Max Schwartz & WW II Letters

MAX SCHWARTZ & WW II LETTERS Schwartz, Weiss, & Blau Families

Carroll Edward Schwartz & WW II Letter Writers

1 2 Table of Contents Introduction Page 5

Chapter 1 Zoltan’s Tale –An Immigrants Story Page 7 – Schwartz Family Tree Page 32 – Max Schwartz - Pictures & Documents Page 34

Chapter 2 Kimberley Osmer’s Family Research Page 51

Chapter 3 Stories from the Holocaust Page 55

Appendix A – Weiss Family Tree Page 63

Appendix B – WW II Letters (German & English) Page 67

Appendix C – Blau Family Tree Page 113

Appendix D – WW II Letters (Hungarian) Page 119

3 4 INTRODUCTION

This book is one of two books. This is the story of my father, Max Schwartz, and his family’s fate during the Nazi Holocaust. The second book is about my mother, Myra Newman Schwartz, who grew up on a farm in Phelps NY and her family.

Special thanks to Noel Doherty, (CEO of the Goodway Group of MA, INC), for providing many helpful suggestions and printing this book.

1. Chapter 1 is about my father, Max Schwartz, who came to America from Hungary in 1921 as a 14 year old boy with his mother and two younger siblings.

2. Chapter 2 is the family research of Kimberley Osmer (Robert Blau’s wife).

3. Chapter 3 – Contains the stories of my father’s relatives who stayed behind in Europe and their fate during World War II.

4. Appendix A is the Weiss Family Tree originally put together by Kim Osmer and modified by Ed Schwartz to incorporate information from letters.

5. Appendix B consists of translations of the letters from Germany mostly from Vienna from 1938-41 and after the war.

6. Appendix C is the Blau Family Tree again originally put together by Kim Osmer and modified by Ed Schwartz to incorporate information from letters.

7. Appendix D consists of translations of letters received from Hungary in 1945 & 1946 telling some of the story of the Hungarian Holocaust.

Originally I intended to put the story of my father’s life on paper to serve as a memorial to him. However, I inherited many letters that were sent from Europe by Jewish relatives immediately before and after World War II that tell one family’s fate at the hands of the Third Reich. The letters were written in English, German and Hungarian. Many of the stories are chilling. So part of this story is derived from the translations of the letters that can be found in Appendices B and D. I exploited German-speaking friends and dredged up my college German. In particular Tom Einstein, Davida Tenenbaum and a work associate of my daughter, Jennifer, helped with the German translations.

5 The Hungarian was much trickier since there are far fewer native Hungarian speakers in my circle of acquaintances. My daughter, Jennifer, had a Hungarian coworker (Hannah Burger- born May 5, 1934 in Budapest) who survived the war in Budapest. When German Troops marched into Budapest in the Spring of 1944, she was an 10-year old girl with false Baptism papers. She generously translated all 40 pages of the Hungarian letters for me. The only compensation she would accept was a contribution to the Holocaust Museum in memory of her mother, Dora Eckstein, who perished in early 1945 in Budapest and her aunt, Ròzsi Eckstein, who perished in the fall of 1944 on a death march somewhere between Budapest and the Austrian border.

I have relied on many sources for this story. Kimberley Osmer interviewed my father around 1990 and provided a lot of the information. She put together the Schwartz, Blau and Weiss family trees, and wrote down my father’s memories. I have added information about European relatives from the letters. I also relied on my memories of his stories. Some of my father’s documents are included at the end of Chapter 1.

I am writing this primarily for those who come after me; my daughter Jennifer McClain and now her daughters Sabrina McClain & Natalie McClain. I also want to bear witness to the life of a very kind and generous man who was my father. I want also to bear witness to those who perished in the Holocaust, who have no voice of their own.

When I think of my father I am reminded of a story that I once read in a book titled “The Last of the Just” in which the tale is told that God looked down upon the earth and was going to destroy it because man was evil but saw that there were ten just men left on earth. God decided that as long as there was one just man left on earth, He would spare mankind.

Carroll Edward (Ed) Schwartz 20 Robin Hood Rd Arlington, MA 02474 (781) 646-1722 [email protected]

December 2013

6 Chapter 1 - Zoltan’s Tale - An Immigrant’s Story

My father, Max Schwartz (Zoltan), was born on February 3, 1907 in a small town of about 2,700 people. The town was called Frauenkirchen (“Church of our Lady”) in German and Boldogasszony in Hungarian. Frauenkirchen is in Burgenland, then a region in the Hungarian part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Frauenkirchen is about 40 miles southeast of Vienna near the Austria-Hungarian border. Max was one of four children. Max had an older brother (Jeno) who died in 1913 at 8 years old. His sister, Margaret was born in Frauenkirchen in June 1908. His younger brother Alfred was born in Pozsony (a German speaking area also known as Bratislava, now in Slovakia) on January 15, 1910.

7 Max was the son of Samuel Schwartz and Risa Weiss. Samuel was born in 1876 in the town called Halmeu ( about 2,800 people in 1910 ). Samuel’s parents were Judah Schwartz and a wife who died before Max knew them. Halmeu is now in Romania on the Ukrainian border, close to the Hungarian border almost 300 miles east of Frauenkirchen. My father did not know why Samuel traveled so far from home to marry Risa Weiss in Frauenkirchen. Samuel worked making pastry cakes. He was also a dealer in saccharine, which was a low cost substitute for sugar discovered in 1878. In 1902, under pressure from the European beet sugar manufacturers, legislation was enacted in the Austrian and German Empires confining the sale of saccharine to pharmacies for disease (diabetes) and prohibiting its sale to healthy consumers. My father thinks that Samuel left Frauenkirchen and immigrated to America in 1913 because he was afraid of being arrested for dealing in the black market in saccharine. Max remembers the ‘gendarmes’ riding on horses, with feathers in their hats looking for black marketers.

Samuel Schwartz, sailed on the “President Lincoln” from Hamburg, Germany and arrived at Ellis Island on March 14, 1913. On the ship’s manifest he is listed as being 37 years old and from Pressburg, Hungary. Pressburg is the German name of the city also known as Pozsony in Hungarian and Bratislava in Slovakian.

Max’s mother, whose maiden name was Risa Weiss was born in 1877. Her family had lived in Frauenkirchen for many generations. Her father actually owned a farm and my father tells of riding in his farm wagon. In 1903 Sam married Risa, the older sister of the woman he really wanted to marry. They lived in a house with a hard-packed dirt-floor. My father remembers being told to get off the chamber pot because his sick brother needed to use it.

Max remembered the start of World War I (he was 7 years old) when the town crier walked through the town beating a drum and announcing that all men in the reserves must report to their units. In 1914 when the reserves were called up the police came looking for his father, Samuel, who like all men was in the Hungarian reserves. By that time Samuel had already left for America in 1913. A camp was built near the town in 1914 for 15,000 Russian, Serbian and Italian POWs (prisoners of war). Max remembered visiting a large prisoner of war camp during the war with the Rabbi to help him with services for the Russian Jewish prisoners. When World War I ended the gates of the prison camp were simply opened and all the former prisoners of war had to figure out how to make their own way home.

After the war he remembers people saying kill the Jews and the Jewish War Veterans with guns being prepared to fight if needed. People blamed the Jews for a Communist regime that briefly took power for a few months after the war and for the country’s economic problems. While in power, the Communist regime brutally suppressed all opposition.

Risa (Weiss) & Samuel Schwartz (1904)

Risa, Max, Margaret and Alfred Schwartz (Frauenkirchen)

10 My father immigrated to the United States in 1921 (Vienna exit visa dated May 20, 1921) at the age of 14 with his mother (Risa Weiss), younger brother, Alfred, and sister, Margaret, from the Port of Rotterdam. They arrived as passengers on the ship “Rijndam” on June 26, 1921. They are listed on the ship’s manifest as James Schwartz age 14, Margarete Schwartz age 12, Alador Schwartz age 10 and Risa Schwartz age 43. When Max (James) arrived he knew three languages; German, Hungarian and Hebrew. They arrived at Ellis Island where he was separated from his mother and younger siblings. In the men’s area of Ellis Island they told him that if he didn’t pass the physical, he would be sent back to Europe . He was worried that he would be sent back to Europe all alone. He was also given an orange, which to him was a great luxury item. They then traveled by train to join his father in Farrell, PA. The conductor showed him how long a train-ride it would be using a form of sign language. The conductor took out his pocket watch and used his fingers to show how many times the watch hands would rotate before they arrived in Farrell, PA.

Alfred, Risa, Max, Samuel and Margaret (Farrell, PA)

11 My grandfather only allowed Max to stay in Farrell and learn English for two years before sending him off alone to New York City. Both Samuel and the Farrell Rabbi agreed that Max was a bright young man who should study to be a Rabbi. So after a few years in America he was sent to New York City to study at the Yeshiva (a report card shows him at the “Rabbi Jacob Joseph School” on Henry St. in September 1923). At this point he was only 16 years old, had just learned English and was being sent alone without resources to a big foreign city. He had no money so the Farrell Rabbi arranged for him to visit a number of people who would give him a dollar every week to help him survive. On one of his collection rounds a storekeeper asked him how he was surviving and told Max that he couldn’t live like this and should go back home. My father told him he didn’t have enough money to buy a ticket back to Farrell so the man gave him the money to buy a train ticket and he went home. His father was furious with him for leaving the Yeshiva and sent him back to New York City.

Samuel & Max Risa & Max

12 After returning to New York City he probably finished High School and got a job collecting fares on the trolley cars. He wanted to go to the New York School for Social Work but he didn’t have enough money for the application fee. Since City College was free he went to City College part time while he worked. He eventually graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in math. His math major served him well in his career in the New York State Insurance Department where he eventually became an actuary.

Max in ROTC at the College of the City of New York 1929

Max was worried that he had a number of different names on his various official documents. His Vienna travel visa had him listed as Zoltan Schwartz. In Ellis Island records his first name was listed as James. My father’s Hebrew teacher said James wasn’t a Jewish name. Since his Hebrew name was Michoil after his great grandfather, the teacher said that Max was close enough so he was registered at school as Max. So in 1929 he resolved this by swearing in an affidavit that his name is Max J. Schwartz and that all of these other names also referred him.

In 1929 he had saved enough money to finish his degree by going to City College full time. He asked his boss at the trolley car company whether he could get his job back if he left for a year to go to school full time. He was told that there would be no problem putting him back on the payroll. During these years he took many civil service exams. He passed a civil service test for a job in the Post Office and passed high enough to be offered a job. He was told there would be no problem in deferring his acceptance of a job until he graduated. Unfortunately, before he graduated the Great Depression intervened and all promises of jobs were null and void.

13 Max graduated in 1930 with a degree in Math from City College into the Great Depression. He lived a marginal existence for the next few years working in a Hebrew Orphanage teaching Hebrew for room and board but never received the promised salary. He also worked in a bakery. He survived for a while on sweet things and until his death really didn’t like rich deserts. He tried to get a job by taking every civil service exam that came along. He heard that there were jobs in the Federal Government for Meteorologists so he went to the NY Public Library and borrowed a Meteorology textbook which he read three times and passed with a very high score. Although this was a high enough score to get a job he was passed over probably because his name was Schwartz. In later years he learned that the head of the Weather Service was known to be anti-Semitic. In those days Jews were systematically excluded from many jobs in a large number of industries.

Max on steps of the Empire State Office Building (Albany)

In 1932 he passed a New York State exam for clerk with a high enough score to get a job in the NY State Insurance Department in Albany, NY. He traveled from New York City to his new job in Albany, 150 miles up the Hudson River, by night boat expecting to see Indians when he got there. On October 2, 1933 he was appointed Senior Actuarial Clerk with an annual salary of $1,320 per year. Once he started working he sent money regularly to his father who was making a marginal living as a photographer.

14 In 1936 Max passed the required civil service exam and became a junior examiner for the New York Insurance Department working for Harry Devee. Their job was to check the books of the little insurance companies in western New York State. There were many little insurance companies set up by farmer’s cooperatives and such in the small towns in the farm country of western New York. My father and his boss would show up at one of these companies and Max would be left to check the books while Harry would take off with the company’s president to eat, drink and generally carouse. Sometimes they would take off ostensibly to go fishing and come back in a few days. So the contrast between Max and his fun loving boss must have been interesting. Harry’s doctor told him that he had a bad heart and needed to moderate his wine, women and song. Harry responded that life was not worth living with those restrictions. He died of a heart attack in 1948 and Max became the Senior Examiner.

Max, Lillian (Al’s wife), Al, Margaret and Samuel 1937

Risa and Sam Sam and Gizi (Halmeu 1938)

Max’s mother, Risa, died in 1933 at the age of 55 and Samuel lived with his son Al and his daughter Margaret. In the Spring of 1938, Samuel traveled to Europe and visited Halmeu, Romania (the town where he was born), Frauenkirchen, Austria (where he had married and two of his children were born) and Vienna, Austria where some of his family lived. During this trip, Samuel married Grace (Blau) Hirtenfeld of Helmeu in May of 1938. Grace was a widow and the daughter of Samuel’s half-sister, Berta Gewurtz, and Mordechai_Simcha Blau. Samuel returned to America on July 3, 1938. As soon as Grace got a visa, as his wife, she followed him to America with her two teenage daughters, Monyi (Margaret) Hirtenfeld and Esther Hirtenfeld.

In the 1930s anti-Semitic laws were making life increasingly tenuous for Jews in Germany, Hungary and elsewhere in Europe. In March of 1938 Germany took over Austria so the Nazi’s were closing in on Samuel’s Jewish relatives in Austria.

The above picture was taken in Halmeu in 1938 during Margaret Schwartz’s summer visit. Margaret is sitting on the right end of the second row with Fred Blau standing behind her. Grace (Blau) Hirtenfeld (Samuel Schwartz’s 2nd wife) is in the back row on the left wearing a polka dot dress with a brooch. The older couple, sitting holding children are Fred and Grace’s parents, Mordechai Simcha Blau (died November 1938) and his wife Berta (Gewurtz) Blau.

Halmeu 1938

17 In 1938 until America’s entry into World War II in 1941 letters were arriving from Austria describing the desperate living conditions of Jewish relatives under the Nazis and begging for help. Many of these letters were sent to my father’s sister Margaret who passed them on to my father with notes asking him to help. My father supplied affidavits that he would provide financial support if the United States granted them immigrant visas. The letters indicate that at least one person (Alfred Weiss) was released from Dachau based on my father’s affidavit, on the condition that he leave the country by the end of July 1939. The grim stories of Max’s European relatives can be found in Chapter 3. Max’s 30-year old sister, Margaret, was a single schoolteacher and traveled to Europe in July of 1938. On her visit to Halmeu she met Grace Blau’s 29-year old brother, Fred Blau (Fred also known as Bobbi). They were married by an American consul. She came back to America alone. Fred wanted her to return to Europe to live with him. Margaret’s father, Samuel Schwartz, insisted that she should not go to Europe but that Fred should come to America instead. By this time letters had already been received from relatives in Vienna and Budapest describing their plight and the increasing persecution of Jews. In April of 1939 Fred followed Margaret to America.

Margaret, Fred & ? Margaret with Relatives ? Halmeu 1938

18 In Albany Max met a young woman, Myra Newman, who was one of three sisters from a farm in western New York State whose ancestors dated back to the early days of the country. He married her on May 9, 1938. Soon after their marriage they tried to meet his father’s boat in New York City when it returned from his 1938 trip to Europe but missed him. When Samuel found out that his son had married a blonde non-Jewish woman, he said the prayer for the dead for him. However, on January 15, 1939 a son was born (Ed Schwartz) and Max’s father and Max’s sister Margaret came to Albany to reconcile .

Gizi with Eddie Samuel with Eddie

It was a somewhat strange marriage in that although they shared a liberal political view of the world their interests were quite different. On my father’s side by marrying my mother he became more of a real American. On my mother’s side he was a kind person and represented stability. My mother was interested in things beautiful; music, art, nature, camping and gardening. My father couldn’t care less about aesthetics and was much more interested in current events, history and in working for a just society. Like many of his contemporaries who came of age in the 1930s he believed that a better world was possible with less poverty, hunger and inequality.

20 Post War America During the war Max Schwartz tried to volunteer for the army but was rejected for reasons of health (vision) and family status (I was born January 15, 1939). During the early years of his marriage and the first 11 years of his son’s life Max spent a lot of time traveling around New York State examining insurance companies. I remember going to Cooperstown, NY with my mother (Myra Newman Schwartz) on one of his business trips and visiting museums there ( Baseball Museum, James Fenimore Cooper Museum and Farmer’s Museum). After the war he did what he could by sending packages of used clothing, food and money to relatives in Europe. In New York City and Albany he had a number of left wing friends who all believed that a better world was possible where the resources of a society were more equitably shared by all. Max used to say that the law treated all people equally. Both a rich man and a poor man would be sent to prison for an equal length of time for stealing a loaf of bread. Of course the rich man had no need to steal food. He was acutely aware of the inequity in society and viewed himself as a defender of the common man.

Max flanked by two assistants and secretary Marie Burgess (far right).

21 He helped draft laws that were written to regulate sale of Health Insurance in the State of New York. When New York enacted these laws in 1950 he became New York State’s first health insurance actuary with responsibility for approving rates charged for all Health Insurance policies sold in New York State. He used his power of approval to try to defend the public from unscrupulous insurance companies. For example some companies wanted to sell policies that only covered specified diseases. For instance one company wanted to sell a cancer policy. My father won that battle by describing a sick person coming into a hospital thinking he had health insurance and discovering that whatever disease he had was not included in the approved list of diseases. He believed that most of the larger companies were not going do this but that there were a number of less than reputable companies that would attempt to maximize profits by severely limiting coverage and writing policies that were difficult for a common citizen to understand. He compared this to a life insurance company that wanted to sell a policy that would pay off if you died while riding in a taxi crossing the Brooklyn Bridge on Sunday. I have a memory of going to New York City for a public hearing on the new laws to regulate health insurance. He had me sit between two actuaries that he was friendly with during the hearing. He told the audience how the state of New York was going to regulate health insurance. A number of representatives of the insurance industry stood up and made impassioned statements that the government had no business telling them how to run their business and that there was no need to protect the public. It was interesting that my father’s friends although employed by major insurance companies were not prepared to argue against the need for government regulation. For me the good news about his becoming the actuary responsible for approval of health insurance rates was that he traveled less and I got to know him. It wasn’t until my teenage years that I really got to know him. We discussed current events, public policy and occasionally played chess. He would play without his queen and still always win. Over the years he told me many stories. Looking back I realize that those stories were really intended to teach me about life and values. He was basically a pacifist who believed in the brotherhood of man. He was not willing accept any ideology that advocated violence. A friend of his who was a Communist once called him a “Tin Christ”. This comment hurt him deeply. His reticence to embrace his friend’s ideology was based both on an abhorrence of violence and a desire to fit into the new country which he believed even with its racial and economic inequities was still the most progressive country on earth. Some of his stories about Europe were probably lifted from Jewish authors. I believe their purpose was to teach me that a level of guile was needed to survive if you were Jewish in an environment where anti-Semitism was the norm. For example a Jew is drowning in the river in Russia and two policemen are walking by and hear him crying for help. One policeman says let him drown he is only a Jew. Then the Jew has an idea and calls out “Down with the Czar”. The policemen immediately jump into the river and pull him out so they can take him to jail.

22 In another story two Jews are walking along and one doesn’t have identity- papers, which were required in Czarist Russia. They see policemen approaching and the Jew without papers tells the other that he is afraid that they will ask for his identity papers and he will be arrested. The other Jew says don’t worry and starts running away from the police who chase him. When they catch him they see his identity papers and ask him why he was running away from them. He told them that his doctor told him to run for his health. The police then ask him why he didn’t stop when he saw them chasing him. He replied that he thought their doctor had told them to run for their health as well.

