Hugo Jellinek - Biography

Hugo was born in December 1888, in Mistelbach, Niederösterreich (Lower Austria), then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was in his sixth semester of medical studies at the University of Vienna when World War I broke out. He enlisted in the Austrian army and volunteered to serve as a medic on the Northern front line.

He served until he was severely wounded by shellfire and was taken to a prison hospital in Samarkand, as a prisoner-of war. He fell in love with his nurse, Natasha (aka Njura) Kasalowskaja, and married her after he was freed in 1918. The couple lived in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where they had three children together: Gisella Nadja, born in August 1920; Berta (also referred to as Fuschi, Bertuschka and Bertl), born in September 1922; and Anna Luchia, (also referred to as Anny, Putzi, Putzerle, Lussinka, Lussa, Annuschka and Annuschkerl), born in May 1924. Hugo worked for the Soviet government, utilizing his written knowledge of eight languages, and he also worked as a free-lance journalist. Natasha died of illness in 1926.

In 1930, Hugo managed to flee from the Soviet Union via Moscow, Warsaw and Brünn (Brno), and return to Austria with his three young daughters. Hugo lived in Vienna and in his parents’ house in Oberhollabrunn during 1930 – 1938, working again as a translator and as a free-lance journalist. His three daughters attended school and lived with their grandparents in Oberhollabrunn during most of that period.

Hugo was very well educated and interested in history, politics, literature and music as well as in medicine. He studied violin for one year in a music conservatory, and played the violin on the radio, as well as in the family informal chamber ‘musicales,’ in which he, Siegfried and Max played violin and Gisela and Karl played ‘four-hands’ piano. He also studied for one year in a Theological Seminary. He was a member of the Social Democratic party.

In the morning of June 6, 1938, his younger brother Karl got a call from a non-Jew, warning that the Nazis were looking for Hugo. Hugo fled on the 2 p.m. train from Vienna to Brünn, Czechoslovakia that same day. He bade farewell to his entire family at the train station, including to his 18-year old, eldest daughter, Gisella Nadja, who covertly departed for British Mandate Palestine that same day. Hugo never saw Nadja again, nor any other members of his family, except for his two younger daughters who joined him in Brünn later in 1938.

Hugo struggled psychologically and physically at first, as a poor Jewish refugee in Brünn. Soon however, he was buoyed by his relationship with Therese (Resl) Spitz – and then by his burgeoning love for Fritzi Fränkel, to whom he was engaged in August, 1939 and whom he married in October 1939. Hugo was very attentive to the differences in the personalities of his three daughters and expressed much care and love for each of them. He was sensitive to the issue of his remarriage, and to his young daughters' having a new mother.

Hugo poured out his heart and mind in his long letters to his eldest daughter Nadja. He had not been in favor of Nadja’s going to live in Mandatory Palestine because of the danger he perceived there, but in his letters from Brünn, he eventually wrote of his hopes and plans for himself, his new wife and two daughters to join Nadja in Palestine.

Tragically, instead, Hugo and Fritzi, along with daughters Berta and Anna, were deported on December 5, 1941, on “Transport K” from Brünn to Theresienstadt concentration camp. From there on June 13, 1942, on “Transport AAi,” Hugo was deported to his murder, most likely in the Sobibór killing center. We do not know whether Fritzi, Berta and Anna were on that same transport, or were deported at a different time and murdered at Sobibór, Treblinka or Auschwitz - Birkenau killing centers.

