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Author(s) / Origin of Letter
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Recipient(s) / Relationship to Author(s) / Destination of Letter
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Summary
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[Vienna, Austria] |
Gisella Nadja Jellinek (niece of GJS) [Rishon Le Zion, British Mandate Palestine] |
Gisela expresses joy at receiving a letter from her niece, Gisella Nadja, and discusses how much she values incoming letters from her dispersed siblings and nieces, as well as the letters that she wants to write. Gisela also reports varied good and bad news of her refugee and displaced family members and of former and current neighbors. Most significant and poignant, are her news of a) the late October forced deportation of her brother and Gisella Nadja’s uncle, Siegfried Jellinek, to the Lublin area of Poland and Siegfried’s subsequent removal to Lviv in the Soviet zone, b) the new, happy marriage in Brünn, of her brother and Gisella Nadja’s father, Hugo Jellinek, and c) the birth of a son, Bernhard, to her brother and sister-in law/Nadja’s especially beloved, uncle and aunt, Karl and Karla Jellinek in New York City. Gisela admits to struggling alone with difficult errands and housework. She notes that she gave away her piano and that it is “. . . not quiet enough for [playing] that anyway.” Still, she writes that she and her parents remain well and retain hope for “better times” and for all of the extended family to “see each other again.” |
December 12, 19391 My dearest Giserl! You cannot imagine our joy when we finally received your letter on Saturday, January 6th, exactly Shabbat Rosh Chodesh2 [and] at the same time we received a letter from dear uncle Max and from Daddy in Brünn. I read everything to the dear parents and you cannot imagine their beaming faces. I immediately made two copies for uncle Max and uncle Karl; I sent the original express to dear Dad in Brünn. Today we received the letter from dear Dad, which you will find enclosed. Also today we were very happy to receive a sign of life from uncle Si[e]gfried. You have to know that the poor uncle [Siegfried Jellinek] left here [Vienna] on October 20th with a “Polen-Aktion”3 and only after four weeks, did we receive a telegram from your native country,4 telling us that he arrived there healthily. Today we received a postcard dated December 15th; it had been in the mail for almost 28 days. He is writing us that he has to work very hard in Lemberg5; eight hours a day in severe cold, and that he lives at some woman’s house, who also cooks for them. He received an affadavit from uncle Karl, for himself Martha and Erich; [Siegfried’s wife and son] they have to go separately now. Erich, by the way, may even go over to America this month with a Kinder Aktion6 but the decision will only be made in a couple of days. Immediately after receiving your letter, I wrote to uncle Karl in America and asked him to send you a parcel with shoes, linen and clothes, which he’ll probably do soon. Please ty to get the address of Mrs. Feldstein, for the things that I sent you were wonderful and I am especially worried about the excellent, well-padded winter coat with the Persian lamb collar; never will I get such a piece again.7 - - - - - Max Eckstein got married in Tel Aviv; a very good match and I even admired his wedding picture; such a pretty, nice woman.8 Get in touch with him; he will help you look for the Feldstein family. I am sending you my regards for him; he should help you. Mr. Feldstein’s brother is said to be a famous engineer in Tel Aviv and Maxl Eckstein probably knows him anyway. Maybe aunt Stella9 can lend you the most necessary items. I wrote a long and very detailed letter to aunt Stella in Rhodi.10 But this letter was unfortunately returned immediately with the note that aunt Stella had already left. I sent the letter to uncle Karl to post it directly to her; she’ll certainly be interested in this letter. I send her my best regards; she should drop us a line with one of your letters some time, in order to let us know how she is and what kind of job she has now. - - Thank God, we are all well, but I am very overtaxed; one of my dear, good nieces would be very helpful indeed, but unfortunately, this is still impossible; nevertheless, I hope for better times. - Dear Mummy is sitting chatting with Mrs. Berger and Mrs. Tiefenbrunn, and dear Grandpa has to fan the fire which has just gone out. Both grandparents send you thousands of warm kisses and they absolutely want to see you once again. - - - - - I have enclosed dear Dad’s and dear Putzi ’s [Anna’s] letter. Next time I’ll send you dear Bertha’s letter. I asked Mrs. Robicek, who is from Stockerau,11 to enclose a reply coupon in this letter so that you can write us a detailed letter soon. You only have to write one letter to me; I’ll send it to Dad immediately. We are all so happy that dear Dad is happily married. He was very lucky indeed, and he married into a large apartment with a wonderful bathroom (that’s something for Dad’s passion for bathing). Besides this is one of the best families in Brünn and Mama is one of the most well-known, capable and finest women in Brünn and a wonderful housewife and cook. Bertha and Putzi are wonderful beauties and may God bless them with beautiful good luck too.12 [Page 2.]
