June 12, 1939

Author(s) / Origin of Letter
Recipient(s) / Relationship to Author(s) / Destination of Letter
Summary

Gisela Jellinek Schlesinger

[Vienna, Austria]

Gisella Nadja Jellinek (niece of GJS)

[Rishon Le Zion, British Mandate Palestine]

The following four examples, among many in this letter’s varied news briefs and admonitions, reveal a lot about what Gisela could not know nor fully understand about the circumstances of her family members who had escaped and were refugees around the world, nor of her own and her trapped family members’ imminent, murderous futures:

a) Gisela worries about the shipping to her brother-in-law (who is now safely residing in Australia) of his photographic machines that were seized when his Viennese photo studio was attacked in the November Kristallnacht pogrom; b) she is also anxious about how she will find the means to pay the portion of the huge “Jew Tax” imposed by the Nazi regime after this pogrom;
c) she rejects the idea of emigration to Australia because “. . .it is too far away;” and d) she warns Gisella Nadja of (unnamed) perils, most likely involved with continuation of her niece’s underground resistance activities against British control.

It is interesting to compare this letter that Gisela wrote in Vienna, with the letter that contains a powerful ideological and political statement, written by her brother, Hugo Jellinek in Brünn, on the exact same day in June 1939.

 
   

Vienna, June 12, 1939

My beloved child! Having received your dear last letter, we are all very moved by your courage to make sacrifices, and I ask you, beloved Giserl, not to take any further steps in that matter, because we do not know yet where we will wander.1 Dear aunt Anny is entirely homesick, longing for the dear parents, and she really wants uncle Poldi and me to come over to Australia with the dear grandparents. Uncle Karl and uncle Max think that we will probably all meet in American some day, since uncle Karl wants to obtain affidavits for all of us.2 He has already asked for two copies of the particulars of Anny and Bertha and since they come under the Russian quota, it is likely it’s going to be their turn soon3 Putzili [familial nickname for Anna Jellinek, Gisella Nadja’s younger sister] wrote me that she wants to join you.

I think however, that in America, the country of unlimited possibilities, such a beautiful and fine child can make her great fortune, which would not be the case in Palestine. When a girl is successful with the help of God, she can make her whole family happy.4 I am asking you again, not to do anything unwise.5 One cannot anticipate one’s fate; what has to come will come, and I have the definite hope that we are all going to see each other again some day. As you know, I am inclined to clairvoyance, and I have this certain feeling which does not leave me despite all the calamities we have gone through. So, [we must keep] only patience and trust in God, the Lord does not leave us! [or alternatively translated as “the Lord does not forsake his own!”]

I have already asked you so many times, what happened to the beautiful things that I sent you through Mrs. Feldmann, who served at aunt Anny’s. You never answer me; I beg you, the things were very beautiful and you have to insist that they will give them to you. They live in Tel Aviv and they promised to immediately send everything to you. Especially, the winter coat was so nice and warm; such a cloth I’ll never be able to buy again; it’s a thing that will last forever. Gretel immediately put the coat on for the journey; these people are not decent people, but unfortunately, aunt Anny has never been a good judge of character. We were so unlucky with uncle Miron’s machines, you cannot imagine. On November 10th, the entire front [window of his photo studio] was destroyed and the shop was sealed.6 After a few months, the main machines were released, but their dispatch is facing such difficulties, because the carefreeness [or alternatively translated as “the safe period”] is over, and now we are forced to pay 1000 Marks of Jew Tax. Where shall we get this from! The poor uncle could already be making good money if only he had the machines, but now he has to work for strangers. Aunt Anny has worked too hard serving, [as a waitress?] so she had to take a rest; she wants however, to earn her own money and buy herself some furniture. Here she left a wonderful apartment, and there she has to bitterly earn everything anew.7 The child [Anna and Miron’s infant daughter, Trude] is growing wonderfully, touch wood,8 and I am enclosing a small picture taken before their emigration. She already speaks very many English words and above all, her feet are well; a miracle occurred there with the help of God. For Mother’s Day, Annerl [diminutive form of Anna] sent us a wonderful picture of her and the child. You should write and ask for such a picture too. You will be enthusiastic about how charming, touch wood, this child is and how good looking Anny is. It is said to be a paradise there, but for me it is too far away.9 Nevertheless, I am attending an English cooking class and so is Mrs. Koblitz and Mrs. Singer’s daughter. They are all still here too. Uncle Karl could really use you, dearest Giserl, because aunt Karla has a job, and for the time being, he has to be the nanny for Micherle.10 I wrote all three addresses for you on the envelope, and if you have time you can write to all of them. I enclose two reply-paid letters, so that you do not have any expenses. With regard to the linen skirt, I cannot send you anything at the moment, because we are not allowed to send parcels. Nevertheless, I will ask someone who is

