Karl Jellinek - Biography

Born in October 1894, Karl was the fourth child born to Berta and Siegmund Jellinek in Mistelbach, Niederösterreich, (Lower Austria), then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Karl volunteered in December 1914 for the Austrian army to seek “vengeance for Kishinev” [referring to the city in the Russian Empire in which a horrendous pogrom against Jews occurred in 1903]. He fought in the mountains on the Russian and Italian fronts, in battles against French forces and in the Spring offensive of 1918 which broke through the Italian lines. In March 1916, he suffered a shrapnel wound and was hospitalized. He returned to combat in September 1916. In June 1918, his trench caved in on him, ‘burying him alive.’ His nerves were shattered and he required another hospitalization until the world war ended. Karl received a Bronze medal for Courage.

Karl earned his Doctor of Law and Political Science degree at the University of Vienna in June 1922 and became a successful criminal defense lawyer. He said (many years later) that “My vocation was law in Vienna, but my avocation is Zionism.” Karl was a very ardent Zionist and popular leader from his youth. He was an active member from his law student days on, and President (during most or all of the years between 1923 - 1937) of “Die Lese- und Redehalle jüdischer Hochschüler in Wien” (The Reading and Lecture Hall for Jewish University Students in Vienna).¹ In 1925, he was the proud delegate of this fraternity-like, Jewish, Zionist association to the opening of Hebrew University on Mount Scopus, Jerusalem. In NewYork City, from 1939 on, he contributed money to Israel no matter how poor he was, founded and headed the IGUL (Alumni Association of Zionist Fraternities of Austrian Universities), and visited Israel several times, including as a Zionist Organization of America convention delegate. Near the end of his life, he said that he had the satisfaction that he had done his share in the rebirth of Israel. He said that Zionism had helped him “. . . endure the humiliation and degradation by the other German students when [he] was the only Jewish student in Gymnasium (high school). . . ” in his small Austrian town. I believe that Karl’s Zionism, leadership qualities, intelligence and ethical commitment helped him be especially alert and prepared to see the Nazi threat, and to take rescue action for his family and others.

On November 10, 1936, Karl eloped with Kreindel (aka Karla in that time/place), who had been his legal assistant and office manager. Kreindel was born in May 1910 in Stanislau, Galicia, Austria- Hungary, and came with her mother, Mathilde/Manzie, and her siblings, Anna Clara, Renee and Max, to join her father, Michael Eckstein, in Vienna in 1915.

Karl, Kreindel/Karla, and Michaela (their infant daughter) lived under Nazi rule from the time of the Anschluss in March 1938, until mid-February 1939. During that time, Kreindel/Karla used a great deal of courage, as well as charm and wile to protect Karl from Nazi arrest and imprisonment, and to retain their apartment in central Vienna until close to the time of their departure for the United States. Karl was outraged and embittered by the failure to open their doors to desperate persecuted Jews by the 32 nations who attended the Évian International Conference in July 1938. Karl and Kreindel/Karla narrowly averted arrest on Kristallnacht, the night of their second wedding anniversary.

The following three fortunate events enabled Karl, Kreindel/Karla and Michaela to escape the Nazis: Rubin Eckstein, a paternal uncle of Kreindel’s, sent the requisite affidavits from America;² Karl, Kreindel and Michaela were able to obtain US immigration visas within the combined German and Austrian quota, and the former colleague who took over Karl’s law office in Vienna, Karl Schreiner, secretly ‘compensated’ Karl with just enough money for the ship passage.³ Karl and his immediate family could have escaped to British Mandate Palestine with the “Verdienst Certificat” he had been awarded, but Caroline felt the US was safer for a family with a baby, and as Karl explained later: the ‘fire’ was burning — and they ran from it (without being able to deliberate calmly and slowly) to safety.

Karl became an independent insurance broker in New York. Kreindel (who changed her name to Caroline in the United States) and Karl had a son, Bernhard, in October 1939. Tragically, Bernhard died of meningitis about a month short of his first birthday. Bernhard had contracted this virulent disease in the 24 hour care facility for infants and young children, in which Karl and Caroline had been compelled to place him and Michaela while they both worked overtime to make ends meet.

Roberta was born in 1945, and Paulette (the present writer) was born in 1946. Karl’s enthusiastic piano playing by ear and sometimes teaching me to play Viennese marches, waltzes, Zionist and student songs were his only direct transmission of joyous, positive aspects of his pre-WWII Viennese and Zionist culture.

Kreindel/Caroline and Karl died in New York City within two months of each other in the fall of 1977, of stroke and heart failure respectively. We think that Karl’s heart failure on the night of November 21, was precipitated by his excitement after seeing the television images that evening of Anwar Sadat and Golda Meir’s hopeful Jerusalem proclamation of peace between Egypt and Israel.