He told the story of the poor Jew who goes to the rabbi to complain about how terrible his life is. He tells the rabbi that he has all of these children to feed and no money. The rabbi tells him to bring the goat into the house and come back in a week. The man comes back in a week and tells the rabbi the smell and his life is even more terrible. The rabbi tells him to bring the sheep into the house and come back in another week. A week later the man comes back complains that his life is even worse. The rabbi tells him to take the sheep out of the house. The man comes back in a week and says his life is much improved. The rabbi tells him to take the goat out of the house. He comes back in a week and tells the rabbi that life is really great. Frame of reference is everything.

Another of his favorite stories I believe was intended to teach that one should not fight every battle even if right is on your side. In other words don’t fight over insignificant issues. A man is in the subway and coughs. A policeman issues a citation for spitting in the subway. The man tells this story to a friend who is a lawyer who urges him to fight the ticket in court and not to pay the fine. They go to court and he is jailed for not paying the fine. There is a scene were the man is talking to the lawyer through the bars of his cell. The lawyer says he will fight this to the Supreme Court and the man is pleading, “Pay the $2”. So whenever my father thought that one was about to do battle over an issue that was not worth the fight he would say, “Pay the $2”. He was also a feminist, which was rather unusual for someone brought up in his era. In his own way he tried to tell me in his stories that Judaism was not a good thing for girl children and about a father’s love for his child (even if the child is female). When our daughter Jennifer started going to religious school at a Jewish Temple he kept reminding me of the prayer he was taught to say every day thanking the Lord that he was not born a woman. Men could have a special relation with God that was not available for women. He believed that the treatment of women in the world was not just. That included the teachings of Judaism. Another of his stories is of a Jewish man who has a baby girl that he dearly loves. He prays to the Lord to have mercy on the baby for it is only a baby girl child.

23 He also told the story of the “great” Talmudic scholar who lost his glasses and decided to use Talmudic reasoning to find his glasses. He proceeded by eliminating all of the obvious places where he might have left his glasses. He would have had to use them to study the Talmud but they weren’t on his desk. He could have left them next to the bed but they weren’t there either. Perhaps he put them down while eating but they weren’t in the dinning room either. So by process of elimination he deduced that his glasses must be on his forehead. Then he thought if I weren’t such a great Talmudic scholar I wouldn’t have been able to find my glasses. He had other stories that also poked fun at Talmudic reasoning. He clearly was very familiar with the reasoning, which he was immersed in when he was young and studying the Torah. Although he did not consider himself a religious person he was always interested in reading books with Jewish themes. Another of his stories tells why he believed the true believers of all religions are the curse of mankind. His reasoning was as follows. What if you believed that some other person would be tortured forever if they didn’t have the correct beliefs? Would it not be your duty as a good and humane person to try to save that person from that fate? What if that person refused to see reason and accept your faith? Would it not be right to use all means possible to save them even if it meant killing them? What is death compared to eternal suffering? What if you have more than one religion with different beliefs and they all feel a moral imperative to impose their beliefs on others? What does this lead to? It leads to torture, murder and wars. The Holocaust drove the final nail into the teachings of his childhood in a good, just, all knowing and all-powerful God. He said if there is such a God how could he have allowed such a slaughter of innocents, such an unmitigated evil? How can you argue that all of the children that perished deserved to die? Some of my father’s friends had been Communists in the 1930s but became disenchanted by the reality of the Soviet dictatorship. However they still lost their jobs later in the 1950s in the era of the Senate McCarthy Hearings and House Un- American Activities Committee (HUAC) Hearings. These hearings cost many people their jobs but did little to increase national security in an era of Soviet expansion under Stalin’s dictatorship. Max believed that a Capitalist economy required government oversight to protect the common good. Without that oversight all that would happen would be that wealth would be used to protect and increase the wealth of the few and neglect the needs of the society. My father and mother supported the Henry Wallace (American Labor Party) candidacy for president in 1948. Henry Wallace had been Franklin D. Roosevelt’s vice president. My father was afraid that support for Henry Wallace in the McCarthy era would lead to losing his job.

In the Eisenhower administration he was sent to Washington to help draft a preliminary version of the Medicare program that was enacted into law a number of years later under another administration. Like many of his friends who went into government in the 1930s, he always viewed himself as a defender of the public interest. He was also involved in the creation of no-fault auto insurance legislation for the state of New York. The basic idea was that there would be no need for litigation to be compensated for injury and that all people injured would be covered by their own insurance. There would be no need for lawyers and everyone would be protected. However, he felt that the legislation had been sabotaged, by the inclusion of the right to sue if the injury exceeded a certain dollar limit.

Governor Harriman, Marie Burgess & Max

Although he was far from rich he was always willing to share what he had with others and sent money to his father and brother over the years. His sister died at age 49 in 1957 of a heart attack and her husband died a few years later leaving three children. He worried about and tried to help his sister’s children after their parents’ death. Although both his sister and his brother were able to purchase a house my parents were not able to purchase a house until I was in college and my mother inherited money from her uncle’s estate. This fact was a bone of contention between my mother and father.

In 1968 Max’s son, Ed, and his wife, Paulette, moved to Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands. Ed had written the real-time computer program for a new experimental UHF/VHF radar that was being installed on the island of Roi Namur in the Kwajalein Atoll to take measurements on ICBMs. In November of 1971 their daughter Jennifer was born in the small Kwajalein island hospital. The news was sent back to Max and Myra in Albany by telegram. At that time the only voice connection back to the mainland was via ham radio patch. Myra finally had the baby girl that she had always wanted.

Max was also happy with Jennifer’s arrival

Hawaii February 1976

In February of 1976 Max, Myra and Myra’s sister Christina Menke flew to Hawaii for a vacation with Ed, Paulette and Jennifer Schwartz. Ed and Paulette were on their second tour (1974-1977) working on Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands. Ed, Paulette and Jennifer flew in from Kwajalein for the vacation. In this picture Myra is in the wheel chair.

In 1978 after 44 years of service to the state of New York Insurance Department he retired at age 71. In August of 1978 he moved from 2 Maple Ave, Colonie, NY ( suburb of Albany, New York) to 47 Cutter Hill Rd, Arlington, MA to be closer to his son and to obtain better medical care for his wife Myra (Blakeman Newman) Schwartz. Myra had been suffering from Emphysema for many years. She had been a smoker and had a number of near fatal encounters with pneumonia dating back to the 1940s. She died on October 3, 1979 from pneumonia and was buried at the Sharon Memorial Park. Myra was survived by her older sister Elizabeth (Newman) Secor and her younger sister Christina (Newman) Menke who unfortunately was suffering from Alzheimers disease.

Max had taken good care of my mother for the many years that she had been an invalid before she died. He tried to arrange the house (air conditioning, recliner, oxygen, wheel chair, etc.) so that she could be as comfortable and happy as possible. But after the many years (about 15 years) of caring for her as an invalid and responding to her needs and wishes he was not interested in an another intense relationship after she died. Although he enjoyed interacting with other people and was interested in them he preferred to live by himself.

In the years after Myra’s death he renewed a friendship with Sophie Kaplan who he knew from family summer camping when I was a teenager on the Narrows Islands in Lake George, NY. Sophie had a house on Lake George at Bolton Landing and a condominium in Florida which he visited a number of times over the years. For many years he would visit her for 2 weeks in the winter in Florida and for 2 weeks in the summer at Lake George.

The above picture was taken from the Fall 1983 University Health Services Newsletter (Vol. 2 No. 1) article titled “Lifelong Learning at Harvard. Max’s picture is also in another newspaper clipping showing a summer HILR study group discussing “The 1988 Presidential Campaign”. These were the early days of HILR (Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement) and he joked that Harvard loved the old people and let them use the broom closets at Sever Hall. He made a number of friends at HILR. Unfortunately, one of his closest friends there had worked on the atomic bomb and died of cancer probably related to his previous work. In addition to taking courses at HILR , Max also volunteered to prepare taxes for the elderly and visited the Robbins Library regularly. He was somewhat oblivious and was surprised that all the librarians knew him. There was one subject that you dared not mention in front of Max unless you were prepared for a long lecture. That subject was MEDICARE. Having helped write early drafts of the law and having worked on its implementation he was an expert and he loved to talk about it. It was one of high points in his career. So whenever I am talking too much on any subject Paulette gives me a clue by saying “the M word”. Shorthand for stop talking and give someone else a chance to pick a topic for conversation.

Ed, Max, Jennifer McClain, John McClain (Jenn’s husband) and Paulette

Jennifer (nee Schwartz) McClain was 7 years old when Max moved to Arlington. She was going to the Bishop School, which was less than a half-mile from his house. On Tuesdays she would visit him. She reports that he was very patient with her and would often play games with her of her choosing. He would often take her to Arlington’s main library (Robbins Library). She remembers him taking her to visit the museums with the glass flowers and stuffed animals (Harvard’s Museums of Natural History). Jennifer started attending private school in 1982 in 6th grade at the Buckingham, Browne and Nichols School in Cambridge. Jennifer remembers him coming to school to meet her and to show her how to take the bus home from school. He celebrated all of Jennifer’s successes in school and was always supportive of her interests. After she graduated from MIT in 1993 he paid her tuition at Tufts so that she could get a Masters Degree in Structural Engineering. He attended all of her graduations, birthday parties and was obviously very proud of her.

30 Paulette also has many memories of him. The joke was that to him all women (my mother, Sophie, Paulette, his brother’s wife Lillian) were strong women. In his view women were somewhat prone to being bossy and having strong opinions even about issues were they had little knowledge. In spite of that he was a feminist of sorts believing in better treatment and equality for women. For the most part he listened patiently and then decided for himself what to do. Sophie fondly called him a stubborn milk toast. One of his gestures that we all remember was that when he was surprised or amazed by something that someone said or that had happened he would smile and slap his forehead with both his hands as sort of an exclamation point. He was really quite shy in his own way and would many times accommodate to the wishes of others. In his final years it was somewhat difficult to find out which restaurant he really wanted to go to or if he really felt good enough to go for a walk. He lived for 13 years at 47 Cutter Hill Road in Arlington where he could easily walk (less than a half mile) to the Robbins Library, Bank and Super Market. Massachusetts Avenue was 0.2 miles walk from his house. The buses ran every 10 minutes on Mass Ave to Cambridge. Finally his name came up on a waiting list for the Golda Meir House in Auburndale, MA in 1991. He decided that the time had come to sell his house and move to a facility with more support. He moved into a one-bedroom apartment at Golda Meir House. They served one mid-day meal per day during the week and had an elderly, mostly Jewish community. Over the years Paulette (my wife) cooked many meals for him and stocked his freezer with many dinners in blue plastic containers that we referred to as “blue plate specials”. I remember a conversation with him about life and what kept him going. He was in his 90th year. Every day he still went out for a walk and read the New York Times. He had cataracts and trouble reading. By that time his wife and most of his close friends were dead. His answer was simple. He said he was still curious about how everything was going to turn out. In spite of his loses and problems he still maintained an interest in the future. Not a bad role model. He began to have difficulty with short-term memory in 1995. In March of 1996 his friend Sophie Kaplan died in Florida. Reluctantly after 5 years at Golda Meir he acceded to my wishes and moved to the Gables in Winchester in August of 1996 where he again rented a one bedroom apartment but could get 3 meals a day. He had lost a lot of weight dropping from 155 pounds to 135 pounds in a few months. The Gables was a 5-minute drive from my house rather than the 30 minute drive to Golda Meir House which made it easier for me to try to take care of him. Unfortunately, at some point he must have fallen and hit his head. In early January I took him to Newton Wellesley Hospital and he had an operation to relieve pressure from cranial bleeding. He never really recovered from the operation and died 13 days later on January 22, 1997 a few days shy of his 90th birthday.

31 FAMILY TREE CHART SCHWARTZ FAMILY CHART #1

DESIGNED & PREPARED BY SOURCES: MAX SCHWARTZ KIMBERLEY ANNE OSMER AL SCHWARTZ 1990 / 2013

Revised by Ed Schwartz 2013

1st Generation 2nd Generation 3rd Generation 4th Generation 5th Generation

1] Samuel Schwartz 1] Jeno Schwartz (Shmelke) b. 1905 b. Fekete, Ardo d. 1913, age 8 or Halmi (Hungarian) 1] Carroll Edward 1] Jennifer Ann Halmeu (Rom.) 2] Max J Schwartz (Ed) Schwartz Schwartz Halmin (Yiddish) (Zoltan, Michoil) b. Jan. 15, 1939 b. Nov. 13, 1971 Transylvania b. Feb. 3, 1907 Albany, NY Kwajalein immigrated 1913 Frauenkirchen m. June 19, 1993 d. Mar. 17, 1943 d. Jan. 22, 1997 m. May 2, 1968 + John McClain age 67 in America Cambridge, MA (b. Aug 26,1969) m. May 9, 1938 +Paulette Lebensfeld + Risa (Raela) Weiss + Myra Newman (b. June 29, 1939) (b. Frauenkirchen) (b. Apr 20, 1916) (Brooklyn, NY) 1] Bruce Michael (fam. imm. Jun 1921) (Phelps, NY) Forman (d. Sep. 1933 (d. Oct. 3, 1979) b. Mar. 27, 1967 age 55 in America) 1] Raela Jean Blau Abington, PA b. Jan. 24, 1940 m. Fern Bell 2nd m. May 1938 3] Margaret Schwartz Sharon, PA m. Vickie Wallins Judah Schwartz + Grace Blau 40 yrs? b. Jun. 19, 1908 (Yehuda) ( b. Helmeu ) Frauenkirchen m. Aug. 2, 1964 2] Michelle Gail East Hungary Grace-Samuel's niece imm. Jun. 21, 1921 Miami, FL Forman Halmeu ? & Fred Blau's sister d. Jan. 1957 + Leonard Forman b. Feb. 3, 1971 widow & 2 daughters bur. Miami, FL Abington, PA imm to America 1938 m. Jul. 3, 1938 2] Morton Roy Blau 1] Andrea Elizabeth + Fred Blau (Mordechai-Simcha) Blau (b. Feb 4, 1909) b. May 31, 1943 b. Jan. 18, 1978 ( Helmeu ) Youngstown, OH Philadelphia, PA (Grace's brother & d. Apr 2, 2006 son of Samuel's 2] Louis David half-sister) m. Doreen Shatz Blau (d. Jan 7, 1967) (b. Dec. 8, 1948) b. Mar. 20, 1981 ( Philadelphia, PA) Philadelphia, PA

see Chart #2 see Chart #2 3] Robert Lee Blau 1] Megan Johanna for more of for more of b. Mar. 15, 1947 Blau Judah's Samuel's & Youngstown, OH b. Sept. 27, 1988 children Risa's Austin, TX children m. Jan. 10, 1976 Rockford, IL + Kimberley Anne 2] Aaron Jonah Osmer Osmer (b. Feb. 28, 1954) b. Feb. 27, 1992 (Freeport, IL) Austin, TX

32 FAMILY TREE CHART SCHWARTZ FAMILY CHART #2

DESIGNED & PREPARED BY SOURCES: MAX SCHWARTZ KIMBERLEY ANNE OSMER AL SCHWARTZ 1990 EDWIN & MARY HAYES

Revised by Ed Schwartz 2013

1st Generation 2nd Generation 3rd Generation 4th Generation 5th Generation

1] Samuel Schwartz See Chart #1 (Shmelke) for more of b. Fekete, Ardo Samuel's & Risa's or Halmi (Hungarian) children Halmeu (Rom.) 1] Edwin Lee Halmin (Yiddish) 4] Alfred Joseph Schwartz 1] Rebecca Hayes Transylvania Schwartz b. July 30, 1939 Schwartz immigrated 1913 (Aladar) Sharon, Penn. b. Aug. 23, 1976 d. Mar. 17, 1943 b. Jan. 15, 1910 d. Apr 14, 2008 Manhasset, age 67 in America Poszon (Hungarian) Long Island, NY Pressburgh(German) + Mary Elizabeth + Risa (Raela) Weiss Bratislava (Czech) Hayes (b. Frauenkirchen) now Czechoslavakia (b. Aug. 20, 1947 (fam. imm. Jun 1921) (Poszon area Chicago, Ill.) 1] Libby Beth (d. Sep. 1933 speaks German) Schwartz age 55 in America) d. Mar 1, 2005 2] Stanley Mark b. Dec. 6, 1972 Schwartz 2nd m. May 1938 m. Aug. 8, 1937 m. Feb. 7, 1971 Judah Schwartz + Grace Blau 40 yrs? + Lillian Bernstein + Rena Wish 2] Neil Michael (Yehuda) ( b. Helmeu ) (b. Oct. 25, 1915 Schwartz East Hungary Grace-Samuel's niece New York, NY) 3] Rhoda Jean b. Oct. 5, 1976 Halmeu ? & Fred Blau's sister (d. Feb 6, 1998) Schwartz widow & 2 daughters Farrell, Pennsylvania b. Feb. 130 1950 imm to America 1938 m. Dec. 28, 1984 + Brett Sawyer (b. May 20, 1958) 2] Herman Schwartz

3] Simon Schwartz Ardai b. Fekete, Ardo Transylvania (Fekete = "black") high school teacher West Hungary

1] Margaret Goldstein 4] Hanna Schwartz

2] James Goldstein 5] Jennie? Sadie? (Zoltan) Schwartz + ___ Goldstein 3] Pearl Goldstein California b. 1904 or 1905

33 Max Schwartz Pictures & Documents

Margaret Schwartz Margaret Schwartz

Al and Lillian Schwartz 1937 Al the Softball Pitcher (PIP)

Fred Blau and Raela Raela Blau

Kim Osmer and Robert Blau Robert Blau

Edwin, Skip & Rhoda Schwartz

Edwin Schwartz

Farrell Eddie, Raela, Albany Eddie (rear) Skip, Morton Roy, Bobbie

Raela, Bobbi and Morton Roy

Margaret, Risa and Al

Al, Margaret and ? (back) Town Crier Frauenkirchen ?, Max, ? and Esther? (front)

City College 1928

Trolley Car Fare Collector (1928) City College ROTC

49 50 Chapter 2 – Kimberley Osmer’s Family Research

NOTES FROM A CONVERSATION WITH MAX J. SCHWARTZ, 8/22/1990 ARLINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS AS TOLD TO KIMBERLEY OSMER & ROBERT BLAU

The Huns in the year 980 came from Mongolia to Finland, and conquered some European areas, including Hungary. In addition to Hungarian, people in the area of Hungary spoke German, Slovak, and Polish.

Austria had ruled over part of Poland, and the Czechs; Hungary was half independent – it had its own parliament, but the same army served the entire Empire. Since 1867 the area had been known as the Austrian-Hungarian Empire; when Austria-Hungary lost the war ( World War I ), it was split up, taking Czechs, Poles, etc. from Austria and adding part of Hungary to Austria. (after the 1st World War, large Hungarian speaking areas were awarded to neighboring countries).

Max’s grandparents, Judah Schwartz & wife, were from east Hungary, and died before Max knew them. Samuel Schwartz, Max’s father, came from eastern Hungary. He didn’t speak Yiddish, he spoke German. He may have been born in Fekete Ardo ( Feketeerdő or Fekete, Erdély (Transylvania) ? ) (“Fekete” is Hungarian for “Black”, just as “Schwartz” is German for “Black”, which may account for the last name). Samuel Schwartz married Risa Weiss, the older sister of the woman he really wanted to marry.