[Page 2.]

going soon [to Palestine] legally, to take several things for you. In case Mrs. Koblitz goes, she will take bed linen and underwear for you. Maybe Mrs. Eckstein11 is also going there soon; she will also take a lot of things for you. Please write soon, exactly what you are doing; it is a year now that you have been away. Have you seen the latest picture of papa? What do you say, how elegant he is; he is also always shaved and seems to be dating, as Putzili [young Anna] told me. This time it is said to be something very good; the eldest daughter of Mrs. Gansl, where Putzili is working. A very fine and clever widow, Mrs. Fränkel; she is supposed to love Dad very much. It has to remain a secret however, because Mrs. Spitz has already noticed something and that worries Dad very much. I believe that the affair12 with Mrs. Spitz is over; after all it makes no sense; she is married to a very decent man with a 13 year old son. Dad is very fortunate with women, but he should not always step into other people’s marriages; there are still enough single women around who would “lick their fingers” if only they could get such a good-looking and educated man. Dad wrote that Putzi is such a dear child and so smart and diplomatic. Bertha has also become very decent and through this very lady, Mrs Fränkel, she received many new customers. I knew that Bertha is a fine girl; she is just a little vain, and for this, one cannot blame such a young, good-looking girl in the big city.

Thank God, the dear grandparents are well and they send you many heartfelt, warmest regards. You should consider all steps very carefully, since you still have so much time. You haven’t even enjoyed your youth yet, and the years you are in now are the most wonderful years. Dear grandma has very much taken Pauli13 to her heart, but in such a question, one should only rely on one’s own heart, and I neither advise you against, nor in favor. What else is new? Uncle Karl wrote that you certainly marched in the first row in the protest march.14

Uncle Karl did so too in America; he is so hurt about how things develop; it really seems to affect him deeply. — Uncle Gustl15 is also in America and he meets with uncle Karl quite often. Assistant professor Aschner is also already there. Uncle Karl has already founded an association of Austrian academics and will certainly make his way in America.16 Erich will be 15 years old next Sunday; he has remained the same young scamp he used to be.17 Finally, Sigl has the prospect of accomodating him somewhere; I would be happy indeed if he were outside [the country]. Aunt Martha had a fracture operated on, but is already home again. In the hospital she had the same room and bed that you had back then. Now many kisses and as I said, think about everything ten times [very carefully] in order not to take an unwise step that cannot be reversed.18 I mean it in the best way in the world for you and feel like the biological mother of you, my three children.

All the best again in loyal love,

Aunt - Mum Gisa

 

Translated by Laura Jockusch, edited and footnotes by P. Jellinek, except as noted.

Footnotes

1. It seems that Gisela had received Gisella Nadja’s letter of June 3, 1939 and is worriedly responding to the letter’s offers by Gisella Nadja and her Betar group commander to arrange for “illegal” and “legal” immigration to Mandate Palestine. Alternatively, Gisela could be referring to Gisella Nadja’s “courage” and “sacrifices” that she was making in regard to her own safety, by her participation in clandestine, paramilitary actions as part of her Betar group’s fight against the continuation of British control of then-British Mandate Palestine. However, it is not clear, given this alternative hypothesis, why Gisela brings up not yet knowing “where we will wander” as her reason for her cautionary advice.

2. Gisela is using the relationship titles that the relatives have to her niece, Gisella Nadja: thus, Gisela’s husband, Leopold Schlesinger is “uncle Poldi” to Gisella Nadja, and Karl and Max Jellinek, two of Gisela’s four younger brothers, are uncle Karl and uncle Max to Gisella Nadja.