Dear Dad is sending you the wonderful wedding pictures; he is said to have been a very good-looking groom. Mama and your two sisters are said to have been highly elegant too. - A lot of people were there and the Rabbi is said to have spoken wonderfully. During the entire marriage ceremony, poor Dad imagined you under the Chuppa [marriage canopy] too, and that was the only bitterness in his cup of joy. In fact, Putzi is the founder of his luck, for she was employed at the house of the Gansl parents and because Dad always visited her, he made the acquaintance of the eldest daughter. She is said to have had the opportunity to make wonderful matches, industrialists, etc., but she preferred dear Dad. In case uncle Poldi really comes over to visit you, I’ll send a lot of things for you with him; the black pullover with the turtle neck has long been ready and I am very unhappy that I cannot send it to you. For the children in Brünn, [Gisela’s nieces/Gisella Nadja’s sisters, Bertha and Anna] I also made some very nice light pullovers, but I cannot even send them. Putzi wanted to come here for Christmas since she was here last year, but she didn’t get permission. From Bertha I received a wonderful picture; she will send you one too. In this picture she is a complete beauty. She will probably go to America with the help of uncle Karl. She is far too mundane for Erez; [The Land of Israel] in my opinion she only fits in America. - - - But Putzi wants to join me and come over to you, although for the moment I do not yet have the slightest prospect, but our dear Lord will help, so that we’ll all see each other again. Both uncle Karl, as well as uncle Maxl, wrote to you very often, but they complained to me that they have not received any reply from you. Did you not receive any mail? I myself, also wrote to you a couple of times. Mrs. Tiefenbrunn is sending you her best regards; with the next letter she’ll drop you a line. There is very little news from Hansl and none at all from Gretl. Poor Mr. Tiefenbrunn has not been alive since November 23; he died with Willy from the cafe. Can you imagine the pain of the poor woman [Mrs. Teifenbrunn] who is now all alone here? But she will soon be leaving here to join her siblings. The Schubert family went to Gerty at the end of August; at the moment I do not know anything about them.18 - - I have a lot of trouble and torment now that I must do everything alone: [taking care of] the huge “apartment,19 shopping, which isn’t so easy here [ anymore] because sometimes I have to wait [very long]; then I have to cook, [and] everything has to be different for Grandma because she has diabetes, then I have to keep the laundry in order, mend socks and sometimes I get around to kniting something new. But I am never affording anything for myself; I do not even have the time to read a book or make a visit.20 I’ve already given away the piano because I never had time to play anyway. I don’t have the peace and quiet for it either. Dear uncle Poldi is sending you many warm greetings; he takes such a heartfelt interest in your fate. He loves you three girls like a father anyway. Grandfather from Horn and all three daughters live right next to us and thus uncle is over there everyday.21 Please send warm greetings to Aunt Stella from all of us; we were very upset and worried about the hard fate that befell her. On October 6, uncle Karl had a son who is named Bernhard. He is in a home for newborns and Micherle is in a home as well.22 Aunt Karla is [working] in her uncle’s bank and uncle Karl (nebbich) is leading the household and is diligently learning English.23 Uncle Gustav is studying day and night and is now taking the [medical] exam. — His wife is making good money; she has a fashion shop there.24 Now I am closing today’s letter because I still have a lot of mail to deal with, uncle Karl, [uncle] Max, Dad, uncle Siegfried, etc. Again many warm kisses from me, the grandparents, aunt Martha, [cousin] Erich, uncle Poldi, and just stay healthy and don’t catch a cold, just be careful.- - Please write soon so that we can calm down; I cannot wait any longer.25 - - 1000 kisses from your devotedly loving Gisa Aunt-Mum [Handwritten] Many warm greetings from me, Marianne Robicek26 |
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Translated by Laura Jockusch; edited and interpretive footnotes labelled as “(pj)” by P. Jellinek