Max doesn’t know why his father, Samuel Schwartz, went from extreme east Hungary to extreme west Hungary, then to the U.S. In Hungary, he worked with the making of pastry cakes. Max thinks he was a dealer in saccharin, which was a state monopoly, like salt was. If so, he might have been dealing in the black market in Bratislava. Max remembers the “gendarmes” riding on horses, feathers in their hats, looking for black marketers.

Frauenkirchen (“Church of the Lady”) is the German name for the town, population 2000, where Max and Margaret were born; their older brother Jeno (pronounced “Yennew”) probably was born there too. Its Hungarian name was Boldog-Aszoy or Boldog-Aszan.

Poszon was a German-speaking area, now in Czechoslavia (sic), also known as Bratislava. This is where Al was born.

Samuel’s family immigrated June 1921. Max’s father’s sister, named either Jennie or Sadie (Schwartz) Goldstein, was already in Youngstown, Ohio; Max’s first cousins were Pearl, Margaret, and James Goldstein. Pearl was the youngest, two years younger than Max, and was American-born. They came in 1909; the father escaped from the police. When war broke out, he was in the Hungarian reserves.

Max’s cousins, the Goldsteins, went to California. Cousin Zoltan Goldstein took the name “James”. Because Max’s Hungarian name was also “Zoltan”, when he came over to the U.S., they put “James” on Max’s citizenship papers too. Max’s Hebrew teacher said that “James” wasn’t a Jewish name; since Max’s Hebrew name was “Michoil” after his great-grandfather, the teacher said the name “Max” was close to that (although Max has since wondered why he didn’t suggest “Michael”); he was then registered as “Max” in school, and couldn’t prove his citizenship when World War II broke out. He went to the Justice Dept. in Albany, New York, which checked with Immigration to verify that he had been “James” and then “Max”. He then chose “Max James Schwartz” as his name, and was sworn in.

After Max’s mother, Risa (Weiss) Schwartz, died in 1933, her husband Samuel lived with their children Margaret and Al. Then in the Spring of 1938, he went to Europe to visit his relatives. There he had a niece, Grace (Blau) Hirtenfeld, a widow (Samuel’s half-sister was married to Mordechai_Simcha Blau, Grace Blau’s father). Samuel married Grace in May 1938, five years after the death of his first wife, Risa. Austria was taken over by Hitler in March 1938. Samuel travelled to Vienna and Frauenkirchen (which by that time was in Austria). He came back to the U.S. As soon as Grace got a visa, she followed him to the U.S. as his wife, and brought her two teenage daughters, (probably) Monyi (Margaret) Hirtenfeld and Esther Hirtenfeld. Grace’s third daughter, Nusi (Ann or Anna), was probably married already.

Max was working at the New York State Government Insurance Dept. in Albany, New York. Max married Myra Newman in early 1938; soon after that, Myra and he were to meet his father’s return boat from Europe in May or April, but they missed him. Samuel, Max’s father, had the name of a relative in New York but not the address. Max and Myra drove back to Albany. The father finally came to Albany and didn’t know about the marriage; he went home the next day. A relative saw Max with a blonde non-Jewish woman (Myra), and told Samuel; then Max’s father refused to speak to him until their son Eddie was born January 15, 1939. Then Max’s sister Margaret and their father Samuel came to Albany, to reconcile.

Max’s sister Margaret was a schoolteacher, and was able to travel a lot. She went to Europe, probably after their father returned to the U.S., to Vienna and Frauenkirchen, July 3, 1938. In Europe she married Fred Blau, going to an American consul to perform the ceremony. She came back alone, and he followed to the U.S. in April 1939.

Fred Blau took the last bus out of Halmi, Romania, in front of Hitler’s takeover. War started September 1, 1939. Hitler made the Jews wash the sidewalks right away, to degrade them. The family in Bucharest had a shoe factory.

Additional information from Robert and Morton Blau about their father Fred:

52 Fred Blau was one of twelve children. His Hungarian name was “Farkas” (pronounced “Farkash”), which meant the same as his Romanian name “Lupu” –both meant “Wolf”. His Hebrew name was “Benyomin-Zev ben Mordechai-Simcha”, which meant “Benjamin-Wolf, Son of Mordechai-Simcha”.

FAMILY TREE CHART ROTH FAMILY CHART #1

DESIGNED & PREPARED BY SOURCES: MARIE BLEIER WEISS KIMBERLEY ANNE OSMER 1990

1st Generation 2nd Generation 3rd Generation 4th Generation 5th Generation

This person was 1st cousin 1) Jennie Roth 1] Marie Bleier to either Judah Schwartz or his wife + Joseph Bleier and 1st cousin to either + ____ Weiss Mordechai-Simcha Blau or his wife Berta Gewurtz Blau? 2) Esther Roth

+ Jacob Moses ( Lilian Zoltan's Grandparents-in-law)

3) Rose (Ryzel) Roth

+ ____ Markowitz

4) (Male) Roth stayed in Europe

5) (Male) Roth stayed in Europe

54 Chapter 3 – Stories from the Holocaust

The following history provides a useful context for reading the letters from relatives left behind in Europe during World War II .

World War I is triggered by the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. Hungary encompassed all the towns where my father and his parents were born as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire before World War I.

The Armistice ending World War I was signed on November 11, 1918. After World War I much of Hungary was ceded to Czechoslovakia, Romania and Austria in the Treaty of Trianon signed on June 4, 1920. Romania gets Transylvania and Austria gets Western Hungary (including Burgenland). To this day the Hungarians feel that this treaty was a tragic result of World War I.

Immediately after the war a Communist government took power for a few months in Hungary. Jews are prominent in this government and are blamed for its bloody excesses. Right wing forces overthrow the Communist government and Admiral Horthy takes power as Regent of Hungary and appoints a government that passes anti-Semitic laws that limit the numbers of Jews in universities and various professions.

55 In 1933 Hitler comes to power in Germany. On March 13, 1938 - Hitler annexes Austria and German troops march into Austria. This puts family members living in Vienna and Burgenland (Frauenkirchen & Andau) under German Nazi control starting in 1938. Even those selected for labor rather than extermination were unlikely to survive the many years from 1938 to the end of the war. At the Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942 the German Nazi leadership decides that their “final solution” to the “Jewish question” will be to exterminate all the European Jews. The relatives living in Budapest, Balassagyarmat or Helmeu (Fekete Ardo) if selected for labor in 1944 need only survive one winter to survive the war.

Horthy’s government allies Hungary with Germany hoping to regain the territory that Hungary lost after World War I. However, the Hungarian regime although passing anti-Semitic laws provides some protection for its Jewish population from Hitler’s final solution. Late in World War II the Hungarian government realizing that Germany is losing the war, tries to have secret negotiations with the allies to avoid occupation by the Soviets. Hitler is aware of the negotiations and fears the loss of the Hungarian industrial contribution to the Nazi war effort. Hitler summons Horthy to a meeting and requests 100,000 Jewish laborers to help with German war production. On March 19, 1944, during this meeting, German Troops occupy Hungary with the acquiescence of Horthy (Hungarian Regent). The Germans pressure Horthy to install a new government consisting of the Hungarian Nazis Party (Arrow Cross). Horthy agrees to provide 100,000 Jewish laborers to German for war production. Adolf Eichmann arrives with the German troops to coordinate the deportation (extermination) of the Hungarian Jews.

The Jewish leaders in Budapest had received credible warnings that the Nazi’s had systematically destroyed all the Jewish communities in the rest of German occupied Europe and that deportation meant death. However, the general Jewish population is not warned by their leaders. The first step of Eichmann and his Hungarian collaborators was to reassure the Jewish leaders that they mean no harm to the Jews of Hungary but needed accurate information about the Jews for reasons of military security. On the 26th of April, 1944 a decree is issued that the Jews in certain of provinces have to be relocated for military reasons. The concentration of rural Jews in Ghettos begins. May 15th the first deportations of the Jews from the Ghettos to Auschwitz begins. In June of 1944 the Pope receives credible evidence of the destruction of the Hungarian Jews and appeals to Horthy to stop the war against the Jews. On June 26 Roosevelt sent a personal message to Horthy demanding an end to the deportations and threatening retribution. King Gustav of Sweden adds his voice to the protests. Horthy realizing that Germany has lost the war, and fearing retribution, orders the halt on July 8 to the mass deportations. The Hungarian Gendarmes & the German SS (small in numbers) had rounded up and deported 437,400 provincial Jews in just 54 days in 148 trains to Auschwitz.

June 6, 1944 the allies invade France. In October Horthy is overthrown in coup by the Hungarian Nazis. The new government continues the killing of Jews. From October 29, 1944 to February 13, 1945 Soviet troops are besieging Budapest. Soviet troops reach Vienna on April 6, 1945. Concentration camps were being liberated in early 1945 by Allied forces. On May 8, 1945 Germany surrenders and war ends in Europe. In a few months time a great tragedy befell the Jews of Hungary. There are a number of small changes to history that might have spared them or at least limited the efficiency of the mass deportations to Auschwitz that lasted only a few months. If the Hungarian government had not tried to make peace with the allies, Hitler might not have occupied Hungary. If Horthy had deployed his remaining troops on the border to prevent such an easy entry to Hungary by the German forces the majority of whom were busy fighting the Russians. If Horthy had not acquiesced to the German request to form a government consisting of the most anti-Semitic elements of his society. If the Jewish Councils had not executed the Nazi’s decrees and provided the detailed lists of all Jews the process at least would have been much slower. Any of these might have bought the few months needed to slow down or prevent the mass deportation of the Jews of Hungary before the defeat of Germany. I am not certain about the spelling of some names. For instance you can find Weiss spelled also as Weisz. Also I have probably misspelled Alfred Weiss’s mother’s name Emma (Ema?). As far as the relations in the Weiss family tree most are confirmed by the letters. However, some are merely conjecture on my part. For instance I believe that Ludwig Weiss is also known as Lori and has the nickname Lazy. He is a close relative of Ilka maybe a brother. Most of the letters were written by the children of the brothers and sisters of my father’s mother (Risa Weiss). All of Risa’s brothers and sisters perished in the Holocaust.

At least 5 siblings of Risa Weiss (sometimes spelled Weisz), their spouses and families lived in Europe in 1938 some of them living in Vienna. I will list their ages, if I know them, in 1938 when the first letters were written and their last known location.

1) Theodore Weiss -Risa’s brother age 57, Vienna perished. 2) Netti (Karlburger) Weiss -Theodore’s wife age 60, Vienna perished. 3) Gisela Weiss(36) -Theodore& Netti’s daughter, Budapest suicide. 4) Bela & Karl Weiss -Theodore&Netti’s sons escape to Palestine. 5) Hedvig (Weiss) Adler -Risa’s sister, Balassagyarmat, Hungary perished. 6) Samuel Adler -Hedvig’s husband, H.S. teacher, perished 7) Ernö Alpar -Hedvig’s son, Hungarian labor unit, survived. 8) Rozsa Alpar -Ernö’s wife, Balassagyarmat, Auschwitz 9) Kato Alpar -Ernö’s daughter, age 7, Balassagyarmat, Auschwitz. 10) Hajnalka ? & husband -Hedvig’s daughter, Balassagyarmat, Auschwitz 11) Noemi ? -Hajnalka’s daughter, age 5, Balassagyarmat, Auschwitz 12) Imre Adler Alpar -Hedvig’s son, labor battalion, captured, by Soviets fate? 13) Gyuszi Adler Alpar -Hedvig’s son, labor battalion, perished tonsillectomy 14) Yulcha (Weiss) Gonczi -Risa’s sister (Juliska), _____ perished Auschwitz. 15) _____ Gonczi -Yulcha’s husband, Hung H.S. teacher, perished. 16) Edi_____ -Yulcha’s daughter survives labor camp 17) Szidi ______-Yulcha’s daughter survives labor camp 18) Szidi’s child - Szidi’s baby perished Auschwitz 19) Malvine (Weiss) Loevin -Risa’s sister (Malcsy), Budapest perished. 20) Someu Loevin -Malvine’s husband, Budapest perished. 21) Emma (Weiss) Weiss -Risa’s sister age 62, Vienna perished. 22) Max Weiss -Emma’s son, Czechoslovakia- Theresienstadt. 23) Alfred Weiss (42) -Emma’s son escapes to Italy after Dachau. 24) ______Weiss? -Alfred Weiss’s children all perish. 25) Finni (Weiss) Schwartz? -Emma’s daughter escapes to England. 26) Emil Schwartz? -Finni’s husband also escapes to England 27) Helen (Weiss) Hirsch -Emma’s daughter (Ilka) escapes 28) Rudolph Hirsch) -Helen’s husband (Rudi) also escapes. 29) Schandor Schwartz -Emil’s brother, Vienna to Riga, survives Salaspils. 30) ______Schwartz -Schandor’s wife, Vienna to Riga, perished.

Generally all those who stayed behind in Vienna, Andau, Frauenkirchen perished. Those living in Budapest, Balassagyarmat or Halmeu if selected for labor in 1944 had a chance to survive. Bela and Karl survive by escaping to Palestine and then joined the British Army. Finni and Emil escape to England via Czechoslovakia, Poland and Sweden illegally crossing many borders (no visas). Ilka and Rudi also survived somehow along with Ludwig.

58 World War II :Vienna, Austria - Alfred Weiss

Alfred Weiss’s story is the most complete one since it is based on a large number of letters from 1938 to 1952. In 1938 Alfred is a veteran of the Great War, 42 years old, knows English and is living in Vienna. On September 1, 1938 he files papers with the American Consulate in Vienna to immigrate to the United States. In 1938 Alfred writes asking my father (Max Schwartz) for an Affidavit that he will sponsor Alfred for emigration to America. A month later Alfred’s mother writes that Alfred was taken into protective custody on November 10, 1938 (“Kristalnacht”) and is in Dachau and requests Max’s help in getting him out. In May 1939 Alfred has been released from Dachau on the condition that he leave Germany by July 30, 1939 and he thanks my father for the Affidavit. On July 30th he takes leave of all his relatives and gets on a train for Milan, Italy with all his belongings in two trunks. On his first day in Italy his two trunks are stolen and the Italian Police are unwilling to do anything. My father sends money to help him survive. They continue to try to arrange Alfred’s emigration through the American Consulate in Naples. In February 1940 the U.S. State Department rejects the application after much stalling on the grounds that my father’s civil service salary plus liquid assets were not sufficient to guarantee Alfred’s support for an indefinite period in the future.

In July or August of 1940 the Italian authorities imprison Alfred in a camp near Salerno Italy for those without proper papers. This camp is in southern Italy well south of Rome. A few letters make it out of the camp. Some are clearly hand carried and arrive months latter with indications that they have passed the official censors scrutiny. In September of 1943 the U.S. 5th Army lands in Salerno liberating the camp that Alfred is in. He volunteers to fight the German’s and serves with the U.S. 5th Army’s Counter Intelligence Corps for a year and a half. In March of 1945 he arrives in Palestine. He writes “ When the war finished I tried to get in touch with the family. But alas! The majority of our relatives perished in Nazi extermination camps. My dear, beloved mother, my children, my brother Max, uncle Dori and his wife, aunt Malvina and her husband, aunt Hedwig and her whole family, aunt Terlsa and family all of them gone for good.“ In 1948 he is in Palestine, very lonely and wants help in returning to Vienna. He wrote the letter that said that he wanted to leave Palestine 3 months before the end of British Mandate in Palestine. Then the State of Israel is declared and armies from the surrounding Arab countries vow to destroy the new state. By 1952 he is married, still in Israel and again wants to immigrate to the U. S.

59 World War II :Vienna, Austria - Schandor Schwartz There is a single letter (page 103) written in German from Schandor (I think Schwartz , he refers to my grandfather Samuel as uncle, he is referred to as my brother by Emil, in another letter he is referred to as our Schwarzer). In December 1938 he is taken into custody and is forced to work in a factory in Vienna. In January 1942 he and his wife are sent by train to Riga in Latvia. Many freeze to death on the trip. In Riga the SS meets the train with clubs and whips. Of 1200 who left Vienna 850 arrive in the Riga Ghetto. His wife does not survive. After a few days he was sent to a camp called Salaspils near Riga. They worked 12 to 14 hours a day in 14 degree F temperatures, were fed 250 grams of bread and 3 times a day a half litter of warm water. After 4 months he weighed 92 lb. and was near death. He was taken to hospital and survived to work and to be transported back to Germany by ship in August 1944 as the Soviet Army approached Riga. He was liberated by the American Army on April 16, 1945. Post World War II: Vienna, Austria - Helen & Rudolf Hirsch Helen and Rudolf Hirsch (Ilka and Rudi) return to Vienna after the war. There are a number of letters from them in German. In 1946 they write to my father’s sister, Margaret, describing their desperate lives in post-war Vienna and asking for used clothing of any kind and CARE packages. My father and his sister Margaret send clothing, CARE packages and try to send money. They are told not to send money because money is useless at that time. The letters are being censored. European Relatives :Hungary Hungary was an ally of Nazi Germany during the Second World War. The Hungarian Army conscripted Jewish men into unarmed labor battalions that where deployed along side of regular Hungarian Army units and German SS units on the Russian front. Erno Alpar along with his brother Imre were conscripted into such units. These labor battalions received very brutal treatment from their commanders and from neighboring regular military units. World War II :Halmeu, Romania - Malvinka Blau? Malvinka is probably the sister of Grace Blau Hirtenfeld who was my grandfather Samuel Schwartz’s second wife. Grace’s brother, Fred Blau, was also living in Farrell, PA at the time. Joseph (Jaszi) Hirtenfeld is probably the oldest child of Grace Blau from her first marriage who stayed behind in Hungary when his mother Grace and her two teen aged daughters came to America in 1938. Malvinka writes about how she and her beloved teen age daughter Babát were sent to the Russian front to dig anti-tank trenches in 1944. How they were forced to stand for hours in the cold with their tools. How they slept in an open wooden structure on hay over ice in the winter. That they were fed 200 grams of bread and ½ liter of lukewarm water for soup. Finally after liberation her daughter dies on the way home and is buried near Csernoviez, Ukraine. She has returned home and found only her nephew Joseph Hirtenfeld and his cousin? Mayer still alive.

60 World War II :Balassagyarmat, Hungary - Ernö Alpar (Adler)

Erno’s mother (Hedvig Weiss) was Risa Weiss’s sister and lived in Balassagyarmat, a city almost due North of Budapest on the border with Czechoslovakia. On June 21, 1944 the Jews of Balassagyarmat are deported to Auschwitz. Erno’s letters tell the most complete story of the fate of my grandmother’s, Risa Weiss’s, family at the hands of the Nazis.

In March of 1945 Erno is in a labor unit and the Russian army is approaching. 32 Hungarian soldiers march the 260 people in his unit to the Austrian border and turn them over to German soldiers at the border. They are then marched to the Mauthausen concentration camp near the Austrian city of Graz by the German SS. Thousands of people are on a forced march without food or water for more than two days. Anybody who faltered is shot. Thousands of bodies lay at the side of the road. Some good-hearted Austrians slip him some food. Finally they reach Mauthausen.

People are being shot and dying from starvation every day. Then another forced march to the Gunskirchen concentration camp near the Austrian city of Linz. On May 4, 1945 with the roar of artillery and machine guns coming nearer, the SS guards flee and then one American soldier appears in a jeep. Erno almost dies of Typhoid but is nursed back to health in an American military hospital. By this time Erno is 38 years old. He makes it back to Budapest to the apartment of his Aunt Baba and her Christian husband who take him in. He learns that his parents (Hedvig & Samuel Adler), his wife, Rózsá and his 7 year old daughter , Kató have all perished at the hands of the Nazis at Auschwitz in the last days of the war. Also his brother Imre was in a labor unit and became a prisoner of war and has not been heard from since. His other brother, Gyuszi bled to death after a botched operation to remove his tonsils in 1943. Most of the rest of his family have also perished.