3. Anny (Anna Jellinek) and Bertha (Berta Jellinek) are Gisella Nadja’s younger sisters and thus, also Gisela’s nieces. Anna, Berta and Gisella Nadja were all born in then-Soviet controlled Uzbekistan. Gisela couldn’t know then, that Karl would not be able, despite all of his attempts, to obtain the affidavits and/or secure the US visas for the eleven closest members of the Jellinek and Eckstein families, who were later murdered. Please see the Family Tree for the relationships of each of these Nazi victims to Karl J. and to Gisella Nadja: Berta J. and Anna J., - Siegmund J., and Berta S. J., - Siegfried J. and Martha H. J., - Hugo J. and Fritzi. F. and Karl’s mother-in-law, Mathilde E. Eckstein. Please also see the Maps section for more information about their deportations and “Known or Most Likely Places of Death.”

4. Another tragic-ironic example of Gisela’s inability to know what lay in store for Anna in this unprecedented, altered world. In the ‘old’ world which Gisela knew and could imagine with a better connection to reality, Anna might have had the luxury of selecting her emigration destination and might have made “a great fortune” in America to please her entire family. But contrary to Gisela’s projections about preferred countries, fortunes and families, the best and only choice for the preservation of Anna’s life itself at that time, was to go wherever she could go quickly, to escape the Nazis.

5. Please see footnote #1., because here again, Gisela could be asking her niece not to go ahead with her own and her Betar commander’s attempts to arrange for Anna’s emigration to Mandate Palestine — or Gisela could be warning Gisella Nadja about the perils of her underground resistance activities.

6. Gisela is referring to “Kristallnacht” - the night of broken glass, or more accurately called The November Pogrom. which began in the night of November 9, and continued most intensely until nightfall of November 10, 1938. Miron Nadel’s (Anna Jellinek Nadel’s husband) photo studio was one of about 7,500 Jewish-owned commercial establishments to have its store windows smashed, its contents looted, and vandalized. Hundreds of synagogues and Jewish institutions throughout Germany, Austria and the Sudentenland were burned and destroyed. Altogether, there were hundreds of deaths of Jews, either by murder, injuries, or suicide. More than 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and taken to concentration camps. In the Jellinek extended family, Miron Nadel, as well as Willy Jellinek and Issachar Bertisch (P. Jellinek’s maternal uncle, by marriage to Clara Eckstein) were taken to Dachau. I can recall that Karl Jellinek told me, (his daughter, P. Jellinek) that he narrowly avoided arrest during the pogrom by crossing a certain bridge where Jewish men had been rounded up (most likely, in my recall ) a day earlier. The bridge that he crossed safely was on his way home in Vienna, from his parents’ home in Oberhollabrunn, (33 miles NW of Vienna) where he and Kreindel/Karla had celebrated their second wedding anniversary. Martin Gilbert’s book Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction, (listed in the Sources section) as well as the online USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia and Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies provide more information and witness testimonies.

7. Another painful example of Gisela’s misplaced sympathy and inevitable lack of knowledge of her and other Jews’ fates — or, as stated in part of the citation from Saul Friedländer, that appears in this website’s Introduction: [Gisela revealed ] “. . . the total blindness of human beings confronted with an entirely new and utterly horrifying reality.” Miron and Anna either eventually received the shipment of their photographic machines from Vienna or were able to buy new machines. In any case, they eventually thrived in their newly established photo studio business in Sydney, Australia — and most importantly, they survived the Shoah and lived freely for many more years. Whereas, Gisela, as well as ten other close members of the Jellinek/Eckstein family were murdered within the following three to three and 1/2 years.

8. Gisela uses “unberufen” here and four sentences later, idiomatically, to express the wish that no evil will come to destroy or change in any way for the worse, the remarkably good thing being discussed. Born of superstititon, inserting it when speaking of something very desirable or admirable seems to have become a custom or habit for some people at the time. My parents, Karl and Kreindel Karla Jellinek, said it often. And in the same way that I learned from their context, other German words that I heard a lot in our home, I (mis-)understood “unberufen” to mean something like “isn’t that a worthy achievement, or something very good that has happened! That is wonderful! “

9. “Far from where?!” exclaimed Roman Vishniac, the famous photographer of “The Vanished World” of Eastern European Jewry, in response to this sentiment expressed by victims who resisted going somewhere far away from the Nazi hell. “Far From Where” also became a punchline in refugee jokes to denote the same ironic idea.

