1943.

Since it is possible that your husband died in the Buchenwald area after the concentration camp was liberated, I recommend that you contact the Registry Office in Weimar/Thuringia in the Soviet occupied region of Germany.

I am extremely sorry that I cannot provide more exact information.

---

The Arolsen Archives were formerly known as the International Tracing Service. The office was set up after World War II specifically to deal with questions about the whereabouts of prisoners sent to concentration camps.  In preparing today’s post, I went to the online Arolsen Archives and found documents related to Vitali that I had never seen before. A comment handwritten on the back of one document from 1948 (presumably made in response to one of my grandmother’s queries) said “This person appeared on lists of Liberated Prisoners (compiled by the American Army)”. In several documents in my possession, I had seen references to the fact that Vitali had been reported alive at the time of liberation, but I had never seen it attributed to the American Army. However, I assume “compiled” means they wrote down the testimony of a presumed eyewitness, so I am no closer to an answer than my mother and grandmother were. It is heartbreaking to think how often their hopes for answers were dashed.

When I was young, my mother told me what a brilliant man her father was. She said he spoke around 10 languages. I always thought she must have been exaggerating — although my mother was always completely truthful. One document in the Arolsen Archives corroborated her claim — listing the (9) languages Vitali spoke: Turkish, French, English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Persian (Farsi?), and German.

It was not unusual for people in those days to speak multiple languages, although I think Vitali had a longer list than most. It was useful, particularly in cosmopolitan areas, to be able to communicate with the wide variety of people passing through. Toward the end of Harry’s life, he was fascinated by the memoirs of Elias Canetti, which he read both in the original German and in English translation. I read the first volume of Canetti’s memoir to see what caught Harry’s interest. I’m guessing part of it was feeling a kinship to Canetti for being the son of a Sephardic Jew in western Europe and the other was to read his memories of Vienna in the decade before Harry was born.

Harry followed in his father’s footsteps, fascinated by any publication in any language. As a student at UC Berkeley after the war, he studied Russian and I think Japanese. He considered pursuing a career in the foreign service. By the end of his life, Harry had amassed a library of hundreds of books in dozens of languages. I sometimes wondered whether that was also a way of hiding in plain sight – an interest in multiple languages could hide the fact that he had not been born in the US.

Harry kept his father’s Turkish-German phrasebook. According to the Wikipedia entry on the publisher, Meyers Bibliographisches Institut published German language phrasebooks from the 19th to early 20th century. The phrasebook I have is embossed with Vitali’s initials.

Genealogists and family historians all recommend periodically searching for answers to unanswered questions. More information and documents are being digitized every day.

June 30

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Today we have a picture postcard in German and English from (and of) Helene’s nephew Robert Zerzawy with a note in pencil that it was received on June 30, 1963.

This is not Mr. Dean Rusk; rather, it is your nephew on one of his missions to Germany. Touchwood, I have a little slimmed since then. 

Love, Robert

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A few comments:

The photo credit is by the airline – perhaps they took photos like they do these days on cruises and Disneyland rides?

The photo at Wikipedia entry for Dean Rusk does indeed show a resemblance.

In the 1960s, Robert worked for Bayer. Presumably this photo was taken on a business trip to Germany as he was preparing for the opening of the London sales office:

When I began this project, I thought of brothers Paul and Robert Zerzawy as distant cousins who were tangentially related to my family’s story. As we have seen, Paul was a major presence in my grandmother’s and her children’s lives. Robert is also important, but I have far less evidence. In March, we saw a few letters from him from the 1960s as well as a few letters to him from Helene from 1945-1046 in Istanbul – he appears to be the first relative she was able to reach. Helene mentions his sensitive nature and how life might be particularly difficult for him. In Robert’s letters he mentions emotions, while letters from his brother Paul, who was trained as an attorney, are usually all business – as a soldier in World War I, trying to make sure that family members at home have all they need and that Robert is taking care of business in his absence; and during World War II, emigrating and trying to help Helene, Vitali and their children emigrate as well. Although Robert also intended to emigrate from England to San Francisco during or after the war, for some reason that never happened, and he was separated from his family for the rest of his life.

Robert seems to have had a sensitive artist’s temperament. Although he tried to follow in Paul’s footsteps and study law, from the WWI letters it appears his heart wasn’t in it. Below is a photo of Robert that was probably taken during WWI that shows him sketching his grandmother while his sisters watch in the background. At this point his father and older brothers Robert and Erich are away at war (Erich probably in a POW camp in Siberia at this point), so young Robert was the man of the house. He had lost both his mother and step-mother by the time he was 11.