Date	Author(s) / Origin of Letter	Recipient(s) / Relationship to Author(s) / Destination of Letter	Summary
July 26, 1938	Hugo Jellinek [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	Gisella Nadja Jellinek (daughter of HJ) [Rishon Le Zion, British Mandate Palestine]	In this earliest extant letter from Hugo to his eldest daughter, he writes lovingly and hopefully about their being spiritually “forever and inseparably connected,” and of his confidence in the entire family’s reunion in British Mandate Palestine by ca. 1940. Hugo tells his eldest daughter about the difficult housing, economic (and interpersonal) circumstances in Brünn with which he, his daughter, Berta, and other poor emigrés and refugees are coping. Despite these kinds of hardships, however, Hugo wishes the rest of his family could be with him in Brünn, rather than being subject to the frightening threats and persecution in Nazi-occupied Vienna. He notes that Willy, the son of Hugo’s first cousin, Oskar Jellinek, is imprisoned in Dachau, and that Oskar is virtuously trying to help and rescue Willy. Hugo shares his thoughts about the “…agonizing situation of the Jews,… ” the Jewish people’s failure to “… hear Herzl’s call 46 years ago… ” and the urgent current need for “… a country of our own… ” and a “… genius of a leader…” Hugo also writes about his daughter Berta’s job difficulties, his worry over her social life and over his daughter Anna’s plea to bring her to Brünn. Lastly, he writes about his inspiration from a new friend, Therese Spitz, and his enjoyment of Friday night services at a local synagogue.
August 5, 1938	Anna Jellinek [Hollabrunn, Austria]	Gisella Nadja Jellinek (sister of AJ) [Rishon Le Zion, British Mandate Palestine]	Fourteen year-old Anna’s writing is unevenly negative and positive, wise and naiive. She begins her letter with hearty congratulations to her sister as she celebrates her 18th birthday in the ‘Land of Israel.’ Anna ends with kisses and hopes to be together in the following year. But Anna also reports about the traumatic effects of Nazi persecution, such as the ruination of the leather goods in their uncle Leopold Schlesinger’s store, and the subsequent total loss of his store through its ‘aryanization.’ Anna prejudicially denigrates Arabs in Palestine, but advises Nadja that good and bad people exist everywhere and that Nadja should not be prejudiced about Jews of Polish background in her Betar group.
August 9, 1938	Gisela Jellinek Schlesinger Karl Jellinek [Vienna, Austria] Hugo Jellinek - inserted brief comments in the margins of Gisela J. S.'s letter, before he passed it on to Gisella Nadja J. [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	Hugo Jellinek (brother of GJS and KJ) [Brünn, Czechoslovakia] Gisella Nadja Jellinek (daughter of HJ, niece of GJS and KJ) [Rishon Le Zion, British Mandate Palestine]	Gisela, her husband, Poldi, their family members and neighbors are struggling with the Nazi regime’s anti-Jewish persecution, such as the forced, demeaning take-overs of their businesses and apartments. In her long, detailed letter, we mainly read of Gisela’s anguished responses to events, as well as her practical efforts to help her nieces, siblings, cousins and parents cope with the new harsh reality. Gisela also reports on her attempts to maintain some semblance of the old order and values, such as her intent to obtain her old piano for daily practice with her young niece Anna. Karl’s shorter letter contains equally powerful, ominous signs concerning the “unsustainable” situation for him and relatives in Vienna. The significant good news in both of these letters is about Karl’s receipt of requisite affidavits from the USA, as well as a Merit Certificate for admission to Mandate Palestine, Gustav Jellinek and Miron Nadel’s emigration prospects, and the receipt of Gisella Nadja Jellinek’s letters from Mandate Palestine.
August 9, 1938	Anna Jellinek Siegmund Jellinek [Hollabrunn, Austria] Hugo Jellinek [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	Hugo Jellinek (Anna’s father, Siegmund’s son) Berta Jellinek (Anna’s sister, and Siegmund’s grandaughter) [Brünn, Czechoslovakia] Siegmund Jellinek (Hugo’s father) [Hollabrunn, Austria]	Believing that she has a choice, 14 year-old Anna asks her father whether it is better to immigrate to America or to England. Anna criticizes Gisella Nadja’s idealistic Zionism and Betar activism and wants her to abandon Palestine for America. Siegmund believes that Hugo can and will come back to Hollabrunn and be able to sell boxes of merchandise that he left behind when he fled to Czechoslovakia. In a more realistic vein, Siegmund signs off as “worried” and admits that Gisela has been travelling recently between Stockerau, Vienna and Hollabrunn. However, he omits the dire reasons. Anna perceives zero prospects for future peace in Mandatory Palestine, and also lovingly urges her father to spend more money on himself in order to be better nourished and healthier.