Life is very difficult right after the war food is scarce and the inflation is rampant. There is a lot of hostility toward the few returning Jews. Anti-Semitism is far from dead. Not only has Erno’s family perished but all his belongings have been stolen so he cannot practice his profession. He is asking my father and his sister for help to immigrate to America. Erno does get at contract to build a bridge, designs a memorial to the Jews and gets to testify against one of the brutal labor battalion officers and lives to see him hanged.

Bibliography

1. “Hungary: A Short History” by C. A. Macartney. This book provides a background for understanding some of this story. The Austro-Hungarian Empire covered an enormous part of Central Europe before World War I. The Hungarian portion of the Empire was cut into little pieces after that war. 2. “The Story of the Jews in Hungary”, from the Beth Hatefutsoth, The Nahum Goldman Museum of the Jewish Diaspora, Tel Aviv, Summer 1984. This book lists Frauenkirchen as one of the “Seven Communities” in Burgenland on the estates of Prince Esterhazy in western Hungary that were among the influential Jewish communities in the 18th century. 3. “The Destruction of the European Jews”’ Raul Hilberg. This book is excellent reference for finding the names of the less well known Nazi extermination camps (Salaspils) as well as the famous camps (Auschwitz). 4. “The Abandonment of the Jews”, David S. Wyman. The chilling story of America’s unwillingness to help save the Jews of Europe. The tale is told in small part by my father’s letters from the U.S. State Department denying entry of Alfred Weiss to the U.S. prior to America’s entry into World War II. 5. “Seed of Sarah: Memoirs of a Survivor”, by Judith Magyar Isaacson. Tells the story of a young woman who grew up in the increasingly anti-Semitic environment of the World War II Hungary and who at the age of 19 was deported from Kaposvar, Hungary by the Nazi’s to Aushwitz and her tale of survival. 6. “When the World Was Whole” by Charles Fenyvesi. Tales told of a Hungarian Jew whose family lived in Hungary for many generations. The stories precede and include the Holocaust. 7. “Wartime Lies”, Louis Begley. A young Polish Jew and his Aunt survive by hiding, changing their names and forging documents. 8. “The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary” by Randolph L. Braham, Columbia University Press. Volume 1 tells the story of the political decisions made by the Hungarian government that encouraged anti-Semitism in Hungary and lead to the German occupation in 1944 and the subsequent destruction of a large part of Jewish population in the final months of the war. Volume 2 tells the story of the fate of the Jews of Balassagyarmat. Which was the home of Erno Alper and his parents. 9. “The War Against the Jews” 10. “Tomi Ungerer: A Childhood Under The Nazis” 11. “Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewery” by Eugene Lèvai. 12. “The Last Days” a documentary film by James Mole which is an academy award winning documentary based on five eye witness accounts of Hungarian survivors of the Shoah. There also an excellent companion book of the same name that includes a very good short history of the Hungarian Holocaust.

Appendix A – WEISS FAMILY TREE

FAMILY TREE CHART WEISS FAMILY CHART #1

DESIGNED & PREPARED BY SOURCES: MAX SCHWARTZ KIMBERLEY ANNE OSMER AL SCHWARTZ 1990 Revised by Ed Schwartz 2013 WW II LETTERS

1st Generation 2nd Generation 3rd Generation 4th Generation 5th Generation

1)Helen (llka) Weiss & Rudolf Hirsch Vienna escaped

2) Max Weiss Czechoslovakia perished Theresienstadt 1] Michoil Weiss 1] Herman Weiss b. Frauenkirchen, d. 1922 or 1923 1] Emma Weiss - 62 3) Alfred Weiss - 42 Burgenland + Cecelia Weiss b. May 1876 b. May 6, 1896 Alfred's children (first cousins) Frauenkirchen Andau, Burgenland perished + ____ Weiss Vienna, Italy, Israel (brother of Emma's LETTER WRITER 2] Aaron Joseph Weiss 1] Cecelia Weiss mother Cecelia) b. Frauenkirchen (German) d. 1920, age 60 Vienna perished 4) Ludwig (Lori) Weiss "Church of the Lady" + Herman Weiss wrote letter Vienna - survived Boldogasszony(Hungarian) (first cousins) asking for aid for son 5) Finni Weiss This was one of the & Emil Schwartz oldest Jewish settlements 2] (male) Weiss fled to London in Hungary in the d. 1921 wrote letter Austro-Hungarian Empire + Emma Weiss near Vienna (40 miles) (she was dau. of Schandor Schwartz his sister Cecelia) brother of Emil survived Salaspils his wife perished wrote letter 2] Risa (Raela) Weiss b. Frauenkirchen, 1] Jeno Schwartz Burgenland b. 1905 d. Sept. 1933,age 55 d. age 8, 1913

+ Samuel Schwartz 2] Max J Schwartz (b. Halmi (Hung.) (Zoltan. Michoil) 1] Carroll Edward Halmeui (Rom.) b. Feb. 3, 1907 (Ed) Schwartz Halmini (Yiddish) Frauenkirchen b. Jan. 15, 1939 Transylvania d. Jan 22, 1997 Albany, NY (imm. 1913) (he later married m. May 9, 1938 m. May 2, 1968 Grace Blau) + Myra Newman + Paulette (d. Mar. 17, 1943 (b. Apr 20, 1916) Lebensfeld age 67) ( Phelps, NY ) (b. June 29, 1939) (d. Oct. 3, 1979) (Brooklyn, NY) See Chart #2 for more of Herman's & Cecell's See Chart #2 for more of children Risa's & Samuel's children

63 FAMILY TREE CHART WEISS FAMILY CHART #2

DESIGNED & PREPARED BY SOURCES: MAX SCHWARTZ KIMBERLEY ANNE OSMER AL SCHWARTZ 1990 EDWIN & MARY HAYES SCHWARTZ Revised by Ed Schwartz 2013 WW II LETTERS

1st Generation 2nd Generation 3rd Generation 4th Generation 5th Generation

1] Raela Jean Blau See Chart #1 See Chart #1 b. Jan. 24, 1940 for more of for more of Sharon, PA Herman's and Risa's and m. Aug. 2, 1964 Cecelia's children Samuel's children + Leonard Forman

3] Margaret Schwartz 2] Morton Roy Blau 2) Risa (Raela) Weiss b. Jun. 19, 1908 (Mordechai-Simcha) 1] Michoil Weiss 1] Herman Weiss b. Frauenkirchen Frauenkirchen b. May 31, 1943 b. Frauenkirchen, d. 1922 or 1923 Burgenland imm. Jun. 21, 1921 Youngstown, OH Burgenland + Cecelia Weiss fam. imm. Jun 1921 d. Jan. 1957 d. Apr 2, 2006 (first cousins) d. Sep. 1933 bur. Miami, FL m. Doreen Shatz age 55 in America (b. Dec. 8, 1948) m. Jul. 3, 1938 ( Philadelphia, PA ) 2] Aaron Joseph Weiss 1] Cecelia Weiss + Samuel Schwartz + Fred Blau b. Frauenkirchen (Ger.) d. 1920, age 60 (b. Halmi (Hung.) (b. Feb 4, 1909) 3] Robert Lee Blau "Church of the Lady" + Herman Weiss Halmeui (Rom.) ( Helmeu ) b. Mar. 15, 1947 Boldogasszony (Hung.) (first cousins) Halmini (Yiddish) (Grace's brother & Youngstown, OH Burgenland Transylvania ) son of Samuel's This was one of the (imm. 1913) half-sister) m. Jan. 10, 1976 oldest Jewish settle- 2] (male) Weiss (he later married (d. Jan 7, 1967) Rockford, IL -ments in Hungary in d. 1921 Grace Blau) ( bur. Miami, FL ) + Kimberley Osmer AustroHungarian Empire + Emma Weiss (d. Mar. 17, 1943 (b. Feb. 28, 1954) near Vienna (40 miles) (she was dau. of age 67) ( Freeport, IL ) his sister Cecelia)

4] Alfred Joseph 1] Edwin Lee Schwartz Schwartz b. July 30, 1939 (Aladar) Sharon, Penn. b. Jan. 15, 1910 d. Apr 14, 2008 Poszon (Hungarian) Pressburg(German) + Mary Elizabeth Hayes Bratislava (Czech) (b. Aug. 20, 1947 now Czechoslavakia Chicago, Ill.) (Poszon area speaks German) 2] Stanley Mark Schwartz d. Mar 1, 2005 m. Feb. 7, 1971 + Rena Wish m. Aug. 8, 1937 + Lillian Bernstein 3] Rhoda Jean Schwartz See Chart #3 (b. Oct. 25, 1915 b. Feb. 130 1950 for more of New York, NY) m. Dec. 28, 1984 Herman's and (d. Feb 6, 1998) + Brett Sawyer Cecelia's children Farrell, PA (b. May 20, 1958)

64 FAMILY TREE CHART WEISS FAMILY CHART #3

DESIGNED & PREPARED BY SOURCES: MAX SCHWARTZ KIMBERLEY ANNE OSMER AL SCHWARTZ 1990 EDWIN & MARY HAYES SCHWARTZ Revised by Ed Schwartz 2013 WW II LETTERS

1st Generation 2nd Generation 3rd Generation 4th Generation 5th Generation

See Chart #2 1) Bela Weiss & for more of 2) Karl Weiss Herman's and went to Palestine & Cecelia's children joined British Army

1] Michoil Weiss 1] Herman Weiss 3] Theodore Weiss-57 3) Gisela Weiss b. Frauenkirchen, d. 1922 or 1923 b. Nov 26, 1881 b. Jan 5, 1908 Burgenland + Cecelia Weiss Frauenkirchen Frauenkirchen (first cousins) d. Budapest + Netti Karlburger-60 suicide (36) (b. July 31, 1878) 2] Aaron Joseph Weiss 1] Cecelia Weiss (Tadten, Burgenland) 1) Erno Alpar - 38 b. Frauenkirchen (Ger.) d. 1920, age 60 Vienna Balassagyarmat "Church of the Lady" + Herman Weiss both perished Hungarian Army Kato Alper Boldogasszony (Hung.) (first cousins) labor battalion 7 year old girl Burgenland LETTER WRITER perished Auschwitz This was one of the wife Rozsa & Kato oldest Jewish settle- 2] (male) Weiss perished Auschwitz -ments in Hungary in d. 1921 4] Hedvig Weiss AustroHungarian Empire + Emma Weiss + Samuel Adler 2) Hajnaika Alpar Noemi near Vienna (40 miles) (she was dau. of H.S. teacher & husband 5 year old girl his sister Cecelia) Balassagyarmat Balassagyarmat perished Auschwitz Hungary perished Auschwitz both perished 3) Imre Adler Alpar captured 32 fate? 4) Gyuszi Adler labor corp perished 5] Yulcha Weiss (Juliska) Edi & Szidi Juliska took + ____ Gonczi survived labor camp Szidi's baby at (Hungarian) Auschwitz-Birkenau Auschwitz selection ( H.S. teacher) Baba - in Budapest they both perished perished Auschwitz? & Christian husband

6] Malvine Weiss (Malczi) & Samue Loevin Budapest both perished

65 66 Appendix B – Letters from the Holocaust (German & English) When Samuel and Risa (Weiss ) Schwartz and their three children (Max, Margaret & Alfred) came to the United States they left a large number of relatives behind in Austria, Hungary and Romania. There are a number of letters that were received from 1938 till America’s entry into World War II from relatives in Vienna (and Budapest) about their increasingly more desperate circumstances. They requested financial help and assistance in leaving Europe.

In this section there are a mixture of letters. Alfred Weiss writes in English and to the extent possible I have simply transcribed his English as he wrote it with no attempt to correct his English. While other family members spell his last name as Weiss he spells his last name “Weisz.”

- Vienna, Austria 10/8/1938 Alfred Weiss Page 68 - Budapest, Hung 10/15/1938 Gisela Weiss Page 69 - Vienna, Austria 11/6/1938 Alfred Weiss Page 70 - Vienna, Austria 11/22/1938 Theodor Weiss Page 72 - Vienna, Austria 11/30/1938 Emma Weiss Page 73 - Vienna, Austria 5/10/1939 Alfred Weiss Page 74 - Milan, Italy 9/7/1939 Alfred Weiss Page 76 - Naples, Italy 2/20/1940 American Consulate Page 88 - Salerno, Italy 9/20/1940 Alfred Weiss Page 92 - Vienna, Austria 4/15/1946 Rudolf & Helen Hirsch Page 96 - London, England 4/17/1946 Fini & Emil Schwartz Page 97 - Vienna, Austria 4/29/1946 Rudolf & Helen Hirsch Page 99 - London, England 6/4/1946 Emil Schwartz Page 100 - Vienna, Austria 7/30/1946 Rudolf & Helen Hirsch Page 101 - Vienna, Austria 8/6/1946 Ludwig Weiss Page 102 - Passau, Germany8/26/1946 Schandor Schwartz Page 103 - Vienna, Austria 9/6/1946 Rudolf & Helen Hirsch Page 104 - Vienna, Austria 9/19/1946 Ludwig Weiss Page 105 - Palestine 2/7/1948 Alfred Weiss Page 108 - London, England Mar 1948 Fini & Emil Schwartz Page 110 - Tel-Aviv, Israel 11/27/1952 Alfred Weiss Page 111

Some nicknames are used when referring to relatives. Dori is Theodore Weiss. Gisi is Gisela Weiss daughter of Theodore Weiss and the cousin of Alfred Weiss. Solti or Zolti is my father Max Schwartz whose first name in Hungary was Zoltan. Samu is Samuel Schwartz Max Schwartz’s father. Aldar is what Emma calls her son, Alfred Weiss.

From: Alfred Weiss, Vienna 2, Stenverstrasse 35/25 English October 8, 1938

Dear Max, Perhaps you will be highly surprised in obtaining these lines from a cousin of yours you have not been in touch during decades, although and this I am remarking for my own justification. I have been in regular connection by correspondence as well with Margaret and with your dear father as yet. Now our correspondence appears interrupted since they made no reply on my repeated letters I have urgently directed to them for aid-giving as we are altogether in the greatest oppression you can imagine. Please do not believe I would make reproaches to your adherents in mentioning this, on the contrary. I know fully they cannot afford Affidavits. Nevertheless our aunt Malvini has received it by interference of your dear father. I am turning now to you, dear Max, being certain you will be able to manage it more successfully the more as you are a Public Officer with supposedly more efficient and influential connections. I have got information whereupon those papers demanded by the Immigration Laws can be served by means of a Life Insurance Policy too. So I beg you instantly, dear Max, do not omit anything and try with every means you can afford to give help to us in our full desperation. I do not know whether you have well information about our dreadful situation and how we shall survive all this. Just imagine we are here about twenty of your nearest relatives without any means, without resources of any kind nearly starving unable to earn our living being not allowed to do so and surrounded by dangers. We have lost everything, especially our Uncle Dori and his family and we are just going to lose our last hold, our lodging while winter is round the corner. I hope, dear Max, I shall not have applied to you in vain and I am certain you will not omit anything to get successful. Perhaps you will succeed in inducing some of your friends or acquaintances being wealthy enough to give help. It is urgently necessary to have at last cared for four persons mainly for Uncle Dori and his wife and my mother and myself. Since I am remitting to you and yours our best wishes for the coming holiday season. I remain, dear Max with gratitude in anticipation and immediately love to you and yours A. Weisz, Wien II, Stenverstrasse 35/25, Germany Your cousin Alfred (Weiss) Leibe Lsvrhi! PN Ich bitte dich nochmals dafür einzuwirken dass das Affidavit baldigst hier zu sended. Ess küsst dich dein Onkel Dori I ask you once more to work on our behalf so that the Affidavit is sent here as soon as possible. Dori (Theodore Weiss)

68 From: Gisela Weiss, Budapest X, Allomas u 18/s German October 15, 1938

Budapest, Hungary 15 October 1938

My Dear Solti. PN

Hope you still remember your relatives from Frauenkirchen.

As difficult as this is for me, I need a favor from you. You will certainly know in which situation we are in but in reality no one can really imagine it who has not seen it.

My dear brothers, Bela and Karl left for Palestine 6 weeks ago. Whether they arrived or what’s going on with them we really don’t know, since they have not yet given us any signs of life.

My dear parents are in Vienna at Dori’s (place). I am for the time being still here, but for how long I don’t know and what prospects. Please do everything in the world as soon as possible to help my parents and bring them out of the Hell. What is there is no longer humane. If it is also possible, provide me with an entry visa too. That way the two old people would not be alone.

We want to work because that is what we are used to, and with the help of God I will pay back everything to you. Please write me which papers you need and we will send them to you immediately. You are my parents only hope. Please write me if you can carry this out. I wait for your speedy answer.

grüsst un kusst dich viel mals. Gisi

Gisela Weiss, Budapest X, Allomas u 18/s

Note: Gisela Weiss was born January 5, 1908 and is therefore 30 years old at this time. She was the daughter of Theodore Weiss (57) and Netti (Klarlburger) Weiss (60). Theodore Weiss was Risa Weiss’s brother. Risa Weiss was my father (Max Schwartz)’s mother. Theodore and Netti do not survive the Nazi Holocaust. My father said and the letters confirm that Gisela Weiss committed suicide at age 36 in Budapest in 1944 out of fear of deportation.

