April 15, 1939

Author(s) / Origin of Letter
Recipient(s) / Relationship to Author(s) / Destination of Letter
Summary
Berta Jellinek
    (see Hugo Jellinek’s Bio) [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.)

 
   

Brünn, April 15, 39

BJ

Dearest Nadja!1

Finally we received your letter that we had been longing for, for such a long time and we are answering it immediately.

I (Fuchsi) am very glad, thank God, to hear something positive from you; that you are not working anymore in this big farm alone.2 I have always feared something like that (small cardiac defect) because for all of the [last] three years in Vienna, and now again, for almost one year in your country, you have been slaving away like a real patriot - no wonder!

Tell me, you Jewish patriot, don‘t you want to finally think of your personal fortune and happiness in life? ? ? (All good things come in threes)3

It‘s high time, I believe! Soon you are going to be
19 years old and no thoughts
about the future!4

I think you have already struggled and worked enough; it’s other people’s turn now!

Thank God, there are certainly enough Jewish patriots!

(Unfortunately competition for you. . . )

So, finally, start thinking of yourself!

[Page 2] (written on reverse of page 1.)

You wrote that I hadn‘t written to you for quite a long time; I want to make it up! Forgive me!

I am healthy and doing well, but I am no longer in the shop, because we decided that I will go back to the dear grandparents in Vienna. There I will complete myself in my profession with Rudi Sulzer and Elsa5 and I will wait for the reply of the “Permith” inn in England. Why England?

Erna Hahn (Erwin) is in England and upon the request of dear aunt Gisa, looked for a position for me there. Everything is on its way and I hope to be there soon! Also, Putzi [nickname of youngest sister, Anna] also, with the help of uncle Oskar, stands a good chance to be admitted to a boarding school in England! She is certainly going to write you in detail. We will soon stay near you, our beloved little sister — now we should get along well, shouldn‘t we ?!6

How did you spend the first Passover days in the beloved country of yours? Unfortunately, I have to stop writing now because Daddy wants to write something too.

Greetings to all of my friends whom I know from discussions and from the Mikabith (I don‘t know what it is called) 7

[written along the left-side margin]
and I kiss and greet you a thousand times,
your devoted Bert (Fuchsi) 8

 

English translation by Laura Jockusch, with some edits and footnotes by P. Jellinek

Footnotes

1. Gisella Nadja by now has dropped her given, German-sounding name of Gisella and has adopted the more Israeli-sounding “Nadja.” Nadja’s father, Hugo, named his three daughters after his sisters, Gisela and Anna and his mother, Berta. Nadja told me (Paulette J.) that at the time of his daughters’ births in the early 1920s in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Hugo did not know if his sisters and mother in Lower Austria were still alive and whether he would ever see them again. In this way, Hugo was honoring and memorializing his sisters and mother. [PJ]

2. “Wirtschaft” can mean “inn” or “farm.” Here it probably refers to the farm or kitchen that was collectively run and worked by Gisella Nadja and her fellow members of the Betar Zionist communal organization.

3. Although it is not clear why Berta mentions this expression here, it generally means that there are always three positive things or events at one time; they do not come separately. If one positive thing has happened, then there is hope that at least two other good things are going to follow.

4. The tragic irony blares out here— because it was Nadja who was able to live a full, productive life for seventy-five more years, whereas Berta’s ‘future’ was cut short by the Nazis, within about 3 years of her writing this. [PJ]

5. Berta‘s profession at this time was hair stylist and cosmetician.

6. She means geographically near, although it does not make sense because they would not be in geographical proximity to Nadja in Mandate Palestine, if she, Berta, and Anna were in England. Maybe she was just expressing her hope that the family would be united soon.

7. Berta may have meant “Maccabi,” a Jewish sports club, or as Nadja said (to Paulette Jellinek in 2006) Berta may have been referring to a charitable organization named (מקבית or מגבית — Mikkabit or Migabit ?) that was helping Jews escape to other countries, and/or raising money for poor people. [PJ]

8. She usually signs just “Bert” and adds her nickname of “Fuchsi.”