10. Karl and Karla had only been in the US for a little over three months at this point. Karla’s uncle, Rubin Eckstein, provided Karla with a full-time job at the bank in which he was a co-founder and vice-president. But contrary to promises he had made, he failed to employ Karl. We can surmise that this period in which Karl stayed home with their infant daughter, Michaela, was probably brief because we know that during this early time as a new refugee, Karl worked at several odd jobs and eventually earned his license to become an independent insurance broker. We know that within a short period after Karla gave birth to their second child, Bernhard, in October 1939, she had to return to work. By then, Karl must have been employed outside their home too, because they were compelled to place both Michaela and Bernhard in a 24-hour boarding nursery.

11. This most probably refers to Kreindel/Karla’s mother/this writer, P. Jellinek’s maternal grandmother, Mathilde Nanzie E. Eckstein. However, Mathilde did not succeed in escaping Vienna to travel to Mandate Palestine; Mathilde, as well as Gisela and her husband Leopold, were deported on the same transport in Aprill 1942, and murdered in Belzec killing center or enroute there.

12. The German word is “Sache” which is matter or thing, but in this case, it seems that Gisela is referring to some kind of relationship or affair. The following sentence also supports that interpretation.  LJ.
In Hugo Jellinek’s July 26, October 14, and November 24, 1938 letters to his daughter, Gisella Nadja, as well as in his letter to her of January 12, 1939, Hugo wrote enthusiastically about his “new friend” Therese Spitz, but on the fourth page of his June 12, 1939 letter, in Hugo’s somewhat cryptic explanation of why he “. . . had to break off [my] relationship with Mrs. Spitz.” it is nevertheless apparent that this relationship had become a romantic ‘affair.’

13. Most probably, Pauli was Gisella Nadja’s last boyfriend in Oberhollabrunn or Vienna. We do not know his last name, nor whether he survived the Shoah.

14. We can see in the 21th photo in the Image gallery, that indeed, Gisella Nadja marched in the first row in the protest march against the British White Paper in Jerusalem, on May 18, 1939, about a month prior to the writing of this letter by Gisela J.S.

15. Familial nickname for Dr. Gustav Jellinek, Gustav was Gisela and Karl’s first cousin through the sibling relationship of their father, Siegmund Jellinek, with Gustav’s mother, Jetti Jellinek. Gustav was called Uncle Gustl in our family, but he was actually Gisella Nadja’s, as well as my and my sisters’ first cousin, once-removed.

16. Gisela refers here to the IGUL - Alumni Association of Zionist Fraternities of Austrian Universities. Karl founded and continued to arrange and lead meetings of this organzation in NYC for more than thirty years. See also Karl Jellinek’s Short Bio. page. However, although Karl resiliently adjusted to his lower professional status and to the many different aspects of life in the US, Gisela’s imaginings of Karl “mak[ing] his way in America” in the material, financial sense, were not realized. Once again, we see an example of what Gisela could not know about life for a 45 year-old Jewish refugee with children, in New York City in 1939 and beyond, after suffering the loss of his parents, siblings, sisters -in-law, brother-in-law and nieces, as well as the loss of his legal profession, his committed Zionist, Jewish,Viennese community and the use of his high level of his native German language —while learning English.

17. Erich Jellinek was the son of Siegfried Jellinek and Martha H. Jellinek. Siegfried was Gisela’ and Karl’s brother. Sigl is the familial nickname of Siegfried.

18. As explained in footnotes 1 and 5, it is difficult to know whether Gisela is advising her niece, Gisella Nadja, against continuing her Betar/Irgun anti-British control activities, or against trying to arrange “illegal” passage to Mandate Palestine for her younger sisters, or, least likely here, against ending her relationship with her former boyfriend in Austria, Pauli.