Footnotes
1. As becomes clear from the letter, December was a mistake and the letter was written in January 1940.
2. Shabbat Rosh Chodesh is a special Sabbath that falls at the beginning of a new moon and a new month in the Hebrew calendar. Rosh Chodesh literally means in Hebrew “head of the month.”
3. Literally: a “Poland-Action,” which belies, in the same manner as the frequent misleading, Nazi perversion of language, that this is actually a campaign of expulsion of Jews from the “Old Reich” to areas of occupied Poland and an initial part of the Nazis’ intended further expulsion and eventual annihilation of Jews. See also Siegfried Jellinek’s Biography page and the Document page about this ‘specific Polen-Aktion,’ which included the deportation of Siegfried J. and other Jews from Vienna to Nisko in October 1939. Siegfried was the first of the six Jellinek siblings to be deported from Vienna and to slave labor. (pj)
4. Gisela is crypically indicating the Soviet Union, which Gisella Nadja’s birthplace of Tashkent, Uzbekistan was part of at that time and when Gisella Nadja was born there in 1920. (pj)
5. As stated briefly in Siegfried’s Bio. page and discussed in more detail in Peter Longerich’s book HOLOCAUST: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews and in other books n the Sources comprehensive Books section, the Nazi Regime discontinued the Nisko Reservation Project and forced Siegfried and the thousands of his co-prisoners over the Soviet demarcation line. Siegfried managed to get to the city of Lemberg, (currently named Lviv in western Ukraine, sometime in November 1939. (pj)
6. A transport bringing Jewish children out of the German Reich. We do not know why Erich was not able to escape with this transport —whether because he was not selected, or for another reason. Erich was deported to Auschwitz in January 1942, but managed to survive his three years of imprisonment there. We also do not know whether it was Rubin Eckstein who pledged the affidavits for Siegfried and his family, nor, more importantly, what prevented Siegfried and his family from receiving visas to escape to the US, after they had received the requisite affidavits. See Siegfried Jellinek’s Bio page.
7. This seems to be another instance of the tragic lack of perspective and knowledge of the future that Gisela still seemed to have, or that she could safely write about to her niece. It appears from her letter, that Instead of concentrating her efforts (beyond those efforts necessary for difficult day-to-day survival) on escape from the Nazis, she sent coats and hand-made clothing to her nieces, worried about their arrival and about keeping up with all of her family correspondence. Sadly, Gisella Nadja told me in her home in Rishon Le Zion, Israel in October 2006, that when she had asked Mrs. Feldstein about this coat and other clothes from Gisela, Mrs Feldstein looked her in the eyes and said that she had not received these things. (pj)
8. Max Eckstein was Kriendel/Karla Eckstein Jellinek’s older brother, born 1905. After the Anschluss, Max had been fired from his job in Vienna and had to wear an out-of-work (German: “arbeitsloss”) ribbon on his arm. Max’ was able to escape to British Mandate Palestine in 1938, with Karl Jellinek’s help. . Once in Mandate Palestine, Max worked in the Tel Aviv Post Office. distributing mail to soldiers in army camps throughout the country. He and his wife, Esther, had one son, Michael Eckstein, who continues to live and work in the Greater Tel Aviv area. Max continued to live in the Tel Aviv area until his death in 1992. (pj)
9. Stella Pollak Jellinek was Max Jellinek’s wife, thus Gisela’s sister-in-law and Gisella Naja’s aunt. Stella and Max chose to part ways and seek refuge in different regions during this intensely stressful period. Stella escaped to Mandate Palestine and Max fled to Shanghai, China. Max and Stella were finally reunited in Sydney, Australia in 1946. (pj)
10. It is not entirely clear which place is meant here by “Rhodi.” It might be the Greek island of Rhodes, or a place in Italy called Rodi Garganico, located on the Adrian coast, opposite Naples.
