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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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Gisela Jellinek Schlesinger |
Gisella Nadja Jellinek (niece of GJS) |
Gisela is very worried about the dire consequences that her niece, Gisella Nadja, might suffer if she is caught in her current underground Betar and Irgun activities. Gisela also expresses faith in a God that will protect Nadja, as well as miraculously provide a way for her own, her husband’s and her parents’ immigration into Mandatory Palestine and for the entire Jellinek family’s survival and eventual reunification. Gisela reports about Hugo’s approaching engagement and Karl and Caroline’s expectation of a second child in October. Although Gisela writes of her desire to escape Austria and of relevant efforts made, she does not convey the urgency or sense of foreboding that one imagines she might have felt had she known that the World War was imminent; indeed the war started only 17 days after she wrote this! |
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Vienna, August 15, 1939 My beloved child! Today, on the first day of the month of Elul,1 when I was hoping to receive pleasant news, I finally received your lovely letter and I was very delighted from the first lines of your letter; although I was a little bit annoyed by the date, for I kept reading June 27th, but then I figured out that this could also be a mistake and that you wrote June instead of July. But after I finished reading the letter, I understood why the letter had not arrived in such a long time, during which I kept asking [your] dad whether he had received any message from you and he kept asking me for the I have just copied the letter, changing it a little bit. I wrote it without telling the hard facts,3 because dear Dad is celebrating his official engagement on Sunday and I did not want to spoil his joy. He is such a good father and would not be able to help you at the moment anyway. I [will] send the original to dear uncle Karl, who will also be rather upset because of you, but he may best understand your conduct.4 I am actually relieved that uncle Karl did not go to the Land of Israel, even though he is struggling very hard in America. He is employed in a small factory where he has to make 8000 movements a day, comes home deadly tired in this heat and still has to do everything in the household, because aunt Karla works overtime in order to earn a little more money.5 Apart from that, she will be having her second baby in October. If only the Lord blesses uncle Karl with a son, as he wishes with all his heart! Aunt Karla, obviously, has to suffer a lot now in this dreadful heat, but hopefully it will all be over soon and the child will bring lots of luck to the world.6 - - - We pray for that every day. Dear Giserle, you do not need to worry yet, [about our journey to Mandatory Palestine] because our chances of being able to emigrate at all are very slim. - Australia is hardly admitting anyone, not even for a 1000 Pounds, and for America, we do not have affidavits. Right from the early days on, I have wanted to go to the country of my yearning, but [unlike] you, who immigrated illegally in those days, we, now do not have any prospect. A miracle would really have to happen! With my trust in God, I am waiting for things to happen as God has provided for us, and [to see] how things will develop. He won’t abandon us and He will help us to get the entire Jellinek family together once again. Yet, it is just impossble in these days to make plans for the next days, not to mention for the far future. So don’t worry unnecessarily; we will see each other again some day, with God’s gracious help, and besides, I would really like to be comforted and pampered by you, my three darlings, in my old age. I am going to write you by air mail, two or three times a week, and every time, I will send you a reply coupon, because at the main post office one can only get one piece7 and one has to go to the counter and hand the letter in personally in order to make sure that everything goes well. But I wrote Dad that he should write to you very often too, so that you’ll have many coupons. You only have to write every 14 days, either to me, and I will send the letter to Dad immediately, or vice-versa. It is dual purpose and only single postage. Tomorrow, Tuesday, Father was meant to get engaged officially, but as Sunday turned out to be more convenient for all the relatives, the engagement was postponed to Sunday the 20th. Maybe today’s letter will have already reached you by then, and you can also be there in spirit for the celebration. I asked Putzi [Anna] to get some nice flowers for me and put them on the table. Uncle Oskar will give her the money in my place. I put the dried flowers that you sent me in my prayer book, and I pray daily for your good fortune and that of all of us. As Lipa is going to be my nephew,8 I am including him too, so that the loving God will protect him from all evil and persecution. I won’t have another single quiet moment, until I will hold the next message from you in my hands. Maybe you do not have to go there these three months;9 I am so nervous that I can hardly write. I did not tell all of the details to the dear grandparents, for they would only get upset, which can be very dangerous at their age. Gisa, be smart and think a little bit of us, who are so worrieed about you. May there be a good guardian angel protecting you; I am very glad that you have Lipa; he will not abandon you in your time of need, and his people [family] hopefully will take care of you too. You are a very brave girl, and in everything you are doing, you have to think of your poor father and of all your relatives who love you tenderly.10 |
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Translated by Laura Jockusch; (with some edits and all footnotes not marked as LJ by P. Jellinek)
Footnotes
1. Gisela uses the Hebrew Rosh Chodesh - lit.: ’head of the month’ - to refer to the minor Jewish holiday celebrated at the new moon at the beginning of every month in the Hebrew calendar year, The sixth month of Elul is special however, because of the custom to blow the shofaar on all its weekdays, in order to ’awaken one’s spirits, one’s’ soul-searching and accounting’ and altogether begin one’s spiritual preparation for the coming High Holy Days.
2. Gisela uses both “Vater” and “Vaterl” in this sentence, but both mean “dad” and refer to the same person, Hugo. The “l” in “Vaterl” indicates a slight diminutive or pet name in Austrian German, as for example, also in “Giserl”, “Bertl” or “Berterl.” [LJ]
(Endings of “l” and “le” indicate similar diminuition or affectionate pet names in Yiddish.) [PJ]3. “ the hard facts” referred to what Nadja’ must have revealed in her letter about her clandestine activities as a member of her activist Betar company (פלוגה). Her group was working to expel the British and create a sovereign Jewish state. Nadja might have written about any of her underground activities such as those she told me (PJ) about in 2006: smuggling small guns by hiding the pistols in her blouse, and also having to pass through areas where the English were “on both sides” on her way to a kibbutz, where she delivered memorized messages.
4. Gisela thought that Karl would best understand Nadja’s actions because he was the most ardent and active Zionist in the Jellinek family.
5. Gisela’s report of Karl doing everything in the houselhold is very likely an exaggeration, possibly stemming both from Gisela’s prejudice against Karla, because she was originally from Galicia — a “Polischen,” as Gisela labeled Karla in a 1936 letter to Karl - and also possibly arising from Karl’s exaggerated complaints intended to induce some sympathy from his older sister. '
6. Tragically, this son, named Bernhard, died of meningitis shortly before his first birthday. He contracted this contagious and then-deadly disease in the boarding nursery in which Karl and Karla were compelled to place him, so that they could both work overtime. See also the third to last paragraph in Karl Jellinek’s Brief Bio. for more information on Bernhard.
7. it is not clear what exactly Gisela means with “ein Stuck,” “one piece.” She probably means one reply coupon per letter, so that she could not send Nadja more reply coupons than sent letters. Thus she intends to write more often so that G. Nadja will have as many reply coupons as possible. [LJ]
8. Lipa was G.Nadja’s Betar unit commander and boyfriend, so Gisela thought G. Nadja would marry him.
9. She does not say where and for what reason, and it does not become clear in the further context either. [LJ] Actually, Gisela would have written cryptically, out of fear of censors, in referring to G. Nadja’s underground Betar activities against the British occupation and for the formation of an independent Jewish state. Please also see footnote #3. for more details.
10. Two hand-written lines follow, which are illegible. It seems that they repeat the last two lines of the typed text, because they were typed partly on top of the other. [LJ] Gisela’s signature may also be included in these lines.