69 From: Alfred Weiss, Vienna 2, Praterstr 25/27 English November 6, 1938 Page 1

Vienna, Austria November 6, 1938 Dear Max, Although you made no reply as yet on my letter I have directed to you so one month ago I am turning to you repeatedly in the same matter being afraid you will perhaps not have received it and even if so, as things with us are getting more and more grievous and we are fully desperate. We have been summoned last week to the Police and were told to leave the country within four weeks while Uncle Dori was kept in prison during two days, although only by error. Besides of that, I think, I have mentioned to you in my last letter, we are forced to leave our lodging on December 1, 1938 so we shall not have to stay anywhere. Just imagine our horrible situation, dear Max and you will be able to understand me better than any description could give you. Immediate help is necessary here especially for the older people namely Uncle Dori and his wife. Their sons have left for Palestine and they are now all alone. Your dear father has promised them solemnly to care for them as for an Affidavit but as yet nothing has been done in this regard as it seems. I do not know whether you have knowledge of the fact that your father has cared for an Affidavit for our aunt Malvin which covers a sum high enough to be used for more than a person so that Uncle Dori with his wife could go to the U.S. by means of the same paper. I beg you therefore to manage the whole thing in getting in touch with your father, who will induce the further. If a management of this kind I have mentioned above would approve itself as out of discussion you will have the kindness to care in another way? Anyhow for their immigration otherwise I do not know what will happen with them. Everyone except uncle and aunt my mother and myself is now possessing an Affidavit so you see there are only a few ones being still without a chance. I do beg you instantly and should like to underline you ought to make every effort for giving help to your uncle and aunt. They would not be, I am certain, a burden upon you and yours as they would work there in the same way they are accustomed for. You see, I am not asking you for me or my mother although we have too, absolutely no chance, as I do chiefly wish to have cared for my uncle and his wife first of all. Our aunt is an excellent cook so her being successful is out of any doubt while he too is strong enough to afford a job of any kind. I do beg you, dear Max, do not omit anything for urgently help and please let me know about without keeping yourself in silence as the matter is now very urgently and of enormous importance. By this opportunity I am pleased to express to you my best congratulations to your marriage I have learnt of recently. May God the Almighty give you and your wife all happiness and satisfaction for your further future. Thanking you for everything you will do for our relatives in anticipation I remain with all good wishes and love to you and yours. Your cousin Alfred

70 From: Emma Wiess (Al mother), Vienna II, Praterstr 25/27 German November 6, 1938 Page 2 My dear nephew, I too would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you and wish you good luck on your marriage. May the dear Lord give you and your wife who is a yet unknown to us whatever your hearts desire. Maybe you could send a picture of you both since we are very eager to get to know her. You did not inform us of this joyful event. Who is your new wife? Did she bring a large dowry? How did you meet her? Don’t be angry with me, dear child, for being so inquisitive. It isn’t noisiness but interest. I am (better say I was) a Matchmaker and that is no longer a business. Nevertheless, we are interested in everything. I would have written to you long ago but I only recently got your address. Your last letter to aunt Malvine was very short. I am hoping to receive a very long and more comprehensive letter from you explaining everything. We wrote to Farrell (Max’s father Samuel, sister Margaret & brother Al lived there) quite a while ago, but haven’t received an answer. I don’t know why. I hope everything is okay there. In the past dear Margaret used to answer each of our letters promptly. In his last letter your dear father assured us that he would shortly arrange for uncle Dori (Theodore Weiss) and aunt Netti to come to America. However time is pressing and nothing seems to be happening. I have to again plead again for all the help I can get to get these two people out of here. They are very desperate and I don’t know what they will do if something doesn’t happen soon. It is sort of an obligation for you to help these two. You probably don’t know this but when you were still a child and your father had already immigrated to America and left your mother and the kids to follow later your Uncle and Aunt did everything they could to support you. They literally gave the shirts off their backs to help all of you. Well, now the time has come for repayment, so I plead with you to help save the lives of these two people. They are so desperate that I don’t dare leave them alone for a moment, because I fear the worst. I’m writing this letter at midnight so that no one else will read it. Understand me well my child help heed this bid to relieve their suffering. Because I hope that you will take my words to heart, I again wish you luck and happiness in your new home. If I were able to talk to you directly, I’d be able to tell you much more. However, one is not able to put everything in writing. If you are somewhat interested evil people are harassing other people that they don’t even know. “Affidavits” Maybe you have good acquaintance. He need have no fear, they won’t be a burden on anyone. Your uncle and aunt, as you know, are both decent people and can earn their own living. I kiss you as well as your dear young wife most heartily and love her dearly. Aunt Ema Notes: Initially the Nazi authorities would let Jews leave Austria and Germany. However, another country had to be willing to take them. The United States required that European Jews have a sponsor in the United States who would sign an affidavit that they had the financial means and would support any new immigrant. In fact the US State Department was anti-Semitic and had no wish to accept Jews as immigrants as is shown by Alfred Weiss’s letters and the State Departments slow and negative response to applications (see State Department Letters) .

71 From: Theodor Weiss, Vienna 2, Praterstr 25/27 Old German November 22, 1938

Vienna, Austria November 22, 1938 My dear relatives PN,

Your dear letter arrived on the 20th and I want to reply immediately. That means to send you the data, since I can’t do any more than that and only wish that you might be able to help us and as quickly as possible- especially for me and my wife as both of us are obliged to leave the German Reich by the end of this year.

Theodor Weiss November 26, 1881 Frauenkirchen Burgenland Netti wife nee Karlburger July 31,1878 Tadten Burgenland Emma Weiss May 1876 Frauenkirchen Alfred Weiss May 6, 1896 Andau Burgenland Gisela Weiss January 5, 1908 Frauenkirchen

Our dear sons Bela and Karl left for Palestine on November 4 and as yet we have heard nothing from them. However we have heard that, thank God, they have arrived safely. Again, we beg you to do whatever is possible since as I have said above, by this January we need to be far away from here. When we have an official authorization in hand that we can come over there then it might perhaps be easier to negotiate with the local officials here - primarily for my wife and I to leave by the first available means. I’ve also written to dear Zolti, however, as of today, I’ve not yet received a reply. The mail just came and brought us the notification of the 50 Marks that we will receive in 10 to 14 days, for which we give you our deepest thanks. We will happily repay everything. from your Dori

As of November 25, our address here will be Vienna II Praterstr 25 /27. at Malvin.

We will send you notice as soon as Malvin has a travel permit.

Note: The handwriting on this letter was difficult to read, at least partially due to the fact that the letter writer (Theodore Weiss) was under considerable pressure. This letter is written a few days after “Kristalnacht” (November 10, 1938) when a large scale pogrom of Jews occurred throughout Germany and Austria. The Nazi’s murdered and beat many Jews, sent others to concentration camps and broke the windows of Jewish stores. The name “Kristalnacht” or crystal night comes from all of the broken glass in the streets.

72 From: Emma Weiss, Vienna 2, Praterstr 25/ Tur 27 German November 30, 1938

Vienna, Austria November 30, 1938 My dear cherished ones, You haven’t had my letter in your possession 8 days and already I have to bother you with something new. I come to you today with a great request with my hands trembling and my eyes full of tears. Since the 10th of November my Aldar was in protective custody and I didn’t know where he was. Yesterday I got a card from him from Dachau. It is a concentration camp. He can only get out of there if he can show some sort of travel documents. I beg you therefore to help me immediately. I am already no longer a person. I don’t eat. I don’t drink. I don’t sleep. I believe I am not going to make it. I only cry. I am going to travel on December 1st to our Malvin. Dori and Netti are already there since Thursday. Dori was in custody too but came home after a few days. Thank God. He is none the less very sick and looks bad. But if he gets an affidavit he will recover. God help us all. We got a card from Gizi. She got married last Sunday. Mazultov. The two children Bela and Karl went to Palestine two weeks ago and should have landed by now but haven’t written. Aranka, Walter, Ilka and Rudl and perhaps also Finni and Amil , God willing, are going to travel on the 17th or 31st of December to Shanghai. Dear God give them happiness and protect them along the way. Little Hilda will probably go to Holland. I got an answer today from some families that I had written to there. I will send them the vital information that they will need to bring them up properly. Otherwise I cannot write anything more today. I am now quite alone in my apartment which was never the case before with me for years. The apartment disgusts me already and I would like to flee out of here. I want to first sell everything. Because I wouldn’t know where to go with all the poor household furnishings. Perhaps you can, my Dear, write to dear Zolti (my father- Max Schwartz), perhaps he has connections. My Aladar is not inferior to anyone, he writes and speaks perfect English and he is comfortable in all of them. You are my only hope and salvation. I therefore beg you from here, my Dear, take these things seriously and pull all the strings so that I will again see my child. I would have written to Zolti myself. But I am at this moment not capable of doing that. My hope is for a favorable settlement. I kiss and embrace you in spirit a thousand times. Your deeply unhappy sister in law and Aunt Emma (Weiss - mother of Aldar (Alfred))

Note: Alfred Weiss (42) is a veteran of the Great War and is the son of Emma (62). Alfred was taken into custody on “Kristalnacht”(November 10, 1938) and imprisoned in Dachau for 6 months. He is released on the basis of an affidavit from Zolti (Max Schwartz) that he will sponsor him as an immigrant to the U.S.

73 From: Alfred Weiss, Vienna 2, Praterstr 25/27 English May 10, 1939

Dear Max,

Being back from my stay abroad (Dachau) after several months and feeling so far in good mental and physical health. First of all I take opportunity to answer your kind lines of Nov. 19, 1938 and thank you instantly for all your kindness you have shown to me during this hard time of my being oppressed, especially however for the Affidavit you have remitted so quickly. Unfortunately I have registered only on September 1, 1938 having had absolutely no chance to get an Affidavit at all before so I am afraid I shall not succeed with getting to the United States before 1940 and even not, as I was informed into the Transit-Camp to England since for the stay at the Camp only a time of nine months is to be considered.

Apart of all I am lacking every knowledge whether your Affidavit is to be considered as a satisfactory one as I have not seen it.

I should be very grateful to you for exact information about this very important fact the more as my whole future fate is depending of it being forced to leave the country till June 15,1939. I am working hard and try everything to succeed in another way too as I am going just now to become a butler hoping to obtain by this way a position in England. Apart from that I have got in touch with an acquaintance of mine in Sidney, a late member of the Australian Government whom I met in September 1938 and who promised to help in every way. If I would not have been hindered by the events, you know, perhaps I would have succeeded already with my immigration.

My sisters and brothers partly have already gone. Aronka, I think you will remember her went together with her husband to South-America and lives now at Caracas and they make just a wonderful life as it is to be judged by her letters. Sander is still here awaiting the validity of his Affidavit while Max, Emil, Finni, Ilka and Rudolf have gone to Britain. As I was told by Max yesterday he has good chances to get abroad within the next future and he hopes to help me, too, in a short time if he is successful.

You see, dear Max, we are doing our best too but it is indeed hard to be patient under this circumstances especially in my case. I should even go to Shanghai if I could not overcome my difficulties and either wait there till my Affidavit becomes efficient or to get by this way anyhow to Australia. Cases like that have already happened as I have heard. There was a young man traveling to Shanghai without any chance for his future who having been able to understand English, got in touch with an enormous rich and influential Australian. When he told him about his misfortune ob being an immigrant the Australian cared for a landing permit, a position ask and the man instead of going to Shanghai had everything an emigrant can want and needs not to be an adventurer having secured his future for all his life.

Now I think I have explained to you clearly my plans as for me but I don’t know what I shall do in favor of my dear mother and my children. I am in great sorrow about them although it’s to be hoped I can call for them anyhow if I am already abroad and enabled to make a life.

As for our life I must confess you it is getting more and more hard as we have nothing to live on even not the Support for Unemployed I had before. So it is a very urgent

74 necessity for me to get away from here as quickly as possible. What’s with your sponsorship for uncle Dori and his wife? Their matter is more formidable as they have registered early namely march 1938. We are so far well but everyone is loosing his nerves because of the uncertainty of his future and all the other difficulties as far life- making ask.

How are you and yours? How is Margaret and her husband and you dear father as well as Al with their wives? They are I hope altogether happy and in good health. I should like to stay with you already but this will take a long time still. Because of all my mistakes I have made eventually, but I have forgotten quite a lot of my English during me absence.

Write please immediately. Love to you and yours Your cousin Alfred

75 From: Alfred Weiss, Milan via Lambro 7, Italie English September 7th, 1939 Page 1

Milan, Italy September 7th, 1939

Dear Max, You will kindly excuse my extraordinary long delay in answering your kind lines of May 29th, but my hesitation in this regard was chiefly due to certain unhappy circumstances being in close connection with my stay at the concentration camp and the events having taken place since. When I will tell you, dear Max, all the inexpressible sufferings I went through the last year you would hardly believe a human being is able for having so much mental and physical strength. I must still avoid to tell you details but it is to be hoped I shall soon be enabled for informing you exactly as my turn to get a visa is supposedly to come in a short time. Well when I was released from the concentration camp I simultaneously became exiled despite of the fact of my having been a soldier during the Great War, and ordered to leave Germany till July 30th a term irrevocably fixed and not to be prolonged otherwise I should have been brought once more into the concentration camp and then for life. It would have meant suicide. You have no imagination, dear Max, of the enormous efforts I made in every consideration to escape this danger. Among others there was a chance for people being late prisoners of that kind like myself and being too in possession of an Affidavit to be admitted to the so called Kitchener Camp at Richborough, Kent in England for a temporary stay till their turn for the United States will come. All my efforts in this regard were, however in vain though my predestination was evident. The whole matter was handled by the Jewish Community in Vienna and as it is and mostly used to be there were people accepted whose admission was absolutely not in accordance with the terms mentioned above. Even my application made directly to the head-leader of the Camp, Mr. Norman Bentwich in London, remained unsuccessful. Other undertakings too were without any results. I was fully desperate and already hopeless as everything failed and thought myself already imprisoned again. Besides of that I must care for some earnings too. It was just an unbearable situation and there was seemingly no way to get out of these difficulties. At last, at the very last moment there seemed to be a rescue. It was said at the office of the Community that everyone being in possession of a German passport and having besides of that, a sum of 5 pounds in English currency may stay in Italy for the duration of six months and is permitted to enter the country without a visa. Those having an Affidavit or something like that are preferred. I therefore left for Milano and imagined I shall stay here till my Affidavit become efficient. Besides of that I felt secured since there was an Aid Committee, too, which cared for the refugees as for their nourishment.

76 From: Alfred Weiss, Milan via Lambro 7, Italie English September 7th, 1939 Page 2 Before I left Vienna I made careful preparations for the journey, of course, as it meant to take leave from all my dear relatives and close friends and my native country for ever. I took with me everything one may need especially a great quantity of shirts, underwear, suits some pair of shoes, a winter coat usf in short everything I had and what I had not was bought by friends who cared for. One of my close friends presented me 200 Reichsmarks the sum of which I paid for 5 English pounds. It seemed all right. On July 3oth I entered my train having taken leave of all our relatives and my dear mother with the most bitter feelings you ever can imagine as to the cruelty of Fate. Nevertheless I became quiet again in thinking I shall enjoy some peace and freedom after so many sufferings I went through. Unfortunately I was bitterly disappointed after my arrival here. There goes a saying in our family, produced by our cousin Dr. Alfred Weiss, I think you know him It sounds the Weiss have no luck. And he is right, at last in my present case. Well when I took a room here and put my two trunks down I paid the man who helped me to carry them there and left for some hours my lodging having had to care for some information at the Aid Committee. I returned to find the trunks disappeared. Questions put to the landlady as for the trunks met considerable difficulties as I could not make myself understood in Italian but I would understand so much that the man who was with me fetched them away. I found then someone being able to know Italian and examining the woman learnt as follow: The man having had the appearance and the behavior of a gentleman returned an hour after he has left me to my lodging and told the woman she ought to give him the trunks. She refuse of course first. So he told her a tale that I am a new worker at his firm and need some documents which are in one of the trunks but I have the keys with me and since I am already with the boss there is no time to loss and he is ordered to bring the trunks. The matter is to be considered as a very urgent one otherwise I should not succeed with obtaining the position asf. In short, the woman was a fool believed his words and gave the trunks to the scoundrel who disappeared with. Although I succeeded afterwards with obtaining full information as for his name, date and place of birth, profession inf. and gave an exact personal description to the Police she could not find out the thief as yet. My, dear Max, just imagine this dreadful situation. I am staying in a foreign country without knowing the native language with only one shirt and an old suit. Remittance of money from Germany is forbidden. The sum of 5 pounds which I could only change for 444 Italian Lire has nearly gone during these five weeks. A Lira is about 5 cents while the sum I have to spent at any rate for most necessary things a day is at least 10 Lira excluding rent which amounts to the length of 85 Lira a month. The Aid Committee had been dissolved by the Italian Authorities on August 20th so since that time no support to be expected.

77 From: Alfred Weiss, Milan via Lambro 7, Italie English September 7th, 1939 Page 3 In full knowledge of this dangerous situation I tried toward the end of August to succeed with my admission to the Camp informing Mr. Bentwich about the circumstances I am living in and telling him I am starving and have no shelter and am threatened of being put back to the German Frontier which means to be imprisoned again and hoped the more to succeed now as there were about 800 people at the Camp who might be removed to Australia. Today I received a reply from the Aid Committee in London. It was a refusal. The re-emigration of the men filling the Camp has not taken place because of the war-events. Just the war! Since the days every communication with Vienna had ceased and I am in great sorrows about my family. Only God knows what shall happen now. I have nearly forgotten to mention about my permission to stay here. I received a term till September 1939 showing the money I brought with me. Stay in generally is only allowed for emigrants being in possession of it all and besides people become questioned whether they obtain any financial support from abroad. My whole fortune consists of 80 Lira just a sum for ten days to live on. What then? I have tried to get money from English friend of mine al London but he made no reply as yet. Very likely he will not be able owing to the war. You see, dear max, you are the last to whom I apply for this favor and I do beg you considering the urgency of my matter for a quick remittance of a small sum of money satisfactory to cover the necessary expenses for a month or two. I think within this time if all goes well, to be enabled to join you and yours although I am full aware of the great difficulties preventing me. Till now every emigrant obtained his ticket for the train as well as for the steamer by the Committee. Where shall I take it now when every activity of the Committee in Italy has ceased and War rages in the other countries? You have been very kind to me, dear Max, when you cared for me as for the Affidavit so I dare hope you would not mind helping me once more and would not be annoyed by this. Time will come it is to be hoped soon I shall be able to refund you everything with most of my gratitude. At present, however, I need an utmost urgrently financial help as my life depends upon it. I even do not know whether I can get out my Affidavit from the American Consulate General in Vienna considering the present situation. Under common relations it would be favorable as my registration was done on September 2nd,1938 on German quota. At the Consulate here I cannot get any information maybe because the Counsel General resides in Naples. Perhaps you can help it too. Life is not cheap here and a man in a position like yours makes not more than 500 Lire a month. What I must spend a month to live on in a very modest way is including rent, 400 Lire. So an officer earns $25 - while an emigrant needs at least $20 a month! Strange is it not? How are you and yours, dear Max? I have not heard of you since a very long time owing to the circumstances I have told you. I am pleased in thinking I shall despite of all soon be able to join you and to become a man again after all I have suffered from. With all my love to you and yours. I am, dear Max Your Alfred

78 From: Alfred Weiss, Milan via Lambro 7, Italie English October 3rd, 1939 Page 1 Milano, Italy via Lambro 7 October 3, 1939 Dear Max, I am in receipt of your kind letter of September 22nd including money order for ten dollars. I am very much grateful for this quickly done gift of yours all the more as it arrived just in time to prevent me from getting on the very top of my desperation. I really prepared to face starvation in the cruel meaning of this word and was about the loss of my shelter. Now I am happy in having a way of getting along for at least 20 days. You indeed have no imagination of the increased difficulties life means for an emigrant and I am happy in thinking you and yours have been saved from to met all the horrors and troubles, I went through by you being by chance a free citizen of a free country. What I am sorry for is the fact of your writing to me very shortly Although I do not know very much about you, having not seen you since you was a boy. I should very much like talking with you by correspondence still the more pleasant personal talking could be done. As a matter of fact it is to be hoped to come true in a short time although I have still no idea how things with me are getting on. So far I am informed people having registered in last year’s August are already on their turn and since my registration was done on September 2nd my turn too is to be expected for the next future. By the unhappy circumstance of my having lost all my documents I could not care for the transfer of my papers from the American Consulate in Vienna to Naples as yet since my mother made no reply as to her having remitted Reichsmark 2.60 to the Consulate in Vienna or not to cover the expenses for transferring. I expect however, a letter of hers in the next days telling me about that so I think this matter soon will be settled. What is much more difficult is the care for a ticket. There is as I was informed something like an Aid Committee to be founded or already existing which cares for tickets for these emigrants living temporarily in Italy who cannot move off owing to the dissolution of the Committee in Italy as well as because of the war by which the Hiecem in Ponis is prevented in doing so. Perhaps you will be good enough to help me in getting into touch with this imaginary Committee the address of which is not known to me but which supposedly might be in New York. Please, dear Max, do not be annoyed I am asking you as much not being aware of the likelihood of your having not much time as a businessman and do let me know. What I am very interested in is the way as to how your business is getting on and of which kind it is. It is not mere curiosity but real interest all the more as I have been too busy with insurance though it is years ago now. And as I have really no idea as yet, as to what ti begin when staying in the States I think it would be quite a lot of good to enter this branch of business. I am rather certainly informed about the much more big advantages and increased possibilities of this kind of business compared with the European one. What is your idea about? I have had this plan as a rather vaguely one but, of course, anything must be done. I have got quite a lot of self- confidence since that time of having been busy with insurance so I do not think I shall be failing. After all, I was able to make quite a nice income that time so I hope to force my way through.