Below is a self-portrait Robert drew dated September 16, 1921, when he would have been 22 years old — a portrait of the artist as a young man.

June 25

Today we have a postcard from Vienna sent on June 22, 1958 to Helene in San Francisco.

We think of you often, not least in Vienna, on the Ring. Why don’t you write.
Love,
Judith & Alfred

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I thought this would be a very brief post, given how short a greeting there was on the card. But as often has been the case on this project, more puzzle pieces came together and suddenly this seemingly random postcard from an unknown friend leads us to something much richer.

When I first saw the postcard a few years ago, I read the signature as being from someone named Judith Alfred. I’d never seen her name before and was surprised that my grandmother had kept the card. Perhaps because the picture on the card was of the Vienna opera house? In the March 13 post, we saw what Helene wrote about the rebuilt opera house in 1955 after it had been destroyed during the war. 

As I was preparing today’s post, I looked again at the signature. I realized it might say Judith & Alfred. Which made me recall the name of someone whose writing takes up a lot of space in the papers my grandmother kept. In addition to several binders of her own stories, Helene kept two binders with magazine articles, German language cartoons, newspaper clippings, etc. Included in the binders were several articles by a man named Alfred Werner. I found that, like my grandmother, he too had lived in Vienna until being deported to Dachau. He came to New York in 1940 and became an art historian and journalist. His first wife died in the 1940s and he married Judith in 1953. You can learn all about him at the Center for Jewish History and can look at and download his entire archive. 

Since they had been in Vienna at the same time, I assumed that my grandmother was interested in Werner’s writing because she’d read work by him in Viennese newspapers and because he often wrote about her beloved pre-war Vienna in US publications. As I looked more closely at the articles my grandmother kept, I noticed that he had signed two of the reprints for her. He signed a reprint of a 1949 article entitled “Vienna Paradise Lost” that first appeared in The Chicago Jewish Forum (Volume 7, Number 4, Summer, 1949), when he was in San Francisco in 1955: "To the muse of twelve generations of Austrian writers and artists, honored by one of her many sons of the muse - Alfred, SF 1955." Presumably he is likening Helene to her namesake Helen of Troy. The signatures on the article and on the card look like they came from the same hand. Although there was an age difference of almost 25 years — Alfred was born in 1911 — Helene and Alfred shared a love of literature and music. I imagine them meeting at the Café Central in the 1930s and chatting for hours.

We have already seen a bit of his writing in the May 22 post, showing the testimonials to Vitali’s work in Vienna. Alfred Werner’s quote does not appear in Vitali’s “business card”, but it was in the translated document created when Vitali and Helene were preparing to come to the U.S. I do not have the original German.

Sub specie aeternitatis
The deeper I am looking into thee, blue sky,
The nearer dost thou still appear to me;
The stronger, God, I think Thee to the end,
The pitifuller do I fall before Thee….
From my volume of poems
To Mr. Cohen, with grateful admiration.
Alfred Werner.

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As I have found so many times before on this journey, my grandmother kept everything for a reason. Even people who at first seem like strangers or mere acquaintances end up playing a much more important role in my grandmother’s life and story than I could have imagined.

June 21

Link to Family Tree to understand family relationships.

The Search for Vitali

Helene and her children never stopped hoping to see Vitali again. One of the most poignant things my mother ever said was in March of 1988 when she acknowledged that she probably would never see her father again. She had never lost hope that he would arrive on her doorstep one day. He would have been 100 years old.

Helene’s search began the moment she arrived in Istanbul from Ravensbrück on the SS Drottningholm in April of 1945. The JDC archives include several documents that included Vitali’s name on the list of missing persons being sought by the released prisoners. We learned about Helene’s voyage and experiences in Istanbul in several earlier posts, including JDC documents posted on April 16 and April 20.

Today we see documents from 1947, 1949, 1950, and a copy of a letter from Helene dated June 21, 1955. Helene was tireless in her search for Vitali, ever hopeful that she would see him again.

21 June, 1955

To Special Registry Office

Arolsen
Germany

Dear Sirs,

With this letter I send my polite request that you inform me about further steps to take in my quest to find out if my husband is still alive.  I would be extremely grateful to receive any information about him.