11. Stockerau is the small Austrian town, about 12 1/2 miles northwest of Vienna, and on the road to Hollabrunn, in which Gisella and her husband, Leopold (Poldi) Schlesinger had lived, before being forced out of their home and profitable business by the Nazis. See Gisela’s August 9, 1938 letter to her niece, Gisella Nadja. Gisela probably became friends with Mrs. Marianne Robicek in Stockerau, but at the time of this letter, Marianne R. was residing in Yugoslavia and acting as a necessary conduit for Gisela’s letters to reach Gisella Nadja in Mandate Palestine. (pj)
12. Part of Gisela’s naive-seeming report of Hugo’s good fortune with his marriage and his new wonderful apt. and bathroom, as well as hoping for good luck for Hugo’s younger two daughters, may be due to Gisela wanting to shield Gisella Nadja from the bitter truth of the increasing persecution and dangerous uncertainty in their lives, but some of it may be due to Gisela’s actual ignorance of how bad things were and how they would only get worse.(pj)
13. Gisela seems to have imagined that her niece had the time and ‘head-space’ to write letters abroad to her uncles and aunts. Gisela’s long letter itself and her entire concept and practice of keeping up letter-writing correspondence is another manifestation of how Gisela was still psychologically inhabiting her old pre-Nazi, unchaotic, predictable, conventional world and (desperately?) trying to maintain it. Gisela’s description of Hugo’s luck (her brother/Gisella Nadja’s father) and his marriage ceremony also makes it seem like ‘normal’ times. [See the contrasting impression given by the photos in the Image Gallery of the groom and bride and all those in attendance at the wedding ceremony and celebration.] However, it should be noted that in this unprecedented, difficult and complex time, both Hugo and Fritzi Gansl Frankl’s suportive and loving relationship and marriage, as well even, as Gisela’s writing and actions show remarkable inner strength and resilience. (pj)
On a more minor note, it also seems that Gisela assumed that Gisella Nadja would know the names of the countries to add to all of the family addresses, except for Max’s address being in China. (pj)14. Gisela’s cryptic way of saying “In case uncle Poldi is really able to emigrate and join you in Mandate Palestine. . . “ (pj)
15. This also gives a hint that the date on top of the letter (December 12, 1939) is wrong and that it probably was written in January 1940 instead.
16. The German text has the same word “mondain” meaning that Bertha is too concerned with worldy, materialistic things, probably fashion and outer appearance, and lacks the idealism which would be necessary to cope with life in Palestine in 1939 - 40.