79 From: Alfred Weiss, Milan via Lambro 7, Italie English October 3rd, 1939 Page 2

Perhaps you will write about this but it must be said I will endeavor first of all to refund you sums you have remitted to me and those you will still send me in future and then I will have my mother joining me. I have been getting into touch with the Jewish Social Service Agency in Washington as well as with the same Agency in Albany for a supplementary Affidavit yet without any satisfactory result as yet. I shall be very pleased in obtaining a quickly reply of yours in if you please in a more detailed manner. Love to you and yours until I hear from you. Your cousin Alfred

80 From: Alfred Weiss, Milan via Lambro 7, Italie English November 17th, 1939 Page 1

Milano, Italy via Lambro 7 November 17th , 1939 Dear Max, I am very sorry having no reply as yet on my last letter so I do not know whether you have got it or not. I have been vainly expecting any sign of yours till now all the more as I have just presently a great necessity of your help. Yesterday I had a letter from the American Consulate General in Vienna which I am enclosing in order to give you full information. It says as a matter of fact, to care for a second Affidavit as a supplementary document from another sponsor. This I cannot understand all the less as I remember you have had an examination of these documents and they had been accepted as sufficient enough to cover public charge provisions of the American immigration Law. In order that a quick record of the case could be requested I am telling you exactly what I have done in this regard. When I was aware of my having no chance to get to England owing to the outbreak of the War I applied to the Consulate General in Vienna on October 6th for the transfer of my documents to the Consulate General in Naples. I have done it by a registered letter and included simultaneously the remittance of $1 (Reichsmark 2.60) as to cover postage charges. On October 14th I dispatched another registered letter to the Consulate General in Naples enclosing the certificate of the money order and informing the Consulate at Naples about my application to Vienna by including a copy of the letter sent off to Vienna. Besides of that I informed the Consulate at Naples about the place and date of my birth and my habitual residence prior to coming to Italy, the date of my registration at the Consulate general in Vienna (September 2nd,1938, German quota waiting list number 45420) and that I shall not be accompanied by anyone of my family members. I was all the more greatly astonished when I received this information from Vienna as I thought the documents would be already at Naples. By my modest opinion the matter ought not to be treated like that since it belongs not more to the district of the Consulate in Vienna considering my stay in Italy but I have, of course, not the faintest idea of the Immigration law. To have certain information I have got into touch with the American Consulate in Milan where I was told to write once more to Vienna for the transfer of my documents to Naples. As I was told furthermore it is possible that the Consul General in Naples would consider the whole matter from a different point of view and would find the documents sufficient enough to give me permission for a formal Immigration Visa application. That is all as yet.

81 From: Alfred Weiss, Milan via Lambro 7, Italie English November 17th, 1939 Page 2 So you have a clear view how things with me in this regard are going on and I therefore do beg you, dear Max, for doing your best to help me in these troubles of mine. An urgent necessity for a quick and successful result is all the more given as my stay in Italy had been irreversibly fixed with January 30th, 1940 and I run risks of being put back to the German frontier if I have not left till this term. I do not Know whether you have any idea what it would mean but I for my own part am fully convinced of its being a cruel death considering the fact of my having been at the Concentration Camp and my being not permitted to enter Germany. Perhaps you would not believe this horrible danger of mine on the contrary you even cannot have any imagination of things like starvation, isolation asf. and the poor life of an emigrant is forced to lead. I say it is quite impossible in this blessed country of yours, the very country of freedom, equality and justice! You could not believe, dear Max, my being forced to lay at my bed if I am lacking money for food and to avoid suffering from cold, being ill-dressed without a winter coat, ill-sheltered and badly fed. Apart from that the risks of being exiled once more. What I have to live on is just $1 a week a sum just enough as to cover two days life in a very modest way. Please, dear Max, help me in both ways as quickly as you can especially accelerate everything that I might escape this hell as soon as ever possible. Perhaps you could get into touch with the Jewish Local Service Agency at 78 State Street Albany. They have promised to me a supplementary Affidavit for my mother when I applied to this Agency at Washington DC. How are you getting along? You made your last letter of September 22nd very short so I cannot take out of that very much. Are you in correspondence with Margaret and your father? I have not heard about them for a long time and I should dearly love to get in touch with them once more but I have not enough money? If so give my love to them. Write to me please as soon as you are in receipt of this and as exactly as possible especially with regard of the more important parts of this letter. With all my love I am Yours very truly and unhappy Alfred

PS. As an extraordinary favor of yours I do beg you to get in touch with the American Consul General at Vienna (III Richthofengasse 9) by writing a letter to him yourself as an American citizen that he might consider the documents with more favor in regarding the fact of their having been examined and as satisfactory accepted and that he shall transfer these documents to Naples without any delay. In this way perhaps he would agree with having only you as a sponsor and renounce having another to care for who in, I am fully aware, would meet considerable difficulties. Write me soon. Again with all good wishes and love Your Alfred

82 From: Alfred Weiss, Milan via Lambro 7, Italie English December 11, 1939

Milano, Italy via Lambro 7 December 11 , 1939 Dear Max, I am at last in receipt of your long expected letter of November 25th and thank you so very much for the precious enclosure. I am so sorry for being forced to trouble you in this way all the more as the term of my being permitted for a formal application at the Consulate General in Naples seems to be delayed not only owing to the difficulties I have exactly outlined with my letter of November 17 but also by the fact of my having received a letter by the Consulate General in Naples telling me their having not yet received my documents from the Consulate General in Vienna. I do not know why the transferring of these papers had been neglected. I am enclosing to you a copy of the letter I received today from Naples and do beg you to interfere on my behalf at the Consulate General in Vienna for an accelerated transfer of my documents to Naples. Perhaps you could do anything in this regard by getting in touch with the foreign office. I do not know in fact, of course, how to manage it but by my opinion any intervention made at that office, would be of good success. After all, I ought to be already on my turn considering the date of my registration and I should not like an unnecessary delay all the less as my permitted stay in Italy is irreversibly fixed with January 30, 1940 and I am afraid of being put back to the German frontier if I would not be enabled for a departure till this term. Please do me the favor of accelerating my matter in every way you may consider as permissible. I am oppressed by the idea of being a burden upon your kindness as soon as possible not only effectively but also in showing to you all the warm feelings due to me as a close relative. After all, I am very curious on you as grownup man, having no idea about your person and having even no chance to imagine your personality by your letters, considering their being made always very short. I know about your being married but I was very much and joyously surprised in having read about your having a baby. My best congratulation even if late. Whom is he looking like? Are you very proud of your being a father? These feelings of yours I can well understand. Presumably you are very happy. Never mind your being forced to spend more money because of your having a family. What means money compared with happiness and satisfaction family-life presents to us! What is Margaret doing and how is your father? Our relatives in Vienna are thanks to God in good health and I am endeavoring myself to help them as good as I can in sending them sometimes small parcels with butter or something else which they have lack of. About Malvin’s turn I cannot tell you just now exactly as for her admission to America but she will get away pretty soon since her registration was made, too in last year’s September. As soon as I have information I will tell you about. Please, dear Max, kindly let me know as quickly as possible about the steps you have done on my behalf, considering the circumstances I have outlined above. I should be very grateful to you for everything you would do in this regard in my favor. With all my love to you and your dear family, unfortunately unknown to me, I am Yours very sincerely, Alfred

83 From: Alfred Weiss, Milan via Lambro 7, Italie English January 31, 1940 Page 1 Milan, Italy January 31,1940 Dear Max, Being not yet in receipt of any reply of yours on my letters of November 17 and December 12, 1939 I am inclined to the conclusion of your having not received them or of your having not saved time enough to answer them. In accepting the fact of your being in receipt of these letters of mine you will have taken out of the enclosures how my matter stands. I am enclosing for you further information two other copies of letters I have forwarded simultaneously with yours to the Consulate General in Vienna for the purpose of having transferred my documents to the Consulate General in Naples which ought to be done all the more urgently as my turn for a formal visa application in fact would be reached within the next time. I indeed do not know what I am to do to face these difficulties which were arising now and I fail with every argumentation. What I chiefly cannot understand basis of the following conclusion: You have informed me in last year’s June that the documents you have forwarded to the Consulate in Vienna had been given a preliminary examination and they had been accepted as sufficient enough as to cover the public charge provisions of the immigration law. This explanation of yours strengthened, of course, my confidence and hopes for the future and I joyously looked toward the turn of my being permitted to enter the States and to rebuild my life after all these sufferings I went through and the distress I have still to face. That letter of the Consulate, I have originally forwarded to you showed to me that anything was wrong. But as no further explanation was made I could not comprehend why this immigration letter was sent to me at all and why I must have another Affidavit and another sponsor. The matter is all the more a riddle to me as I have never seen your documents considering my enforced stay off Vienna at that time. On the other hand I have met a great many of people who are in possession of copies of their affidavits. Now the question arises, if the documents are good why is there a demand for other ones, on the other hand, even if they are not sufficient, why their transfer had not been done as yet. As a further complication of the whole matter there had been a letter transmitted to the Consulate in Naples on January 8, 1940 in which the Consulate in Vienna simply explains that the document was not on file there at all. Now, dear Max, what is to be done? I have got information at the Consulate in Milan, which unfortunately only deals with commercial matters, whereon the only quick successful solution could be found in having another Affidavit at all. You know as well as I, that your kindness in assisting me with these documents, demanded for, is only a matter of formality and I shall never become a burden upon you. If you can help me by your intervention at the Consulate in Vienna or at the White House or anyhow else that I shall receive the documents being still in Vienna, to be transferred to Napes I shall deeply appreciate everything you would do in my behalf. And if these documents possibly would not do, please do me the favor and send me others. Just imagine what it would mean to me if I were prevented of entering the States just on the threshold of a happier future! And think on our other dear relatives who are still suffering in the hell and whom I should dearly love to help out of it afterwards.

84 From: Alfred Weiss, Milan via Lambro 7, Italie English January 31, 1940 Page 2

Do your best, dear Max, as a dear relative, as a sympathizing human being and let me know, please, as quickly as possible what you will do and what you have induced on my behalf. Don’t be worried in having not superfluous money to send me and do not delay your reply therefore. Soon I will have a dog’s life and force my way through anyhow knowing that redemption would come at last by getting after all to the States. How are you, dear Max, and your dear family? I have told to our relatives in Vienna the news of your having a boy and they are joyously delighted especially my dear mother who is curious to know after whom he is named and whom he is looking like. She is also transmitting to you and your dear wife her heartfelt congratulations. Malvin’s turn would also be reached but she has still a necessity of having a supplementary document, which they generally call in Vienna freundschaftsbrief? Perhaps you can tell this to your dear father. Give my love to him and also to dear Margaret and all the other dear relatives. I should dearly love to be already among you. With all my love to you and yours I am, dear Max Please write immediately. Yours Alfred

85 From: Alfred Weiss, Milan via Lambro 7, Italie English March 2, 1940 Page 1

Milan, Italy March 2,1940 Dear Max, Having no reply of yours on my various letters since December 1939 and being, therefore , fully uninformed about the possible steps you would have been kind enough to take on my behalf in the meantime, you will excuse me my annoying you once more with this. According to the enclosed copy my documents had been received now by the Consulate General in Naples but, unfortunately, are not considered as sufficient there being in contradiction with the results of the preliminary examination these documents had before their having been forwarded to Vienna. As a matter of fact I ought to have any further supplementary documents and I, therefore, do beg you, dear Max, do not desert me now and send me these still necessary documents, requested for by the Consulate that I may succeed with getting away from here and have a chance to rebuild my in the whole destructed life. At this occasion I cannot help accenting once more my not becoming a burden upon you as you might as well consider everything you will still do on my behalf as a matter of formality. There have been and are still so many Americans, even strangers showing their full understanding and not refusing their assistance to those poor victims of Nazi rule as I am rather certain of finding somebody among your friends who would be kind and able enough to do you this favor. And, please do not let me wait vainly on your reply. You ought to understand my horrible situation in generally as I have outlined it to you repeatedly and especially now I am all the more unquiet, knowing my being already on my turn for a formal application and being only prevented to embark myself by the insufficiency of the documents. By the way everything is settled as for ticket and other expenses (Consular fees, taxes usf) as this would be paid by the Committee at the moment I can show my Visa. So if you would do me the favor of remitting to me these still necessary evidences as soon as possible nothing could prevent me from embarking myself to the States thus being enabled to become again a free and happy man. I say purposely free since a life, I am forced to live under the present circumstances is rather similar to that in a concentration camp. This horrible enforced inactivity, the dullness of days and insults following each other in eventless monotony and the sorrows how to survive the next day are very depressing. Besides of that there is the fear of being put back to the German frontier. My permitted stay in Italy has run off on January 30, 1940 and I have to face the risks of a not permitted to stay here. Besides of that you must not forget that being a Jew means as well considered as an outcast under the Italian Racial Laws as he might be in Nazi Germany. In having outlined by the way how circumstances are in fact I am rather certain of your doing your best for a quick and successful result on my behalf. You may be certain of my full gratitude in anticipation. I do even not wish your supporting me with money considering your own difficulties and despite of my having a bitter necessity for it. You see, dear max, I have forced my way anyhow during these three months without your financial support although, as I must admit, with quite considerable difficulties, so I could all the more battle with life at the States, if allowed to work.

86 From: Alfred Weiss, Milan via Lambro 7, Italie English March 2, 1940 Page 2

I do not know very much about our dear relatives, still in Vienna. Uncle Dori and his wife will, perhaps, succeed with getting to Palestine, while my dear mother having no prospects at all, must, remain in Germany. I go mad with the idea of knowing them all still in that hell without having the power to get them out in the near future, a reason more why I am so desirous of succeeding with my own case. I would do everything I could afford to get them over too. How are you and your dear family? I should be very much enjoyed in having a picture of you and your family. Your little offspring, I imagine, must be already a lively little boy. Is he already walking? I should like you telling me something about him. You know I am very fond of babies. I do beg you dear Max for your quick reply on this. Please, do not let me wait. With all my love to you and yours I am Yours sincere, Alfred

89 90 From: Alfred Weiss, Milan via Lambro 7, Italie English July 22, 1940

Milan, Italy July 22, 1940 Dear Max, I am fully desperate about your having not made any reply on my last letter all the more as I am facing with every day’s lapse my being imprisoned at some camp for the duration of the present war. What this terrible event means you will well understand from the descriptions, if only in part, I have given to you in my letters about a year ago. Everyone makes his escape as quickly as possible and without considering financial sacrifices, who has been already so lucky as to have had his visa granted in June. With the beginning of the new quota year, this is to say on July 1, 1940, owing to altered instructions given to the American Consulates all over Europe new difficulties have emerged as to the granting of a visa since the immigrant must prove securities for the possibility of his departure in showing a ticket as well as a bill for the airplane communicating between Rome and Lisbon otherwise he would be refused to get a visa at all. As I have already mentioned to you the Aid Committee does not grant any means for journey and visa expenses since the entering of Italy into the war, thus I have to face with difficulty of lacking the means for my departure. To put it frankly, the sum I would need amounts to about $150 excluding the ticket itself, which, however could be cared for by paying its price by weekly installments of $4. I know ,dear Max, your certainly not being able to raise a sum like that but considering the vital importance of the whole matter you must be conscious of saving a man’s life, literally, in doing everything to afford the sum and the tickets and to let me have them as soon as possible. For even if I should become imprisoned meanwhile I would be dismissed in proving my possibility of departure to the authorities. You have been so kind to me once in saving my life from the hell of Dachau so I implore you, do not let me down now, when my situation will become probably more dangerous considering my being a foreigner in a warfaring country under special views and not at least, without any means looking toward a hostile and uncertain future. Having got nobody all over the world, except you, who has shown so much kindness and understanding toward my unhappy fate. I confidently do rely on your willingness to help me. But, please, act quickly ere it is, perhaps too late. With love to you and yours and all heartfelt gratitude in anticipation. Yours very unhappy, Alfred

Note: This letter actually delivered in October 1940. It was mailed by a Dr. Leon Marienberg, 206 West 96th Street, New York City with a cover note dated October 1, 1940. The cover letter tells us that Alfred has already been interned in a camp in Italy. So it looks like letters were being hand carried from this camp.

91 From: Alfred Weiss, CasermaConcezione, Campagna, Prov.Salerno English September 20, 1940 Page 1

Campagna, Italy September 20,1940 Dear Max, This I am writing, I should say, in addition to my letter of September 4, 1940 and under the impression of the most bitter disappointment I ever had in life. Regarding the gravity of my present situation, of my being limited in my personal liberty for a term uncertain in its extent. I cling to you with all my hopes and expectations for my further future like a drowning man to a straw. For the purpose of a better understanding I should like giving you a short review of my matter. On February 20, 1940 the Consulate General in Naples confirmed to me the receipt of my documents from the Consulate General in Vienna pointing out their not being adequate since my sponsor does not dispose upon financial reserves sufficient enough to maintain a dependent for an indefinite period in the future. He suggested to me new documents to be submitted to that office otherwise no further steps could be taken in my case. I informed you about but having not succeeded with the receipt of these supplementary documents until May 20, 1940 I on this day made another application to the Consulate applying to the generosity and benevolence of the respective Vice Consul to show indulgence toward the insufficiencies of my documents in pointing out their having been given a preliminary examination prior to their coming to Vienna and their having been considered as satisfactory by the respective authorities in the U.S.A. As a result of this application the Consulate General in Naples confirmed by a letter of May 24, 1940 that is about my being on my turn during July 1940 that is to say when new quota numbers are available. In considering this explanation as a fixed matter of fact I applied to you and the person whose name I have mentioned to you for the ticket asf. After having left Milan for here towards the end of July without having been in receipt of further news by the Consulate as for the exact terms of my being admitted for my formal visa application I informed on August 20, 1940 the Consulate about my new address and asked for the a forsaid term. On this I had the Consulate’s reply and was nearly thunderstruck after having read it. Originally written in Italian there follows its translation into English. “Sir: In reply to your letter dated of August 20, 1940 you are informed that immigration visa can only be conceded to persons, who have demonstrated their not becoming a public charge, if admitted to the United States. On February 20, 1940 your case had been explained to you and your sponsor had been informed on April 3, 1940 about the situation of your matter. In the meantime no new documents had been received. Until these are not stated as being received, no consideration can be given to your case.”