My husband and I were arrested on October 15, 1943 in our home.  While I was transported to Ravensbrück, my husband was sent to Buchenwald. 

From the PCIRO Child Search Tracing Division Wiesbaden (16) I received this information on July 7, 1947:

Cohen, Haim, political prisoner (Jew) was alive at the time of liberation. 

The attached document contains a copy of the data I have.  I will be glad to send more if necessary.

Thank you in advance for your trouble,

Sincerely,

June 15

Link to Family Tree to understand family relationships.

Domestic scenes – the life they left behind

These two photographs of Helene’s nephew Paul Zerzawy’s apartment are dated June 15, 1938. They are a nice window into his homelife in Vienna. I wonder whether he took these photos because he knew he’d be leaving Europe and wanted to have a keepsake of his old life.

Perhaps the following photo was taken at the same time for the same reason.

The entire Zerzawy family enjoyed music. Below is a photo of Paul’s brother Robert with their father and step-mother in the 1930s.

Photos from the 1930s of Eva and Harry show them in their apartment on Seidlgasse in Vienna. Snapshots of happier, more carefree times.

Harry on a swing:

Harry and Eva in fancy dress:

Eva busy at the sewing machine

A portrait of young Harry which he doodled on, adding a mustache and monocle as well as other details.

Eva walking through the park

Harry and Eva on the piano. The photo of Eva is very dim but shows clearly the drawing of Helene which appears in other photos we saw in an earlier post.

Eva and Harry brought the portrait with them when they came to San Francisco in 1939.

Music played a central part in everyone’s lives – something we know from Helene’s many musical references in her letters and because she named her daughter after a Wagnerian heroine. Happily, music knows no boundaries and the family could enjoy music in their new home as well as their old. Nearly everyone in the family played piano, some better than others. This was a lifesaver for Paul Zerzawy — he was unable to practice law when he came to America, but was able to make at least some money in San Francisco by teaching piano and accompanying singers.

Eva loved music but was never a musician, for many years having season tickets to the opera and symphony in San Francisco. Harry had perfect pitch. He never learned to read music but could imitate anything he heard. He entertained himself and others, often spending hours each day playing piano.

Below is a photo of Eva in front of her piano in San Francisco - if I recall, she inherited it from Helene’s cousin Bertha with whom Eva lived while she finished high school. When my husband and I moved back to San Francisco several years ago, we had no room for the piano and had to give it away. That was the one possession that was difficult to part with and brought me to tears.

Eva’s piano leaving our lives forever.

Below is a photo of Harry playing piano at home and at my wedding.

June 14

Link to Family Tree to understand family relationships.

Tennis

My mother loved playing tennis. When I was young, she tried in vain to get me excited about the game, having me take tennis lessons at the courts in Golden Gate Park. She became a regular there, playing every week and making many friends.

About 20 years ago I was in England and went to Hampton Court. There, I was surprised to learn that Henry the VIII loved tennis and saw the court he played on.

According to Wikipedia the rules of modern tennis were created in England in the late 19th Century. In looking through family photos, I see that family members enjoyed the game dating at least to the early 20th century, so they were playing a relatively “new” game.

The above photo was probably taken in 1908 or earlier. There is a note on the back mentioning Robert Zerzawy. I think he is the young boy in the cap holding the ball and facing the camera. The photo of the four children below would be siblings Paul, Erich, Klara, and Robert. Likely taken in or near Brüx in Bohemia (German name for Most in the Czech Republic).

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 Probably 1937 or 1938 – Eva and Harry playing doubles in Vienna:

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1938 – Paul Zerzawy notes the date of June 16, 1938 on the back and that it was taken at the Gartenbauplätz in Vienna. A friend named Walter Reif is hitting the ball in the foreground. The only reference I could find to Gartenbauplätz was about it being the site for ice hockey tournaments in the early 1930s.

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1941 – Mission High School in San Francisco – we saw this photo of Eva and Harry from February of 1941 in a previous post.

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Probably the late 1970s – Golden Gate Park Tennis Club at a Halloween event. Eva taking a cigarette break, dressed as a gypsy. My mother “made” similar costumes for me once or twice for Halloween. I always thought she did that because it was a cheap and easy way to dress up, but more recently I’ve wondered whether it was a silent nod to her father the palm reader.

June 11

Link to Family Tree to understand family relationships. 

