|
Author(s) / Origin of Letter
|
Recipient(s) / Relationship to Author(s) / Destination of Letter
|
Summary
|
|
Gisela Jellinek Schlesinger |
Gisella Nadja Jellinek (niece of GJS) |
Gisela reports on hopeful as well as sad aspects of the dispersal of the Jellinek family and friends who are attempting to find refuge from Nazi persecution. In Brünn (Czechoslovakia) Hugo is struggling against the lack of heat in the small room in which he is living, and Anna and Berta are enduring difficulties at their service jobs. In Vienna, brothers (Karl, Max and Siegfried), sister-in-law Martha, and first cousin, Gustav Jellinek, have had or will soon have their requisite medical check-ups and are working on securing visas to the US or “illegal” transport to then-British Mandate Palestine. Gisela’s siblings, sister-in-laws, cousins and aunt Jetti, who are still in Vienna, are sadly gathering together for a dinner that they fear (tragically, correctly) could be their last together. Gisela also gives Gisella Nadja tragic-ironic advice not to jeopardize her health by working so hard in her Betar community and to be less idealistic and more egotistic. |
My dear Gisl! Yesterday our golden Annuschkerl2 left; she stayed with us from Saturday noon to Thursday morning. She was supposed to go back already on Monday evening, but as she had a very bad trip, and had to vomit all of Saturday afternoon, I didn’t let her go. [Losing]This position is no great loss anyway, and I promised her that she will move here around Easter at the latest. With the help of the Ministry of Education and the Arts and Mrs. Dr. Kamsler, Grete Tiefenbrunn found accommodation at the house of a very affluent and distinguished family in Glasgow and Hans3 is already going to join her there, one of these days too. Imagine the happiness, today a very nice letter from Greterl arrived; these generous people even want to send a Permit for Mr. and Mrs. Tiefenbrunnn,4 and Grete is working especially hard to find a way for Anny to come over to Glasgow and be able to learn a nice profession there. Today I expected to receive a note telling me how Anny arrived; I am very worried because she had a lot of luggage and she also had to change at Lundenburg. Dear Dad is very cold in Brünn and lives in a very small room that cannot be heated at all. Now he has asked me for a petroleum heater, which I bought together with Anny; I hope she brought it over there unhesitatingly.5 You can also cook wonderfully and heat water with it.6 Dad’s knee is aching again, and therefore he has not allowed himself anything lately.7 I sent all of the bills of exchange from Schweighofer and the 700 Schillings8 with which Dad bought merchandise for him last year around Christmas. Schweighofer has not paid yet and we are going to sue him for that now, with the help of an Aryan lawyer who took over uncle Karl’s office and who is a decent colleague.9 |
|
|
Side 2. [reverse side of original letter’s first piece of paper; approximately 5.5” x 9”] Anny is attending a very strict school10 and these few months won’t do her any harm. She has become scrupulously clean and she tidies up wonderfully. They love her there very much and treat her like a child11 and the old lady says that her daughters, too, had to do everything on their own. I bought many new things for her, and for Berthele,12 I bought three pairs of wonderful socks. For Bertha and Anny, I have excellent cloth to make spring coats, but I don’t dare send so many things. Dear uncle Karl is having his medical check-up on January 26th and he wants to “clear off” for America on January 30th ( my 17th wedding anniversary, by the way). Before that, your dear Dad wants to come over to Vienna to say good-bye to all the siblings.13 Uncle Max has already had his medical check-up for the next illegal transport, but unfortunately, the transport is not scheduled to depart until mid-March. Uncle Sigl [Siegfried] and aunt Martha have had their check-up for Palestine, but aunt Martha definitely wants to go to Shanghai instead of Palestine.14 The family of Dr. Schubert15 also had a [medical] check-up at the Palestine Office on the same day, and now they are also ready for the next illegal transport. Today we have a holdiay here and thus I am going to visit the Schuberts in the afternoon. I read the last letter you wrote to Annuschka and I ask you to conserve your strength and not to work so much; you can’t dispute [or deny] that. [advice] When I have just to cook for all the siblings, I am not able to do anything else afterwards and I have to give all the laundry away [to someone outside the house to do]. Of course, as a young girl, I worked hard too, but what you have achieved, not even 6 girls could do! All you have is your good health. Who will take care of you if you get sick, God forbid. Dear Grandpa and Grandma are sending you a thousand greetings, and they beg you not to be careless about your health, for health is something you cannot get back for all the money in the world. You see how selfish and egotistical other girls are, how they take care of themselves and only care about their health and well-groomed appearance. Be a little selfish too, don't be so idealistic! |
|
|