92 From: Alfred Weiss, CasermaConcezione, Campagna, Prov.Salerno English September 20, 1940 Page 2

This letter being in contradiction to the former of May 24, 1940 I immediately got into touch with a certain Mr. Herrmann in Naples who as a representative of the Aid Committee also supported my former application with sufficient success, and asked for his intervention in my favor at the Consulates but all his endevors in this respect were in vain, as he wrote me and he also could not do anything else as to give me the advice of turning to you. By what circumstances this unfavorable turning has occurred I have not the slightest idea but might be found in the more severe provisions being now in force as well as perhaps in the fact of the Vice Consul having given the favorable view of my case, might have left for U.S.A. while his successor does not share his fellow consul's ’pinion. May it be as it is, as a grave matter of fact I am bereft of my hopes of becoming soon a free man again and thus enjoying after years of suffering again freedom and happiness. Everything depends upon you now, dear Max, it is you who could help me to get out of the concentration camp; as you have once indirectly done. I rely upon you and instantly beg you to answer the request of the Consulate in transmitting the necessary documents mentioned in the letter of April 3, 1940. I simultaneously got into touch with all the other persons, to whom I have applied for a ticket and shall beg them for the same favor of transmitting to me the documents in question. I do not want to molest you, dear Max. I also do not want to cause you expenses or becoming a burden upon you, what I want is simply to save my life, my marked life, indeed and to have sometimes perhaps a chance of reunion with my beloved mother and my other dear relatives. I suggest to you once more my trying situation and am certain of not having failed to your heart with this request of mine. Your quick help is just now of urgent necessity. Have my full gratitude in anticipation. Write me soon, please, and do not let me down. I hope you are well and so is your dear family. Our relatives in Vienna are all right and have not to be afraid of anything while I am in a big hole so to speak. With all my love to you and your dear ones. I am Yours very unhappy Alfred

93 From: Alfred Weiss, CasermaConcezione, Campagna, Prov.Salerno English March 10, 1941 Page 1

Campagna, Italy March 10, 1941 Dear Cousin Max, I was, indeed, very much pleased in having your kind lines of January 9, 1941 and nearly would not trust my eyes when seeing your familiar handwriting on the envelope. After all, it has been almost exactly a full year since you wrote last to me and, I frankly admit, I did not expect having any further news from you at all. Now you can all the more understand my having been joyfully surprised when receiving thus unexpected your letter. Of course, I am not enjoyed about your having failed as yet with finding somebody who would sign but I am fully aware of the considerable difficulties you are facing in this regard and I do know them. Nevertheless I am so much grateful to you for any further troubles of yours on my behalf and confidently trust to your cleverness of being successful yet. The Consul told me about his having informed you on April 3, 1940 regarding the insufficiencies of your documents. Meanwhile I also tried to find out some other way of getting to the States. When I was still in Milan I became acquainted with a certain Mr. Fuchs, who gave me the address of his sister in New York suggesting to me that she certainly would produce an Affidavit for me if I were unmarried and perhaps going to marry her. There follows her address Miss Erna Fuchs % Granlich, 615 Crown Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. In having immediately got in touch with that lady, she informed me on October 2, 1940 about her having suggested to her cousin, Mr. Ralph Spiraner his being helpful to me in my case and he as she assured me showed his willingness of doing so. I ought to apply she wrote furthermore, to him with a letter in English and pointing out exactly my case. I posted my letter on December 16, 1940, enclosing a photograph of mine according to her further request in the aforementioned letter of hers. As yet, however, I am still lacking any reply. The letter to Mr. Spiraner I also have addressed to Miss Fuchs having not had his own. Well as I have said, I had no reply of that people. On the other hand however there came an information to me by the Jewish Aid Committee in Geneva some weeks ago, according to which somebody has paid 72 Dollars to the “Hias” in New york on my behalf, the sum of which appears to be an installment for the ticket. Since it was not you as I can take out of your letter, it necessarily must have been that lady respectively her cousin. Of course, I asked the Committee for information in this respect but as yet, I had no reply. What do you make of that, dear Max?

94 From: Alfred Weiss, CasermaConcezione, Campagna, Prov.Salerno English March 10, 1941 Page 2 But be it as it may I should deeply appreciate your doing me the favor of getting into personal touch with the aforesaid lady and her cousin for the purpose of some collaboration between you and them and I fully rely upon your abilities as a diplomat. These people are by my information very well off and therefore I expect their sponsoring me will be a full success. Of course, you also would not have to make certain precautions as there are your personal assurances of my wundering their favor to me as an only formal matter and my never becoming any burden upon them. Besides I should like remarking my not being obliged to Miss. Fuchs in any case as she herself assured me in her letter. Well, dear Max, I expect you will make the best of it. I remember you having been always so clever when a boy and I fully rely upon you but, please, don’t let me wait any longer as it appears to be necessary. Don’t forget my being a prisoner of this camp these being seven months and my longing for a regained personal liberty after all I had to go through these last years. I have furthermore applied on June 20, 1940 to a certain Abraham Weiss of 14 South Street, putnam, Conn whose address I received anyhow for an Affidavit. This gentleman, however, has turned over my letter to the Philadelphia branch of the Hebrew Sheltering and immigration Aid Society of 330 South 9th Street, Philadelphia, PA fir attention. They informed me on November 1, 1940 about their being unable to obtain an Affidavit for me since it is impossible to secure Affidavits from strangers at present and suggested to me my naming them relatives and close friends in the States whom they could approach in this matter. Perhaps they also would lend you a helping hand in my favor. There follows furthermore a list of persons whom I have known personally when still in Vienna but who are themselves new comers to America being there about a year or so. Mr. Josef Holzstein, 1856 Anthony Ave., New York, Bronx Mr. A. Rottenberg,3797 Michigan Richton, Detroit Mr. Bloch % Brartberg, 198 Neptune Ave., Brooklyn Maybe they or their relatives could help anyhow. What about Charles Gerstl at Cleveland, I think and the National Counsel of Jewish Women of 1819 Broadway, New York? I am very much enjoyed about you and your dear family getting along nicely. As for me I am quite well being in first class health but as a matter of course I should dearly love my becoming soon an free and happy man again. Our family members in Vienna are also well getting along so far as I am informed. Please write to me as soon as possible and if so in a positive way. With all my love to you and your beloved ones. I am dear Max Yours very truly, Alfred Visa can be reserved if documents are sufficient and ticket can be shown to the Consul.

95 From: Rudolf/Helene Hirsch, Vienna 9, Harmoniegasse 10/15 German April 15, 1946

Vienna, Austria April 15, 1946 Meine Liebste Margit Finally from you a sign of life. I have written countless times, sent telegrams each time without answer. Also I sent Samu- Baci (uncle?) uninterrupted telegrams, that I only knew your address. Please dear Margaret I make no reproach to you. I am glad and joyous to finally to get a letter from you. I thank you also many times that you have information about my sister Finni. I am in contact with her, have already received a letter. We have very much to tell and could write a novel to you. My heart bleeds for the many, many of our loved ones who lost their lives because of this Beast Hitler. Above all our dear only mother is not to be found. We visited all Poland where everyone was carried off too, in order to find a trace. However in vain. Of Max I only know that he went in 1943 to Czechoslovakia and was taken on the last transport to Theresienstadt (concentration camp). I have reports from the inhabitants of the Camps that it is possible that he lives. Therefore I will not for the present give up hope. Alfred lives in Palestine. Schandor our Schwarz if you remember him lives God be Thanked. Our Laci my youngest brother survived 7 terrible years in Vienna. About Dori -Baci(uncle?), Netti-nani(aunt?), the children Bela, Karl and Gisi I know nothing. Malvin- Nani (aunt?)is murdered. Supposedly Karl was killed in action. Bela was in a prisoner of war camp, was freed and went to Palestine where he lives today and is the father of children. Gisi was in Budapest, of her I unfortunately know nothing. Hedwig, her husband, children and grandchildren, Julia also all of our loved ones have been killed by these cowardly Nazis murderers. I will not stir you up any more. You certainly have your own sorrows. I congratulate you dear Maragret on your 2 splendid children. Of them I write to Emil and Finni. What are you doing my dear Margaret. Are you at home or do you have your own profession? What is your husband’s profession? You write almost nothing about yourself. What is your brother doing, how did your father die? Please write when you have time with more detail. I thank you dear Margaret for the $10 I didn’t know from whom it came. Also the bank couldn’t give me any information about it. Besides in Vienna as a consequence of the War regime there is still nothing to buy. I ask you not to send money. With the food supply everything is a bit scarce, but for us things are good , as long as we are able to get some support from the Americans. If you are willing and able could you send us some old clothing we would be very thankful. Don’t worry too much about us. The most important thing is that we are in contact with all our survivors. Healthy we are not after the hell. Too much experienced and seen. My husband is not yet home so he will write to you next time. Now dear Margaret be heartily greeted and kissed many times. Von Deiner Ilka und Rudolf

96 From: Fini&Emil, S. E. Wang, 41 Randolph Ave. London W 9 English April 17, 1946 Page 1 S. E. Wang 41 Randolph Avenue, London, W. 9. 17.4.46 Dear Margit: Many thanks for your letter. You have probably received our letter in the meantime which we posted at about the same time as you. We are sorry you did not receive our answer which we wrote about two years ago. Though we sent a wire to Ilka and Rudi about a month ago we have not yet received their answer. In the meantime we sent them a letter and messages through persons who went to Vienna on April 8th. A letter from Vienna to London takes on the average between 3 to 5 weeks. The delay is due to censorship. Therefore we are expecting their answer every day. In the American newspaper “Der Aufbau” (Jewish paper, written in German) you will find many advertisements of American firms for sending food - parcels to Europe. Some are specialized for Austria. The best way seems to be to send them from Denmark where some of these firms seem to have their connections. Most of them seem not to be reliable but we are sure the Jewish institutions which are doing welfare work for Jewish people in Austria and Germany (we mean Jewish -American institutions in your big towns, perhaps there is a central institution for this purpose) could advise you on this matter. We sent a food parcel to a British soldier serving in Vienna to be forwarded to Ilka and Rudolf and we hope they will receive it. Do you perhaps know of an American soldier serving in Vienna? We do not think these kind of things are allowed, but we do not know any other way out of this misery to help these poor survivors of Nazism. We lost contact with Aranka about 5 years ago. They were getting on very well in their first year in Venezuela. They had a boarding house well frequented by people who appreciated their good cooking. But unfortunately the outbreak of war brought an end to this lucky start. They had to give up everything they had saved and were looking for a job and moving from Caracas to another place in Venezuela. We shall make inquires about them through the International Red Cross. Perhaps there is a Jewish community in Venezuela. We have passed on to Alfred who is in Palestine your address and you might receive a letter from him shortly. He works in some capacity for the British Army. He feels rather lonely in the small town of Nathanya (between Tel-Aviv and Haifa) where he is serving. His address is: Alfred Weisz, c/o Tinter, Smylansky Street, Nathanya, Palestine. We are longing to see him. Bela (uncle Dori’s son) married a Lithuanian girl and works hard for his living at a flour mill and Karl (Jakob) returned to Palestine after his liberation. We appreciate your warm sympathy for all of us the more as you yourself have probably to struggle for your own family. May you, your husband, and your two children be successful in life. –

97 From: Fini&Emil, S. E. Wang, 41 Randolph Ave. London W 9 English April 17, 1946 Page 2

There is not much to say about me and Emil. After an adventurous flight from Austria to England via Czechoslovakia, Poland (and Sweden in the case of Emil) we found each other in London again. The Nazis had caught me on the way and imprisoned me for 3 ½ weeks. Altogether I had five times to cross the frontier illegally, as we had no visa to any country. We came to England in collective transports and were treated generously. We shall never forget it. I work as a kitchen hand at a great restaurant and catering firm, Emil works there in the office. Somehow we manage to get through. We could not complain. The last seven years have made us much older. Please let us know more about you and your family. All our love to all of you finni & Emil

98 From: Rudolf/Helene Hirsch, Vienna 9, Harmoniegasse 10/15 German April 29, 1946

Vienna, Austria 29 April 1946 My dear Margit!

Our letters have crossed. We received your last letter on 24 April meanwhile I now answer you and you probably are already in possession of my letter.

I thank you once again many times, for all of your efforts. I can communicate that I am already in contact with Finny and a have thoroughgoing postal service proof. She has also written me about Alfred from whom I have heard nothing for 7 years. I am extremely happy to know that he is alive. In any case I am also extremely thankful to you and your brothers for everything that you have done for us. I have already given Finni Alfred’s address.

My heartfelt regards to your children. And if it is possible dear Margit send pictures of you and your brothers. I am eager to see hoe all of you look and also of your home send a picture. Can your brothers still remember me? Certainly not. Where have all the beautiful years gone. What are you doing dear Margit? Write to us please, what you do in the entire day. Do you have a pretty home. I am amazed that you still write such good German.

Please send no money. For the present I can do nothing with money. When are you going to take another European trip on the Queen Mary? I would to see you very much with your husband and children. In the meantime 10 terrible years have past. When you were in Vienna in 1936 everyone was much happier. I can’t get thoughts of my dear Mama (Emma) out of my head. Day and night I think of her. I can not sleep. These Nazi beasts have poisoned our life. We have very little joy in life. I don’t want to weep to you dear Margit. You certainly have your own troubles.

Please write soon and for today warm embraces and kisses from your Ilka und Rudi

99 From: Emil Schwartz, 41 Randolph Ave, London English June 4, 1946

41, Randolph Avenue, London, W9. 4.6.46 Dear Margit:: We are happy that Sandor my brother turned up in a little town in Germany (on the Austrian border). He writes in his letter that he was 7 years “in hell”. Probably he means in a concentration camp. He lost 50 kg (from 96 kg to 46 kg) He has well recovered since and is getting on well. As you know Ilka and Rudi are not so badly off. Only Lazy (Ludwig Weiss) seems to be in bad circumstances. We were glad to receive your letter and appreciate your motherly attitude toward the suffering of our beloved ones. We are happy that with your help it was possible to restore our connection with Aranka and Walter. The only ones which we must consider as lost is our dear mother and Max (Max came with the last transport to a concentration camp). The Jewish Community in Budapest to whom we wrote for information about Malvine and Samu Loevin about 3 months ago did not answer. There is an American aid organization which was extended to Austria. The cost of a food parcel, weighing about 3? Pounds is supposed to be 15 dollars and can be sent to individual addresses in Austria. We should be too glad to pay the corresponding amount to designated persons in England in Pounds to cover your expenses in order to send some food to Lazy. Ilka writes he looks like a toothless old man and has with his 42 years a striking semblance to dear uncle Dory. We are deeply moved by the old man’s fate and aunt Netty’s too. The name of the American aid is: CARE ( Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe, Inc.) The CARE takes care for the transport of the goods, storage and delivery to the receivers in Austria who get the packages free of charge. We hope you are not crossed because of our everlasting bother but there is nearly no chance of sending food to Austria from this country. It is nice to hear that your family is OK though you have to care for two children. It must have been hard for you and of course your husband when he worked at printing jobs and in the steel mills during the war. We too are getting on well and came just back from our holidays and found your letter. Of course we do not know what the future holds for us. We shall send you snapshots which our nephew is going to take. It is a long time since we saw you in Vienna and we shall be glad to receive your nice letters and some of your photos. All our love to both of you Emil and finni

100 From: Rudolf/Helene Hirsch, Vienna 9, Harmoniegasse 10/15 German July 30, 1946

Vienna, Austria July 30, 1946 My dear Max,

Today I received your package with much joy and thanks, and am really pleased with your attentiveness.

You certainly can no longer remember me. Perhaps one day in the future we will be allowed to get together for a little bit and talk. We certainly have a lot to say.

What are you doing? I would be very happy if you would write a short note sometime. Perhaps a picture of you and your dear wife and child. You are certainly very busy and have very little time.

From Margit, your sweet golden sister, I receive frequent letters. I am so overjoyed to hear from our very few surviving relatives that I can hardly tell you. Sadly I have lost my dearest ones through these terrible Nazi murderers.

With us there is nothing new. My dear husband works for the Vienna municipality and I am at home. Now I won’t keep you up any longer and thank you once again very deeply for your gift. Perhaps I can someday return the kindness.

It is really unpleasant for me to claim your help but God willing it will get better soon and I will be able to reciprocate gratefully for your good works.

Stay healthy and let me embrace your unknown family. I hope for an answer soon from you.

Ilka und Rudi

101 From: Ludwig Weiss, Vienna 2 Praterstr 11, Austria German August 6, 1946

Vienna, Austria August 6, 1946 My dear cousin Max! With great surprise and therefore double the joy, I received your package today, for which you are assured of my deepest thanks. I believe that dear Margaret will have already given you extensive information about my sad and dreary situation, therefore I don’t want to trouble you with these unpleasant things. I really know very little about you and your life, and as much as I well remember Margaret from the time that you all left Europe, I really cannot recall either you or your brother. As a result, I value your gift even that much more and I would be happy if I could say these gifts were no longer necessary. Unfortunately, the current situation is such, that such packages become bright spots in our otherwise bleak existence. If you wouldn’t find it too difficult, I would really enjoy it if now and then I could see a few lines from you. Although, I have the impression that you don’t write much but rather whisper some. To put you at ease, I’m the same way. Once again heartfelt thanks and I embrace you. L (Ludwig Weisz)

102 From: Schandor, Steininger gasse 3 Niederbayern, Passau German August 26, 1946

Passau, Germany am, 26.August, 1946 Dear Margaret! This week after 8 years I received my first report from you. It makes me very happy that you dear cousin are married and happy. It would make me very happy if I received a note from you telling me how things were going with you. It has been 9 long years since I last saw you. Now dear Margaret I will give you a short description of what I endured in the Hell of the Concentration Camps of the 1000 year Reich. I was on 1 December 1938 taken into custody and forced to work in a factory. On the 18 of January 1942 my wife and I were taken out of our home and sent to Riga in Latvia. Already on the trip 28 men and women were frozen to death. At the arrival in the station we were received by the SS with clubs and whips and many were killed and hurt. You can imagine how this worked on our nerves. Of the 1200 who boarded the train in Vienna 850 arrived in the Ghetto. You can imagine in what sort of condition. After 14 days I was separated from my dear wife and arrived in the Hell of Salaspils. We worked 12 to 14 hours daily in -28 degree (14 F) cold and 3 times a day one got a half litter of warm water called coffee and soup and 250 grams of bread. And in addition, once 25 and another time 20 hits on the behind, more for the least reason. Dear Margaret you can vividly imagine our state of mind. Daily a few prisoners were hanged, shot or beaten. After 4 months in this Hell I weighed 42 kilograms (92 lb.) and near death. Through luck I was taken to a hospital. After 6 months I was halfway back to health in shape to work. On the 6th of August 1944 my wife and I were brought to Germany in a ship. On the 10th of August I was separated from my wife and heard nothing more from her since then, probably killed by these bandits. Also our good mother, Max and the children of Alfred were killed by these criminals. Under unending agony after I was already given up by the medical doctor, liberation finally came on the 16th of April 1945 through the Americans. I was again in a Hospital and became thus saved. Today after 16 months of freedom I am pretty much okay and I can make ends meet and can sort of live. Now dear Margaret I have told you in short form my painful story and you can make your own little picture of it. Now I have a little favor to ask of you. If it is possible for you to send me a food package above all cigarettes and chocolate would be especially useful to me. Don’t send money. Now I will close and thank you in advance. Greeting and kisses for you dear Schwartz cousins. Schandor. Many hearty greetings and kisses to Uncle Schannu, to your dear brother and unknowingly to your dear man. Schandor My address is: Passau, Steininger gasse 3 Niederbayern Alexander Weiss, Deutschland, U. S. Zone 13 B

Note: I believe that Schandor’s last name is Schwartz. In their April 15, 1946 letter Ilka & Rudi refer to him as “Schandor our Schwarz”. In the June 4, 1946 letter from Emil & Finni, I believe written by Emil, he is referred to as “Sandor my brother”.

103 From: Rudolf/Helene Hirsch, Vienna 9, Harmoniegasse 10/15 German September 6, 1946

Vienna, Austria September 6, 1946 My dear Margit!

I have just received a package of clothing for which I give you much thanks. Nothing fits, but that doesn’t matter. I will have everything altered to fit. The shoe I will barter for others. With us there is nothing new, other than that I am thankfully in contact with my siblings. It is going well with them God be thanked but they all want to go home. They are terribly home sick. It is still not good here, so I have advised them to wait at least a year. Dear Margit, I am sending you your $10 back. Please don’t be angry, but I can’t do anything with it here. I thank you in any case again for your splendid help and conveying the support items listed here

1 pair men’s brown shoes 1 pair women’s white shoes 2 men’s - white underpants 1 men’s - striped shirt 4 women’s dresses 1 women’s wool vest 1 women’s cloth vest 3 women’s Hoserl 1 Damen Combniege 1 women’s bra 1 pair women’s gloves 3 pair men’s socks 1 bar of soap safety pins, needles hair clasp, 2 spools of thread, 2 pair Fuhnuhbiemder

What’s happening with you? Please send us a picture of you and your husband and children. I am eager to see you. When are you going to again take a trip to Europe? Now it is more difficult than last time. Now you are already a happy mother and have enough to do. Otherwise you should make the trip. My dear Mama (Emma) is for me unforgettable and all other of our dear relatives are no more. Life is truly very sad. Are you in contact with Ernö? He feels terribly lonely and wants to emigrate. Dear Margit please write soon and stay healthy likewise your family.