Postcards

Today’s postcard from June 11, 1972 got me thinking about vacation postcards in general, and then about the importance of postcards in the first half of the 20th Century. Below are several postcards written by my mother, my cousins, and me from summer vacations in 1966, 1969 and 1972. It’s lovely that Helene saved and valued these notes.

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I have quite a few postcards in my family papers, many dating from the early 20th Century. Some are generic postcards of a town or landmark. But there are also many that are postcards with photos of family members – either professional studio portraits or amateur shots. The latter were known as “Real photo postcards” (RPPC) if they were made using a special camera and paper beginning in the early 1900s. I’m not sure whether that’s the case for the photos in my possession.

Below is a postcard of the Stubenring in Vienna on which my grandmother drew an arrow and pointed to her shop – the stationery shop where she sold paper goods and repaired fountain pens, and in the 1930s where Vitali had his metaphysical practice.

Below is a photo postcard from a class trip to Italy. Harry is in the front row, third from the right.

June 9

In Helene’s papers, I found a few letters from people unrelated to my family. It is fascinating to hear different voices and experiences of the war and its aftermath. So many lives and families destroyed, no one left unchanged or unaffected. Yet, people are resilient and, happily, despite her physical problems, Marga was able to take joy in her husband and family. In just a few pages, we get a sense of a stranger’s life and family over 20 years, from pre-war Prague to post-war Sweden and Switzerland.

Hotel Wüscherhof [?]                                     Zurich 7/6/59
Seehofstrasse 15

My dear good Helene,

Now finally I want to answer your letters in detail as long as my hands don’t go on strike. You cannot imagine how much I am troubled by pain in my hands, arms, shoulders, and now also it’s starting in my feet. For the last 2-1/2 years I have been keeping myself mobile by taking cortisone preparations which of course have terrible side effects. For example, they seem to cause water retention and that’s why I’ve gotten so fat. I am sending you a picture of all of us. It was taken in April on my 60th birthday. You probably hardly recognize me? Then I will introduce you to my husband. You recognize Inge I imagine and the girl is my granddaughter Sandra, a real little Swedish girl. We spent my birthday in Bad Homburg, where I was taking some treatments and Inge and the child came from Stockholm.

Now let’s get to you dear Helene. Life was so full of excitement for you and I can appreciate what it meant for you to be separated from your husband and children. You were always a real delight for your family. I hope you are enjoying your children and that they are making it up to you in your older days and helping to make life easier for you. As I can remember, they were both very good, brave children. It is so sad that Vitali probably did not get to experience the end. His children would have been a great pleasure for him as well.

But everything is kismet and we must bear our crosses. Now you want to know how it’s been with me. When I lived in Prague (and Inge was already in Sweden), I could not leave my mother, and this Nazi gang picked me up there and stuck me head over heels into the K.Z. [abbreviation for Konzentrationslager – concentration camp] Thereseinstadt. I got a telegram in Prague which told me that I had gotten my Swedish citizenship back, and then they picked me up there the same day. I was there for 2-1/2 years and all the intervention from the Swedish government didn’t help, only that they did not send me to be gassed. After the end of the war, I came out of there and got my Swedish passport from the consulate in Prague right away and then traveled all the way across Europe in various types of transportation: going from Prague - Nuremberg - Bamburg - Belgium - Holland, and then back to Germany - Hamburg - Copenhagen and finally after five weeks — I was in animal cars, fish cars, bus, and even a ferry where I landed in Malmö [in southern Sweden]. In the K.Z., I of course picked up my illness. You can imagine the Germans considered my illness to be 100% caused by persecution and they are paying me a large pension. You can fathom how I am doing. Often, especially when the weather changes, I can’t even hold a spoon. My husband has to help me get dressed and undressed since I can’t get my arms to go back. But now I’ll report further. I was in Sweden for 5 months, then I had to go back to Prague to take care of some things. Then, after I came back after a year, Inge came and she was not married yet, but I took care of her household for her. She was working in the state theater in Malmö, but then she married the theater boss. I then simply went to work in a factory and then I managed to work myself up to a more important position in 4-1/2 years and then I met my current husband at a dinner where I and my boss had been invited. We met on Easter Saturday and on Easter Sunday he came with flowers and proposed to me. I told him definitely not, but you know how people are - they are inconsistent - and we got married that same year in August 1951.