17. possible alternate literal translation: “he died at Willy’s from the coffee shop” However, both of these translations of the second phrase seem puzzling, leading me to believe that this phrase may be in code, referencing Willy Jellinek who had been deported to Dachau, See Willy ’s father, Oskar Jellinek’s Bio. Thus, Gisela’s actual message could be that Mr. Tiefenbrunn died while imprisoned in the same concentration camp that Willy was in at the time; that is, either Dachau or Buchenwald. (pj)
18. Gerty (Gertrud) was the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Ernst Schubert. Gerty had somehow managed to escape from Vienna to London earlier. Dr. Ernst Schubert, who was a lawyer and colleague of Dr. Karl Jellinek, died in London in May 1940, just about nine months after he had escaped there. Dr. Schubert is lncluded (along with Dr. Karl Jellinek) among the approximately 1800 persecuted Jewish Austrian lawyers profiled in the book Lawyers 1938: The Fate of Austrian Lawyers Persecuted in the Years 1938 - 1945. [See the book’s listing under its co-author, Barbara Sauer, in the fourth section of this website’s Sources, titled: “Personal Memoirs and/or Historical Narratives of Particular Relevance to the Jellinek Family’s Experiences”]
19. This refers to the apartment (possibly rented or subsidized by a Jewish relief organization) shared in Vienna, after Gisela’s parents, Siegmund and Berta, as well as Gisela and her husband, Leopold, were forced out of their house/synagogue in Oberhollabrunn in late September 1938. See Gisela ’s letter to her brother, Hugo J., of September 9, 1938. Also see:
A. Fehringer’s book also listed in the fourth section of Sources: Books of Particular Relevance to the Jellinek Family’s Experiences:
Ihr Müsst Hier Weg: Die jüdische Gemeinde Hollabrunn von 1850 bis 1938 (You Must Get Out of Here: The Jewish Community of Hollabrunn from 1850 - 1938) (pj)20. Here we see another example of Friedlander’s fundamental insight cited in my Introduction: “. . . For it is their voices that reveal what was known and what could be known; theirs were the only voices that conveyed both the clarity of insight and the total blindness of human beings confronted with an entirely new and utterly horrifying reality.” Gisela is complaining about the difficulties of keeping up with usual, not lilfe-threatening domestic chores, but she does not and cannot know that her very life, her spouse’s and her parents’ lives are at stake and in imminent grave danger. (pj)
21. Gisela is referring to her father-in-law,who was from Horn, a small town, approx. 45 miles northwest of Vienna, and about 82 miles from the border with the Czech Republic. it is not clear whether the “three daughters” are Leopold’s sisters.
22. This is the boarding nursery in which Bernhard contracted meningitis and died at about eleven months old in September 1940. It is likely that “Micherle” (Michaela) was housed in a different section of this same ‘home,’ but at three years of age, she was at less risk of contracting this disease. (pj)
23. Karla /Caroline E. J. was working in the commercial bank that her paternal uncle Rubin Eckstein had co-founded as the Modern Investment and Loan Corporation in the 1920s, later, called the Modern Industrial Bank and the Bank of North America. Karl had expected to be offered employment at Rubin’s bank also, but Rubin denied him that job opportunity for an unknown reason. See also: a) the Image Gallery’s July 1938 family photo dedicated to Rubin Eckstein, b) the Document showing correspondence between Rubin, Karl and the US Consulate about the sending of affidavits and c) the New York Times 1966 obituary about Rubin Eckstein. (pj) By “nebbich” Gisela means that Karl is a “poor” or “pitiful” fellow, because he has to bother with the household.
24. I do not believe that Gustav’s wife, Grete Jellinek, had her own fashion salon in NY, but rather worked in one, or in the fashion department of Bloomingdale’s department store. Grete was a skilled seamstress who also had artistic ability. She later developed her drawing and painting abilities on her own, drawing landscapes en plein air , as well as painting many fine oil painting portraits from observation of models at the Art Students League in NYC. (pj)
25. Gisela is tragic-ironically still so concerned for Gisella Nadja, who, despite facing dangers and risks at that time in Mandate Palestine, was safer than Gisela turned out to be. Gisella Nadja lived a fulfilled life in Israel until 2013! it could be that Gisela’s seeming greater concern for her niece(s) and others, rather than for herself, existed because of a combination of her not knowing the greater horrors and murder soon to come for her and the family left in Vienna, mixed with some denial of the reality, some distraction from her own helpless plight, and her altruistic, caring nature, all of which would have helped Gisela cope. (pj)
26. Marianne Robicek was Gisela’s old friend who then lived in Yugoslavia and was the figurative conduit for Gisela’s letters to her niece in Mandate Palestine. Gisela could not send mail directly to MandatePalestine, but she could mail her letters to Marianne, and Marianne would forward them on to Gisella Nadja.