August 12, 1938	Hugo Jellinek [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	Gisella/Nadja Jellinek (daughter of HJ) [Rishon Le Zion, British Mandate Palestine]	Hugo shares his worries about his sixteen year-old daughter, Berta, spending time with Socialist political emigrants. He wishes Berta would identify more strongly as a Jew. Hugo also reports that he is well, but that he is troubled by the stressful upheaval that his parents and siblings, still in Hollabrunn and Vienna, are experiencing.
August 21, 1938	Hugo Jellinek [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	Gisella/Nadja Jellinek (daughter of HJ) [Rishon Le Zion, British Mandate Palestine]	Hugo begins this long letter to his eighteen-year-old daughter, Nadja Gisella, with strong praise of her and loving birthday wishes. The remainder of the eight pages is mostly full of bitter, poignantly perceptive, prescient, political, intertwined with personal observations and predictions; e.g., a.) foretelling the doom of the Jews of Czechoslovakia if Hitler invaded the country successfully, b.) recognizing that many of the local Czech Jews were not aware that they were in the same imminent danger as the Jewish refugees from Austria, Germany and the Czech Sudeten region, and c.) being alert to both K. Henlein and J. Streicher’s powerful and dangerous influences. Only Hugo’s strongly expressed belief that the Czech nation would fight Hitler “to the last drop of blood” was tragically not borne out.
August 28-29, 1938 (Est.)	Berta Jellinek [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	Gisella Nadja Jellinek (sister of BJ) [Rishon Le Zion, British Mandate Palestine]	Berta writes lofty, idealistic 18th birthday wishes for her older sister Gisella Nadja, and for herself too. Berta also gives a spirited report of her recent bicycle accident, symbolic resistance, work and studies.
October 14, 1938	Hugo Jellinek [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	Gisella Nadja Jellinek (daughter of HJ) [Rishon Le Zion, British Mandate Palestine]	Hugo expresses outrage and despair re: the disastrous betrayals and appeasement at the Munich Conference, and the ensuing brutal persecution of Jewish and non-Jewish Czechs in the ceded Sudeten region. Hugo strongly commends Nadja for her “heroic fight for the freedom of Palestine” from British rule. He concludes this long letter with positive, personal family news, including praise of his new friend, Therese Spitz.
November 17, 1938	Anna Jellinek [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	Gisella Nadja Jellinek (sister of AJ) [Rishon Le Zion, British Mandate Palestine]	Fifteen-year-old Anna humorously describes her new, somewhat onerous job as a live-in servant in Brünn. She also writes about the “irresponsible” behavior of her sister, Berta, and requests that Nadja write to her, but not worry about her.
November 24, 1938	Hugo Jellinek [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	Gisella Nadja Jellinek (daughter of HJ) [Rishon Le Zion, British Mandate Palestine]	Hugo shares prescient, mostly gloomy thoughts with his eldest daughter, writing that humans can be made into beasts much more easily than the other way around, and that Nazis are casually, and merrily “… robbing, burning murdering [and] fighting - …” just as the criminal band of outlaws did in Friedrich Schiller's 1781 play The Robbers. Hugo also worries about Czechoslovakia's new president, Dr. Hácha and about Czechoslovakia's granting of asylum and citizenship to Jewish refugees. Hugo begs Gisella Nadja to write to her sixteen-year-old sister, Berta, detailing her life in Mandate Palestine and urging Berta to register with the Betar Zionist youth organization. Hugo also includes news of the good health and spirits of Gisella Nadja's two younger sisters, their kind and generous new friend, Therese Spitz, and the robbing of a group of young Jewish Betar members on their way to Mandate Palestine.
January 12, 1939	Hugo Jellinek [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	Gisella Nadja Jellinek (his eldest daughter, b. 1920) [Rishon Le Zion, British Mandate Palestine]	After expressing gratitude for 50th birthday greetings from Gisella Nadja and from other close family and special friends, Hugo bitterly predicts the further conquest of Czechoslovakia by the Nazis and their ability to “eliminate and strangle” the Jews in Europe, with the “applause and approval of the rest of the ‘civilized’ world.” Hugo denounces the Nazi “beasts in human form,” who, after taking over Sudentenland a few months earlier, had begun to oppress and frighten all Czech Jews. He also condemns the betrayal by Jewish communists and other “assimilation-socialists” against their own (Jewish) people. He extols members of the Zionist group Betar, (of which Gisella Nadja was an active member) for their great courage, organization and discipline as they fight for an independent Jewish homeland in [British Mandate] Palestine. Lastly, Hugo praises and provides some news about Bertha and Anna, his younger daughters, whom he still believes will be able to get to Palestine.