Date	Author(s) / Origin of Letter	Recipient(s) / Relationship to Author(s) / Destination of Letter	Summary
Early July - Early August, 1938	Karl Jellinek Karla/Kreindel E. Jellinek [Vienna, Austria]	Gisella Nadja Jellinek (niece of KJ and KEJ) [Rishon Le Zion, British Mandate Palestine]	Karl warns Nadja of the dangers of close-minded and extreme views and of ‘in-fighting’ generally, in the “building up” of a Jewish state. Karl also writes that “Here in Vienna, it is not good, and I don’t think we can stay." Karla (in the only extant letter from her to Nadja) similarly chides Nadja about her expression of negative prejudice against Jews from Poland, especially at that time of the burgeoning in-gathering of Jews from all over the world.
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.
March 5, 1939 (Typed copy of Karl Jellinek’s speech delivered on board the Dutch ship “Veendam”)	Karl Jellinek [on ship to US from Holland] (Probably typed by Gisela Jellinek Schlesinger) [Vienna, Austria] Theresa (Resl) Spitz (additional hand-written greetings) [Brünn, Czechoslovakia]	Hugo Jellinek (brother of KJ) Theresa (Resl) Spitz (friend of HJ) [Brünn, Czechoslovakia] Gisella Nadja Jellinek (niece of KJ) [Rishon Le Zion, British Mandate Palestine]	Karl Jellinek’s impassioned speech opening a Purim celebration held on board a ship to the US from Holland. Karl expresses strong belief in the eventual rescue of all of his relatives and of all persecuted Jews in Europe, and in the need for unity and cooperation of all Jews in the building of the Jewish homeland in British Mandate Palestine. Hand-written greetings were added after the text of Karl’s speech, by Hugo’s friend, 'Resl' Spitz.
July 29, 1939	Karl Jellinek [New York City, USA]	Gisela Jellinek Schlesinger (sister of KJ) Leopold (Poldi) Schlesinger (brother-in-law of KJ) Siegmund Jellinek (father of KJ) Berta S. Jellinek (mother of KJ) Siegfried Jellinek (brother of KJ) Martha H. Jellinek (sister-in-law of KJ) [Vienna, Austria]	Karl is still optimistic about the rescue of his family from Nazi-Austria and the family’s eventual reunion in New York. Details of marvelous amenities built-in and bargain purchases for his New York apartment, housework, Karl’s sending family members affidavits, resumed Zionist organization activities, visits from relatives, new friends, former Zionist fraternity brothers, and to his “sunchild” infant daughter.
September 2-5, 1939 (Est.)	Karl Jellinek [New York City, USA]	Siegmund Jellinek (father of KJ) Berta S. Jellinek (mother of KJ) Gisela Jellinek Schlesinger (sister of KJ) [Vienna, Austria]	Karl has read about the outbreak of war in the New York Times, but he maintains his hope for his family’s reunion in America. He is studying English and hopes to earn more money soon and be able to take better care of his second child. He chides Gisela for her inappropriate sentimentality during “this worldwide inferno.” Also, family news, including re: Max’s affidavit and Michaela’s good development.
Late December, 1946 (Est.)	Karl Jellinek [New York City, USA]	Gisella Nadja Jellinek Gal(niece of KJ) [Rishon Le Zion, Mandatory Palestine]	Karl begins with concern about his brother-in-law, Markus, and the upcoming arrival into the USA of his sister-in-law, Regina, who had survived the war in England. Karl goes on to tell of plans, hopes and progress in his new work and of his family in New York City. He proceeds to report on deaths, doubts, imprisonment and other varied news of Holocaust survivor friends, acquaintances and relatives. Karl asks about Gisella Nadja and her husband, Latsi’s, life. Lastly, he expresses his “burning interest” in and his view of current events in Mandate Palestine.
April 16, 1947	Karl Jellinek [New York City, USA]	Gisella Nadja Jellinek (niece of KJ) [Rishon Le Zion, Mandatory Palestine]	Karl expresses sorrow and deep regret that Hugo, (Karl’s brother and Gisella Nadja’s father) and Gisella Nadja’s sisters, did not survive the Shoah, even though they could have, if they had escaped “illegally” to Mandate Palestine, as Karl had advised them to do. Karl writes positively about his three young daughters, his own and Karla’s Zionist activities in New York, as well as his sole surviving siblings, Max and Anna, and his nephew, Erich, all now residing in Australia. He commends Gisella Nadja on the new cafe that she and her husband, Lazi, are managing and entreats her to help his seriously ill brother-in-law, Max Eckstein, in Tel-Aviv.