My husband was an old bachelor but I must tell you Helene, there is no better man in the world and I really won the lottery with him. He spoils me, he’s true to me and he’s a great support to me. We are moving on the 16th of this month into our new house, the address which I will enclose for you. We want to get out of the big city and all the noise and we want some peace and quiet. It is a charming house, 1000 square meter garden, and we have a view fields and meadows and forest. It’s a mile and a quarter from Zurich and about half and hour from Bern. Helene, I don’t know your financial situation, but if you can afford a trip to Switzerland, you are most warmly welcome to stay with us to relax. Our house has 5-1/2 rooms and plenty of room for you.

You probably heard from Fredy that my mother died in the concentration camp.

Inge is fine, her child is already 11 years old. Inge has her own theater production. She is going on tour throughout Sweden and she’s directing. She’s very industrious with all this. She is still taking care of the house. My son-in-law is director in Stoikh [?], and he’s the only goy who is successfully directing by Habima [perhaps the national theater of Israel]

Now Helene I’ve got to go. My hands are telling me that it’s time to end the letter.

Please don’t be mad at me because I was silent for so long. I have made up for it today, haven’t I? Didn’t you write an interesting book? I heard about it from Fredy. Do you have it available to buy? Please dearest Helene, write soon and give my best greetings to your children, and greetings and kisses from everyone here.

From your old Marga

Please send me a picture of the children.

I would be so happy to see you again. Greetings also from my husband.

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A Little bit of sleuthing — a lot of information!

In preparing this post, I decided to see what I could learn about Swedish theater and perhaps find something about Marga’s daughter. Marga gave a lot of clues in her letter. I looked up the theater in Malmö. At first I thought Inga might have been married to Ingmar Bergman, since he ran the theater in the 1950s, but that would have been too late for her to have an 11-year old child. On a site about Bergman’s work at Malmö,  I found an article that talked about the different people who preceded him. It mentioned Sandro Malmquist. The Wikipedia page for him lists Inge Waern as his second wife. His page confirms that he directed for Habima. Inge’s Wikipedia page tells us that her mother was Margarethe Waern, née Schlesinger. According to the letter, Inge’s daughter was named Sandra, presumably in honor of her father.

At some point when I have a few extra hours, I’ll see if I can find out more about Marga and how my grandmother knew her.

May 9

Mother’s Day

Link to Family Tree to understand family relationships.

As I tell my family story, I realize how much of it is about mothers and daughters – strong women protecting their children from adversity as much as possible, trying to give them a better life, as mothers everywhere have been doing since time immemorial. Several of these women married men who, although charming and intelligent, did not have a practical bone in their bodies, leaving day-to-day affairs to their wives.

Rosa and Helene (and perhaps Helene’s father Adolph?) planned to move from Bohemia to Vienna in the early 1900s. Unfortunately, Rosa’s eldest daughter Ida died in 1902, leaving 4 children under the age of 7. I believe Adolph died at this time as well. Helene moved to Vienna on her own. In 1903, Rosa’s daughter Mathilde married her sister’s widower Julius Zerzawy. She died in 1910 and Rosa again took care of her motherless grandchildren until the end of World War I. It must have been heartbreaking for Rosa to be called upon to bury her daughters and care for her grandchildren, and then to lose three of those five grandchildren to war and illness before 1920. Yet, she soldiered on trying to hold the family together.

We learned a bit about Helene’s grandmother Babette and mother Rosa in the post from February 16.

I think often of my own mother’s strength. At a time when most American teenagers were going to high school dances, Eva and her brother had left their parents behind in Vienna, imagining that they would see each other again in a few months. She finished high school and began earning money to send to her parents, hoping that what little she could provide would ease their lives and perhaps help them make the journey to America. After the U.S. entered World War II in 1941, Eva and Harry stopped receiving letters from their parents and had no idea what was happening to them. Eva completed nursing school and began working. Her brother joined the army as soon as he was able. By 1943, Eva was in San Francisco with neither her parents nor her brother. She must have been terrified that she might never hear from her parents again and that Harry would be killed in the war, particularly given how often he talked in his letters about longing to see combat. In 1945, Eva must have been thrilled to know that her mother was safe, but she also had to find the resources to help her mother come to the U.S. and help support her when she arrived. My mother was always an ultra-responsible person, but I can’t imagine how difficult it was to shoulder the responsibility of supporting her parents (and probably trying to act maternally to her younger brother who wouldn’t have been interested), all before she was 25 years old.

I am touched that one of the few cards my grandmother kept was a Mother’s Day card I gave her at some point in the 1960s.

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I am so grateful to all of my foremothers. Happy Mother’s Day!