March 23, 1939 - early May 1939 (Est.)	Hugo Jellinek Fritzi Fränkel [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	Gisella Nadja Jellinek (daughter of HJ, future stepdaughter of FF) [Rishon Le Zion, British Mandate Palestine]	Hugo expresses great admiration and burgeoning love for Fritzi Fränkel, but anger and pain re: Brünn’s recent occupation by the Nazis, and the change in his personal situation from distinguished, brave WWI Austrian soldier, who impartially helped all of his fellow soldiers, to persecuted and reviled Jew. Also, details of Hugo’s as well as Berta and Anna’s daily life in Brünn, and Fritzi expresses warm interest in Gisella Nadja.
April 15, 1939	Berta Jellinek [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	Gisella Nadja Jellinek (sister of BJ) [Rishon Le Zion, British Mandate Palestine]	Seventeen year-old Berta writes in a familiar, sisterly tone to Gisella Nadja, expressing concern for Nadja’s health, as well as chiding, criticism, sarcasm, humor and advice for Nadja not to work so hard and to think more about herself and her future. Berta reports on her hopeful plan to return to Vienna, complete professional studies there and then emmigrate to England. Berta continues with news that Anna (the youngest of the three sisters) is likely headed to a boarding school, also in England. Berta’s not having been able to know that her hopes were naiive and futile, nor that that she, and the rest of her family in Brno, would be trapped, and within three years, deported from there to their murders, is one of many poignant examples of what Saul Friedländer referrred to when he wrote “For it is their [Jewish victims’] voices that reveal what was known and what could be known [as Nazi policies were evolving].” (Please see fuller citation at the end of the Introduction on this website.)
June 12, 1939	Hugo Jellinek [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	Gisella Nadja Jellinek (daughter of HJ) [Rishon Le Zion, British Mandate Palestine]	Praise for Gisella Nadja’s and other Betar group members’ ongoing heroic work to build a Jewish homeland, contrasted with European Jewry’s humiliated status as “unwilling martyrs.” Positive personal news including Hugo’s deepening relationship with Fritzi Fränkel, and fatherly pride in Berta and Anna’s work and well-being.
May - June 1939 (Est.)	Anna Jellinek [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	Gisella Nadja Jellinek (sister of AJ) [Rishon Le Zion, British Mandate Palestine]	Sixteen year-old Anna writes with optimism and excitement about her and her cousin Erich’s prospects of getting to Palestine and reuniting with Gisella Nadja there. Anna also writes of the positive effects on the family of her father’s new relationship with the generous, sophisticated Mrs. Fränkel. The reader of Anna’s letter, who knows about the 1942 Nazi murders of Anna, her sister, Berta, her father, Hugo, and Mrs. Fränkel, will also find all of the other statements in Anna’s letter heartbreakingly poignant, including her statements of pride about her getting used to her work as a maid, her newfound strength and appearance and her thanking God for not being hungry anymore..
July 10, 1939	Hugo Jellinek [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	Gisella Nadja Jellinek (daughter of HJ) [Rishon Le Zion, British Mandate Palestine]	Hugo expresses his deep bitterness and pessimism about the plight of Jews who are being persecuted by the Nazis and are also being barred by the British from finding refuge in Mandate Palestine. He bemoans the past failure of most Jews to heed Theodor Herzl’s warnings about the urgent need for a Jewish state. However, Hugo also cites Herzl’s declaration that with sufficient determination by the Jewish people, there could still be a way to overcome the obstacles and establish a Jewish state, as well as his own belief that the “ethical principle” will eventually prevail. The letter ends with Hugo’s hope and intimation that his two younger daughters and his new fiancée could get to Gisella Nadja in Mandate Palestine.