Side 3. [Gisela begins another piece of Dr. Karl Jelinek’s legal stationery and identifies above the letterhead, that this page is the continuation of her letter and the beginning of her second piece of paper. ] Continuation / page II. Since Uncle Karl has moved into our apartment with the machine and the office16, I can now always use the machine and thus finish my correspondence much faster. I also have to write to aunt Anny and aunt Jetti today; as long as Anny was here, I could not write much, because I quickly knitted a wonderful warm sweater for Anny with blue and red stripes and a turtleneck and I have also sent along a gift of a dark blue sweater for Mr. Spitz. For the only son, we have sent a very expensive sports watch.17 But this woman18 is said to be such an exceptionally decent and fine woman, who supports Dad and the children with all sorts of foods and pastry, which is particularly good for Annuschka, as she has already gained 5 kilograms in the three months she has been in Brünn. She would have liked to stay here with me, but she is a dutiful person, and she does not want to leave the old people19 in the lurch. Berta is said to be an exceptionally beautiful girl and the poor girl (nebbich) has to work very hard. Again she has a very bad boss and only a few customers, so she is not learning anything new. She is however, very skillful, and makes some extra money. Unfortunately, she has to go without a lot of things because she has to afford the rent, which is quite a big sum for her. But unfortunately, she behaved in such a way that she was forbidden to enter the house;20 there she had the opportunity to take a bath for only 20 Czech Krowns. |
|
|
Side 4. [reverse side of second piece of paper] Tonight, Friday, uncle Gustl comes by to have fish with us; probably Max, Stella, Sigl, Martha and Erich, uncle Karl and Karla will come too.21 Unfortunately, it is going to be very silent after everyone goes away. Uncle Gustl too, received an affadavit for America, but he can only go around the end of February, beginning of March. He had some obstacles. Aunt Jetti sends her regards to you too; she is very upset that she might not see all of us ever again; but there is nothing we can do to fight against the inexorable fate. I ask you to write to us in Vienna, very soon and in great detail, because the last letter from Pauli22 was very short and we have had no news at all from you. I am enclosing an international return letter so that you won’t have any expenses. Uncle[s] Max and Sigl [Siegfried] have taken a class in soap making with Max Schafer, and they can already make the best soaps, etc. They have also copied everything for dear Dad in Brünn, so that in case he goes abroad he can also earn his living in this way.23 The Jews will not be able to stay in Czechoslovakia either and I am curious as to whether you have already met the daughters of my cousin Kogus from Brünn. One is called Anna, the other Ruth. Xandl Aschner24 also went down with his second wife on the last transport.25 The dear grandparents are healthy, thank God, and they have, thank God, a wonderful warm room and good care and food. I do not spare them anything, because my entire fortune is gone anyway.26 Aunt Anna wrote that she would soon be requesting the dear parents, me and Uncle Poldi to come to Australia. Anny writes enthusiastic letters from the ship and [that] our Truderl, touch wood, is the prettiest and best behaved child on board. In my next letter, I will enclose some new photographs. Now, many heartfelt, warm kisses in loyal love, your Aunt Gisl. |
|
Translated by Laura Jockusch; (with some edits and all footnotes not marked as LJ by P. Jellinek)
Footnotes
1. The contents of this letter, and secondarily, Gisela’s use of her brother Karl’s now defunct legal stationery, indicates that it must have been written post-Anschluss, so Gisela typed 1938 by mistake, as happens to a lot of people in the beginning of a new year.
2. affectionate nickname for Anna Jellinek, Gisella Nadja’s youngest sister, born 5/1924. Gisela was basically making Annuschka, the Russianized nickname for Anna, which she used on page 2. of this letter, diminutive according to the Yiddish linguistic tradition of adding an “l” or “rl” or “le.”
3. Hans was probably Grete Tiefenbrunn’s brother, and possibly, also young Anna Jellinek’s former boyfriend. That is, if “Hans” is the affectionately named “Hansi,” to which Anna referred in her January 10 - 15, 1940 letter. Anna wrote on the first page of that 1940 letter to her sister, Gisella Nadja: “I have not heard from Hansi for a couple of months; he still owes me a reply and I believe that he has long since forgotten me. But, you should know that I am not very hurt .”
4. Grete (aka Greterl and Gretel) Tiefenbrunn had managed to escape from Vienna to England. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Tiefenbrunn, had been friends of Gisela’s parents, Siegmund and Berta S. Jellinek in Hollabrunn, and were also exiled from Hollabrunn to the same building in Vienna as Gisela, her parents, and her husband, Leopold. By “Permit,” Gisela means some kind of surety to make it possible for Mr. and Mrs. Tiefenbrunn to immigrate to Scotland. [PJ & LJ]
5. Gisela’s hope here could alternatively be translated as : “I hope she brought it over there without delay.”
6. This sounds as if it were not only possible to heat or boil water, but to actually cook other things on it, probably soup or eggs. [LJ]
7. It is unclear to what Gisela is referring by her statement that Dad [Hugo] is not allowing himself anything because of his knee pains. Could it be that Hugo did not allow himself to exercise as he had been diligently doing? Or can the statement be alternatively translated as: Dad’s knee is aching again because he doesn't treat himself to anything [comforting?]