July 1939 (Est.)	Fritzi Fränkel [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	Hugo Jellinek (soon-to-be fiancée and husband of FF) [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	These two poems are replete with Fritzi Frankel’s wisdom, wit, playful sense of humor and love for Hugo Jellinek. These poems, along with the five photos in the Image Gallery, of her engagement and wedding to Hugo, are tragically, the main ways the world can know of Fritzi’s existence. Fritzi and Hugo’s romance and marriage in the midst of Nazi occupation and World War, mark them as remarkably courageous, resilient and hopeful. Fritzi’s feelings and circumstances as she composed these rhyming couplets, contrast painfully with her and Hugo’s murder in Auschwitz and Sobibór respectively, less than three years later.
July 23, 1939	Berta Jellinek Hugo Jellinek [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	Gisella Nadja Jellinek (daughter of HJ, sister of BJ) [Rishon Le Zion, British Mandate Palestine]	Berta berates Gisella Nadja for working too hard in her Betar Zionist group and advises her to think more about herself and her own future. She also warmly congratulates her older sister on her forthcoming 19th birthday. Berta then reports on all of the wonderful and versatile qualities possessed by their father's wife-to-be, Fritzi Fränkel, but Berta exclaims that Fritzi can never replace their mother. Hugo inserts positive information about Fritzi and some joking negative criticism of Berta into this letter.
July 30, 1939	Hugo Jellinek Fritzi Fränkel Anna Luchia Jellinek (Hugo's youngest daughter) [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	Gisella Nadja Jellinek (daughter of HJ and sister of ALJ) [Rishon Le Zion, British Mandate Palestine]	Hugo expresses his feelings of deep closeness with his eldest daughter Gisella Nadja, and his pride in her heroic participation in the fight for an independent Jewish state. He goes on to describe his happinesss and the reciprocal love with his soon-to-be fiancée, Fritzi Fränkel. He writes that she is wonderful in all respects, including her devotion to Judaism and Zionism, her being the descendant of a renowned Moravian Rabbi, and her compassionate and all-around, superior personal qualities and skills. Hugo also assures Gisella Nadja that Fritzi will be a “wonderful mother” to her, and that Fritzi is already acting motherly towards teenaged Berta and Anny. Anny and Fritzi ’s messages at the end of the letter, confirm Hugo’s belief that Fritzi would have been a wise and loving mother to Hugo’s three young daughters.
August 17, 1939	Hugo Jellinek [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	Gisella Nadja Jellinek (daughter of HJ) [Rishon Le Zion, British Mandate Palestine]	Hugo writes lovingly of Fritz Fränkel, whom he is plalnning to marry soon. The fact that Fritzi has already acted in a generous and motherly way towards his 17 year-old daughter, Berta, is just one among many of Fritzi’s personal qualities and deeds that Hugo extols. Hugo writes of his anticipation of the family’s reunification in Palestine, in response to the plans and instructions for this reunification that Gisella Nadja’ described in her June letter. Hugo also optimistically tells Nadja that she and her sisters will have a noble “. . . mother again on earth” worthy of succeeding their deceased mother, Natasha. There are a lot more emotionally and poetically written hopes in this letter, that were heartbreaking to read by Gisella Nadja for many years after she found out about the murders by the Nazis in 1942 of her father, her “future-mama,” Fritzi, her two sisters, her aunt Gisela and other family members. Gisella Nadja was able to feel proud however, that she followed her father’s inspirational advice to “stay true to her golden heart” and to her courageous endeavors for the establishment and development of an independent state of Israel.
November 1939 - January 1940 (Est.)	Hugo Jellinek Gisela Jellinek Schlesinger Fritzi Fränkel (Hugo’s new wife) Anna Jellinek (Hugo’s youngest daughter) Heinz Rosenzweig (Fritzi’s nephew) [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	Gisela Nadja Jellinek (daughter of HJ, niece of GJS, sister of AJ, stepdaughter of FF, cousin of HR, by marriage of HJ to FF) [Rishon Le Zion, British Mandate Palestine, via Marianne Robicek in Yugoslavia.]	This letter corroborates that the persecution of Jews in Brünn had still not progressed far by late 1939 or early 1940. Among the optimistic statements that are especially poignant in light of the writers’ tragic fates, are: Hugo’s praise of the good life Fritzi is providing him and of the blossoming of his daughters, Berta and Anna, his citation of what God said to Mephistofeles in Goethe’s Faust, news of Berta’s preparations to join Gisella Nadja soon in Mandate Palestine and the plans for Anna, Hugo and Fritzi to come later. Hugo and Anna also express deep love for Gisella Nadja and great joy at having received mail from her.
December 17, 1939	Hugo Jellinek Fritzi Fränkel Anny Jellinek Heinz Rosenzweig Aunt Else (aunt of Fritzi) [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	Karl Jellinek (brother of HJ and brother-in-law of FF, uncle of AJ) Kreindel/Karla E. Jellinek (sister-in-law of HJ and FF, aunt of AJ) [New York City, USA]	In one of the few extant letters to his siblings, Hugo tells of the difficult, but not yet mortally dangerous circumstances he is experiencing in Brünn. Hugo lovingly praises the character of his new wife, Fritzi Fränkel. He recounts her altruism and devotion to caring for her late husband, to Hugo himself, and to her late good friend, Maria Mayer. Hugo feels very fortunate that Fritzi has chosen him over suitors who have higher social status.
January 8, 1940	Hugo Jellinek [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	Gisella Nadja Jellinek (daughter of HJ) [Rishon Le Zion, British Mandate Palestine]	Hugo praises his new wife, Fritzi, and his eldest daughter, Gisella Nadja, for each of their good deeds, strong spirit, values and idealism. Hugo states that he shares Gisella Nadja’s Betar Zionist movement ideals and major goal of “. . . the establishment of a Jewish national home in Erez.” He also writes about how Fritzi is making him very happy, as well as generously, kindly and wisely helping Gisella Nadja’s two younger sisters. In addition to Hugo’s closing, fatherly pleas and wishes for his 19 year-old eldest daughter, Hugo optimistically asks Gisella Nadja to wait to get married until he, his new wife/Nadja’s new mother and her two sisters arrive in Mandate Palestine.
January 31, 1940	Hugo Jellinek [Brünn, Czechoslovakia] Short greetings added by Fritzi Fränkel (Hugo’s new wife) Aunt Else (may be Hugo’s cousin or aunt, unknown to us) Heinz Rosenzweig (Fritzi’s nephew) Anna Jellinek (Hugo’s youngest daughter) [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	Siegmund Jellinek (father of HJ, father-in-law of FF, grandfather of AJ) Berta Schafer Jellinek (mother of HJ, mother-in-law of FF, grandmother of AJ) Gisela Jellinek Schlesinger (sister of HJ, sister-in-law of FF, aunt of AJ) *Leopold (aka Poldi) Schlesinger* (brother-in-law of HJ, and FF, uncle of AJ) [Vienna, Austria]	This is the sole, extant example of Hugo’s writing as a son, rather than as a father. Though limited in writing space, this postcard still shows a son challenging his father’s judgement, as well as seeming to desire his father’s approbation. Hugo reports on family problems, as well as praiseworthy characteristics of his youngest daughter, Anna/Lussinka, and of Heinz, his new nephew by his marriage to Fritzi. All of the above, combined with Hugo’s coded, cryptic and metaphoric references, e.g., “Bolavan,” “appropriate season,” also reveal Hugo’s current bitter political understanding, as well as his strained and constrained life as a Jewish refugee under Nazi rule.
June 1-5, 1941 (Est.)	Berta Schafer Jellinek Gisela Jellinek Schlesinger Leopold Schlesinger Siegmund Jellinek [Vienna, Austria] Hugo Jellinek Fritzi Fränkel [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	Gisella Nadja Jellinek (granddaughter of BSJ and SJ, niece of GJS and LS, daughter of HJ, stepdaughter of FF) [Rishon Le Zion, British Mandate Palestine]	Sad, final messages from each of the letter writers, including from Gisella Nadja's own father. Each close relative seems to try to reassure him/herself and Gisella Nadja of his/her fate and expresses love and yearning to be together again.