8. Austrian currency
9. This refers to Dr. Karl Schreiner who took over Karl’s law office in Vienna, but, as stated in Karl Jellinek’s Brief Biography, “. . . secretly ‘compensated’ Karl with just enough money for the [life-saving] ship passage.” Karl Schreiner also allowed Karl Jellinek to stay in his office from November 11, until December 15, 1939, although Nazi policies would have allowed him to oust Karl Jellinek from his own office right away. We don’t know if there were other clandestine acts that Dr. Schreiner did to help Karl that might have contributed to Gisela considering him a “decent colleague.” However, in the Letter from Karl Schreiner Confirming [his] Takeover of Karl Jellinek’s Law Office - Vienna, November 1938, we can see the official, self-serving side of Karl Schreiner, a member of the Nazi Party’s NSRB (National Socialist Association of Legal Professionals).
10. This is meant in a figurative sense; Anna did not attend a school, but her position in the house of this affluent Gansl family was like a school for her. Anna’s working for this couple, who were Fritzi Fränkel’s parents, most significantly led to Hugo meeting Fritzi Fränkel, with whom he wed in October 1939. [LJ & PJ]
11. Gisela probably means that they treat Anna like one of their own children.
12. diminutive nickname for Berta Jellinek, Gisella Nadja’s younger sister; born 9/1922.
13. Very sadly and forebodingly, Hugo was not able to actualize this wish.
14. Only Karl Jellinek, his wife, Karla and their infant daughter, Michaela were able to actualize their emigration plans. Neither Max Jellinek nor Siegfried Jellinek and his wife, Martha got to Mandate Palestine. Max escaped to Shanghai and survived the war there, while Siegfried was deported to Nisko in October 1939 and was killed at an unknown time and place after January 1941 (the date of the last known letter received from him by Karll J.) and Martha was deported to Riga and murdered in Auschwitz Birkenau in 1942. Hugo Jellinek most probably was not able to travel to Vienna to say good-bye to his siblings at that time, or ever again, before his deportation to Theresienstadt in December 1941.
15. Dr. Ernst Schubert was a former legal colleague of Dr. Karl Jellinek, and Gisela may have become acquainted with him through Karl and/or independently, while Dr. Schubert practiced law from 1929 - 38 in Stockerau, the same town in which Gisela and her husband, Leopold then lived. See Footnote #3 of Gisela’s letter of July 27, 1939, and footnote #9 in her letter of May 27, 1940 for more information about Dr. Schubert’s persecution under the Nazis, his escape to London around August 1939 and his death there by May 1940.
16. She means a typewriter and the rest of Karl’s law office paraphernalia, such as his office stationery. [LJ & PJ]
17. Anny (aka Annuschkerl) Jellinek is Gisella Nadja’s youngest sister, thus also Gisela’ Jellinek Schlesinger’s niece; Aunt Anny is Anny Jellinek Nadel, Gisela J.S.’s younger sister, then enroute to safety in Australia. Aunt Jetti Jellinek is the sister of Gisela’s father, Siegmund Jellinek, thus Gisela’s aunt. Mr. Spitz is the husband of Theresa Spitz, with whom Hugo had begun a close relationship in Brünn. The “only son” is Theresa and Mr. Spitz’s son. Gisela J. S.’s was aiming to help her beloved brother Hugo reciprocate for the generous support that Mrs. Spitz had provided Hugo and his daughters, Berta and Anny as poor newcomers in Brünn. It seems surprising that Gisela still owned a “very expensive sports watch” at this time and that she chose to give it away.
18. “This woman” was Theresa Spitz, with whom Hugo had his first supportive relationship in Brünn.
19. “the old people” are the Gansl couple for whom Anna was working as a housekeeper.
20. This could refer to a home or dormitory. We do not know what Berta did to warrant this punishment. [LJ & PJ]
21. Uncle Gustl = affectionate nickname for Gustav Jellinek, MD., who was Jetti Jellinek’s son and thus Gisela and all of her siblings’ first cousin. Sigl = affectionate nickname of Siegfried Jellinek, Gisela’s brother. Martha was Siegfried’s wife. Erich was their son. Uncle Karl and Karla = Dr. (of law) Karl and Karla E. Jellinek, Gisela’s brother and sister-in-law, respectively.
22. Pauli was a friend of Gisella Nadja’s from Vienna. It seems likely that he had also been in her Betar group and in a romantic relationship with her.
23. It is striking that Gisela is imagining that her brother Hugo — a polymath and polyglot, who, after six semesters of U. of Vienna medical studies, had enlisted and worked as a medic during WWI., and had also worked as a journalist, translator, merchant, and performing violinist, would need to or could earn his living ‘abroad’ making soap. (See Hugo Jellinek’s Brief Biography for more info.)
Gisela seems to have written “. . . in case he goes abroad” cryptically and vaguely, with the Nazi censors in mind.24. Xandl Aschner is not known to have been a relative of Gisela and/or of anyone in the Jellinek famiily, so the probability is that he was an old acquaintance or friend.
25. By having gone “down,” Gisela is probably crypically referring to Mr. Aschner travelling to then-Mandate Palestine.
26. See Gisela’s August 6, 1938 and August 9, 1938 letters in which Gisela bitterly deplores the forced takeover of her husband, Leopold (Poldi) and her leather business. They not only did not receive any just remuneration, but rather, were forced to pay a large fee.