Kisses and embraces for you.

Ilka und Rudi

104 From: Ludwig Weiss, Vienna 2 Praterstr 11, Austria German September 19, 1946

Dear Margit, It has been quite a while since we last exchanged letters. However, writing has always been one of my many weaknesses. It always requires a certain push to get me to undertake and complete such heavy work. This time it concerns a letter that you wrote to Ilka 8-10 weeks, maybe longer, ago. In that letter you mentioned to her that you had mailed me a 25 lb. package. As much as I was overjoyed by this news, and had already estimated the time at which I might embrace this beautiful gift and be able to press it to my heart, my hopes have now been dashed. Because I don’t know whether you sent this package by post or perhaps entrusted its transmittal to some other institution (CARE?) I’m not able to make any inquiries as to the status from this end. I would therefore like to ask you to make those inquiries on your end. In this regard I would like to mention that parcel Post deliveries here from overseas seem to be proceeding quite normally, and that I know of cases where parcels are received regularly in four weeks, and no one has yet had to complain of a loss. So dear Margit, please try your luck, because without question, in the event that it was lost you should make the claim for compensation. As for myself, not much has changed. You only need to recall what I wrote you in my first letter. My situation as described therein hasn’t changed; if anything it’s gotten worse. Furthermore, winter is coming and that threatens to pose severe difficulties for me as well as for my wife. Both of us lack nearly everything – from head coverings to shoes— however enough of that, otherwise my bitterness will be expressed in words that remain better left unspoken. It would seem to be a law that those who are poor will be even poorer, and to those who already have, even more will be given. Please don’t be angry with me if I have troubled you. Give my regards especially to your children and to your husband. L (Ludwig Weisz)

105 From: Ludwig Weiss, Vienna 2 Praterstr 11, Austria German October 8, 1946

Dear Margit, Today I have to put all other thoughts aside in order to plead with you to help me. For the past week, my poor wife has been in jail, for a reason that, on the surface, seems absolutely ridiculous. I’m not even able to bring her a package with food or clothes, because I have neither one nor the other. It is already quite cold here and you can well imagine what a bitter situation she finds herself in, to say nothing about myself. If there is any way that you can possibly do it, please send me as soon as possible food (maybe a CARE package) coats, sweaters, shoes,.. or stockings, dresses, any kind of warm clothes, whatever it may be and in whatever condition it might be in. Please no money, however, because its exchange value is ridiculously small (i.e. I wouldn’t be able to buy much with it), although my greatest need might be for some money in order to be able to pay for a lawyer. However, in this regard a package would be of greater help to me. Do you understand me? Please don’t mention anything to Ilka, who would certainly help me if she were alone, however her husband won’t do it and therefore I haven’t said a word to them about my sad plight and don’t intend to either. Don’t be angry, dear Margit, do only whatever you can and as soon as possible. I’ll fill you in with the rest of the details as soon as I can catch my breath again. Until then, your deeply stricken one embraces you. L (Ludwig Weisz)

106 From: Ludwig Weiss, Vienna 2 Praterstr 11, Austria German October 20, 1946

Dear Margit, Your long ago announced and awaited package was finally handed over to me today, for which I express my heartiest thanks to you. However, I am somewhat disappointed in its contents relative to its gross weight of 50 lb. Three quarters of the package consisted of the packing materials alone! Furthermore it did not contain any of those things that are perhaps most important to us such as meat, for example, fat of any kind, sugar, cooking oil. As a housewife you can perhaps understand best of all that these kinds of things are really basic. You shouldn’t consider the preceding as any criticism of what you’ve done, as I don’t believe that you knew anything about the contents. Be that as it may, I’m quite satisfied and extremely grateful to you. If you should ever again be able to send us something, and if possible, please put the package together yourself, or maybe such a one as… Naturally, only then when it is in accord with the declared value. Please, don’t misunderstand me, that the greatest effect is achieved with the least possible expenditure & effort. My most recent letter, that you should have received by now must certainly have frightened you, and unfortunately with regard to that situation, I have to report that, as yet nothing at all has changed. Three weeks have passed since that unfortunate day (i.e. when his wife was arrested) and only tomorrow will I again be able to speak with my wife for 10 short minutes, separated from her by a tightly woven wire mesh and in the presence of the jailer. I hope that you’ve correctly understood what I’ve written. It is very bitter for me… that I have no idea when she will be free. It is ironic when I think about it, how often the danger existed in the past years, of her being imprisoned because of me, and today, after all of those terrible things are finally behind us, she has been jailed over (relatively) nothing! Enough of that, it can’t be changed, and even this will pass. I hope in my next letter to you to be able to report happier news. Until then your very sad one embraces you. Please greet your dear husband, your brothers, but especially your children. L (Ludwig Weisz)

107

From:Alfred Weiss, c/oTintner, Smylansky St.,Nathanya,PAL English February 7, 1948 Page 1

Palestine February 7, 1948 Dear finni & Emil, I have been in receipt of your latest letter (undated by the way) a couple of days ago and thank you ever so much for your dear sympathies shown therein as regards my present unpleasant situation and your readiness to help if need be. After all blood is no water as the saying goes and eventually all these proverbs involve a certain amount of truism. Well, you want me to give you a detailed account of my present general state. Here it is. Both applications covering my service with the Army abroad have been refused so hopes in this regard must be struck off as non existent. However, I succeeded with obtaining in view of my long service with the Army, a watchman’s job, i.e. to prowl around and keep an eye on buildings etc. within the camp perimeter vacated by the troops. Monthly wages amount to 30 pounds of which 60% are being paid by the Army while the rest is being taken care of by the Jewish Agency by which the camps in this area have been taken over. Such was the situation on to January 11, 1948 when I received the money due to me for eleven days i.e. 6.12.0. As for the rest of 14.8.8 to be paid by the Agency I got only an advance pay of 3 pounds while the remains of the sum total due for January allegedly will be liquidated on the 10th of 12th next week. I am rather distressed in view of the uncertainty of pay days, although there is no reason whatsoever to be afraid of as for securities but the business of life is going on and my landlady is pressing me hard as to the money due to her of the first of each month as she cannot wait because she is being pressed by her creditors, as she says. She also suggests to draw the amount from my bank account which I rather would not. Such is the position now. I do not know as to whether I told you about my future intentions in my last letter, but I must tell you bluntly I have made up my mind to see Ilka for good, if possible. I submitted an application for a passport which presumably will be in my possession at the end of March. Having this intention I am quickly saving for expenses and this is the chief reason why I resist my landlady’s suggestion to draw money from the bank. If all goes well and I am lucky enough to retain my present job for roughly another two months I would have saved sufficient money to pay my fare less another 20 pounds roughly to cover the other expenses accumulating during this period. Maybe I could manage without or make some excess money by a lucky stroke but anyway this would be the sum required under normal circumstances. I do not know as to whether you could help me by means of your friends you hinted at in your letter or on your own account to secure this sum up to that date. I have been asking Sandor about a month ago but had no reply yet. Also I figure how I could refund it later on when staying with Ilka. Maybe you are both wondering about my sudden decision you may object to this plan in pointing out the difficulties awaiting me there, the likelihood of not feeling happy in such an environment infested with the dreadful memories of the past, but I cannot help it. My situation here is unbearable. This eternal loneliness, the viciousness of my surroundings, the hard struggle for survival just recently come to my consciousness, strife, although I am not in immediate danger, the uncertainty of the future all these facts strengthened my resolution to pull out. Also I cannot help feeling trouble on a larger scale coming after the Mandate Termination. Or would you feel happy in being forced to do a job as I do now prowling around for 12 hours daily in a lonely place, without a day off, without proper food all day long but a few sandwiches just for the sake of keeping alive?

108 From:Alfred Weiss, c/oTintner, Smylansky St.,Nathanya,PAL English February 7, 1948 Page 2

Don’t you think it bizarre for a man with my qualification to do and odd job fit only for an imbecile or an illiterate apart from this occupation involving a certain personal risk owing to the present restlessness in the country? And there is no chance of getting anything more suitable for the time being. Yes I am still lucky in having retained this job as a lot of my fellow workers have been discharged recently one of whom is now fulfilling the task of a cowherd of all things. From these few examples you can imagine the sort of life I am leading now for years already, worsened still by the recent chance in my general situation by the loss of my position. As long as I held that job I was more or less satisfied having had a steady income which permitted me a modest and not too strenuous living without material inconveniences. Now I am somewhat uprooted, thrown out into the ruthless stream of life which is hard and relentless here. You can hardly rely on anybody on help of any kind in case of need but your own self. And this summarized is the main reason for my attempting to join Ilka as the only one whom I can go to. I would have preferred to see you but there is no chance of doing so. You cannot help and I could not succeed. There is another argument in favor of this idea. Rudl and Sandor have as well succeeded with having secured both a good job so I do not see any reason why I could not especially with my linguistic qualification. I am quite convinced that foreign languages would be quite more appreciated in Central Europe as they are here and I reckon to be able to find work with the Americans or the British. I would be deeply interested in hearing your views on these matters and maybe you can get Ilka’s opinions in a clear unmistakable way until you answer this. I have been asking her simultaneously with the letter I wrote to you on December 12, 1947 but have no reply up to now. As for Margaret or Max I am not in touch with either of them these years. As for Bela and Karl I am afraid I have been neglecting them also. The reason being again the continuous road insecurity. Now I have not even the ghost of a chance of going there because I am harnessed to the job all day and every day. Neither do they do anything in the way of approaching me be it personally or by writing being what they are. There is no doubt, however, of my going to see them the very day I am quitting here for the final relocation of my future intentions. I hope everything will run smoothly and I expect to have sufficient cash at my hands at that time to knock off quickly. I expect you are both all right and would love your making me a long letter with plenty of personal details. With much love to both of you. Your Alfred

Note: On May 15, 1948 the British Mandate in Palestine ends. The state of Israel is declared. The neighboring Arab states declare war on the new state.

109 From: Fini&Emil, S. E. Wang, 41 Randolph Ave. London W 9 English Spring 1948

41 Randolph Avenue, London, W. 9. Spring 1948 Dear Margaret, In a very difficult situation I approach you to help my poor brother Alfred, who after 9 months of Dachau Concentration Camp and 4 ½ years Internment Camp in Italy is about to leave Palestine where he had been staying the last 2 ½ years. There is no possibility of earning a livelihood for him in that unhappy country and nothing left to him but to return to Vienna. We try to help him as far as our weak financial situation allows but we should welcome gladly and appreciate greatly any kind of help from you and your people. It is possible that Alfred leaves Palestine in March or April provided shipping space is available. We do not know whether your answer would reach him in Palestine in time but I understand that most of the reserved shipping space is for the British Troops leaving Palestine for England. We should be grateful if you would contact Alfred as soon as possible. He is rather reluctant to apply for help. We do not know whether he is right or wrong. Anyway please don’t forget these unhappy victims of persecution and try to keep in touch with him also when he is back in Austria where people are suffering from hunger. We have nobody else to look for help than you. We hope you are not annoyed with our letter. Alfred’s address is Alfred WEISZ, c/o Tintner, Smylansky St., Nathanya, Palestine. We enclose the last letter he sent to us which will give you some idea of his present situation. We have been waiting for your reply to our letter we sent you a long time ago. We hope you and your family’s life is happy as before and your children are getting on well. We should love to have an early reply from you with as many details as possible. There is not much to be said about us. I am still in the kitchen work where I had been for years and Emil in the office of the same firm. Apart from everlasting colds we are both O.K. Much love to you and your family. finni & Emil Alfred’s probable address in Vienna will be: c/o R. Hirsch, Vienna, Harmoniestrasse 10/19, AUSTRIA Note: May 15, 1948 British Mandate ends. State of Israel is declared and neighboring Arab states declare war on the new state.

110 From: Alfred Weiss, 321 Hayarkon St., Tel-Aviv, Israel English November 27, 1952 Page 1 Alfred Weisz 321, HAYARKON ST. TEL-AVIV, ISRAEL November 27, 1952 Dear Max, Your face will bear an astonished look, I am quite sure, in receiving this after nearly 12 years of silence but, I will try to explain. You see, dear Max, my spirits dropped to a very low level when I received your last letter of January 1941 suggesting to find my own way to come to America. I tried though but failed. Pearl Harbor came and the entry of the U.S. into the war prevented any further communication whatsoever with the States. Years went by in slow monotonousness. When liberated from the concentration camp after Salerno by American troops I volunteered for the front line, later served with the U.S. 5th Army Counter Intelligence Corps (C.I.C.) for a year and a half and eventually came to the Holy Land in March 1945. To give you a detailed account of all the troubles, risks, inconveniences and dangers during this period would fill a full size book. When the war finished I tried to get in touch with the family. But alas! The majority of our relatives perished in Nazi extermination camps. My dear, beloved mother, my children, my brother Max, uncle Dori and his wife, aunt Malvina and her husband, aunt Hedwig and her whole family, aunt Terlsa and family all of them gone for good. Other relatives, of whom I do not know anything, have probably perished also. Now you imagine my reaction to all this horrible news. I was so stricken with grief I simply did not care for anything, for years to come. Time passed and slowly I submitted to the inevitable facts. Time and again I attempted to take up correspondence with you but always shied away from letting you know the sorry truth. I did it deliberately not wishing to disturb the peace if your mind desiring you to stay happy with your wife and son (or probably more children) and so I kept silent. Now a lucky chance has come to us to prefer to the status quo of 1941, that is to say I found somebody willing to sign supplementary documents to Affidavits of yours to get me eventually to the States. Don’t say, Al has found the way to us after a dozen years, now that he needs us. It is indeed, as I pointed out above. It’s like this, My wife has got a friend of hers living in New York who happens to be a very rich man, a millionaire, as a matter of fact He is Mr. Otto Sochaczewer, c/o DOMEX CORPORATION, 1261 Broadway, New York 1, NY This gentleman declared his readiness to supply such documentary evidence as deemed necessary by the immigration authorities to support your affidavits which, as I do hope, you will not fail to renew on their former basis. You see, according to the law, your cooperation as a blood relative is imperative. It goes without saying that we, that is my wife and I, would not cause you any inconvenience or become a charge upon you, your representations being only a matter of formality in compliance with the law. Please, dear Max, go get into contact by writing or phoning with this gentleman mentioned above to settle formalities between yourselves.

111 From: Alfred Weiss, 321 Hayarkon St., Tel-Aviv, Israel English November 27, 1952 Page 2 Below I put down such data as might be required to fill in papers. Name of Applicant: Weisz, Alfred, Josef Wife: Weisz, Alice, Charlotte, NEE Simonson Applicants place of birth: Andau, Austria Wife’s place of birth: Stettin, Germany Applicants date of birth: May 6, 1898 Wife’s date of birth: January 28, 1902 Habitual residence for both: 321 Hayarkon St. Tel-aviv, Israel Documents: Austrian Passport serial A No. 040076/LP 303/48

Further data, if any, will be supplied upon request. I have a feeling as if I owe you an explanation for my being, after years of living here, still desirous to change my residence. There are many reasons for that. When I came here I wished to escape the blood and fear, humiliations and sufferings of the war and tried to build up a new life. For a while I did quite well. Then the War of Liberation came and with the establishment of the Jewish State my luck went down. I have not been able yet, despite of my linguistic abilities to grasp Hebrew so far as to enable me to fill in, let’s say a clerical job with a fixed salary. I have been doing low menial work for a couple of years and now I hold a job as a salesman for enlarged and hand colored photographs. It used to be a pretty good job during the boom but is quickly deteriorating now. So is the food situation. We are having food parcels sent from U.S. and Vienna otherwise we could hardly survive. Besides the wife is a diabetic and such items as should be consumed by her are hardly obtainable. With other words the general situation is such that America is the only salvation. If you have any good photographs of your boy, please send one, also from yourself and your wife. I would love to send you an enlargement, apart from being desirous to see you and your family. I expect your reply on this very soon and hope you will not fail me. You are my only and last chance. Best wishes and love to you and family. Your cousin Alfred PS. Don’t blame me for doing what is generally considered a woman’s privilege by making a postscription but it just occurs to me to put on a few more remarks, what might be needed. 1. Wife as well as myself have qualifications of teaching foreign languages or English 2. Neither of us has ever had a political bias. 3. Wife has got quite a lot of well-to-do and influential friends and acquaintances known to her from her former residence. 4. Wife is known to Mr. SOCHACZEWER since 1929.

112 Appendix C – BLAU FAMILY TREE

FAMILY TREE CHART BLAU FAMILY CHART #1

DESIGNED & PREPARED BY SOURCES: MAX SCHWARTZ KIMBERLEY ANNE OSMER MORTON BLAU 2006 DAVID & EMILY ABELOFF ADLER Revised by Ed Schwartz 2013 OTTO BLAU

1st Generation 2nd Generation 3rd Generation 4th Generation 5th Generation

1] Joseph Hirtenfeld 1] David Hirtenfeld (Jaszi,Yosi) + Ruth ____

m. Tzillah ___ 2] Adi Hirtenfeld 1] Grace Blau + Linda ___ b. Halmi (Giza, which means "Gaszella" 1] David Lowinger in Hungarian) 2] Nusi Hirtenfeld + Tzillah Lowinger d. 1974 (Ann or Anna) (her father was Mordechai-Simcha + Dej Hirtenfeld + Al Lowinger brother of David's Blau (he died 1934) (Aladar) father Al) (Morton/Martin-Eng) (Al was Nusi's (David's 1st & 3rd (Marton-Hungarian) 2nd m. May 1938 2nd cousin) cousin) + Samuel Schwartz (Al's brother was Israel + Berta Gewurtz Grace immigrated to father of Tzillah, (half-sister of US after wedding wife of Nusi's & 2] Miriam Lowinger Samuel Schwartz) with Manyl & Esther Al's son David) (Mimi) b. Halmi & Cluj Israel 1] Robert R. Adler Margaret Schwartz b. July 1, 1968 married Grace's brother , Fred 1] David Adler 2] Candace D Adler & they lived in + Emily Abeloff b. June 4, 1970 Farrell & Scranton, PA 3] Jonathan Adler 3] Manyi Hirtenfeld b. Oct. 4, 1971 (Margaret) left Romania 1939 2] Judy Adler with mother (Grace) + Allen 1] Andrew + Fred Adler Koenigsberg Koenigsberg (Alfred)

3] Susan Adler + Avraham 1] Yitzchak Shpiatsky Shpiatsky 4] (male) Hirtenfeld Israel b. Israel went to Cuba

5] Esther Hirtenfeld 1] Yecheskel see Chart #2 left Romania 1939 Ordentlich for more of with mother (Grace) Mordechai-Simcha's + Milton _____ m. Aug 22, 1983 children + Lazer Ordentlich +Shaindy

113 FAMILY TREE CHART BLAU FAMILY CHART #2

DESIGNED & PREPARED BY SOURCES: MAX SCHWARTZ KIMBERLEY ANNE OSMER MORTON BLAU 2006 OTTO BLAU Revised by Ed Schwartz 2013 WW II LETTERS

1st Generation 2nd Generation 3rd Generation 4th Generation 5th Generation See Chart #1 for more of Mordechai-Simcha's 1] Deborah Blau children 1] Frieda Blau b. New Jersey + Robert Bauer m. Sept. 1989 twins 2] Herman Blau + Daniel 1896 - 1969 2] Willy Blau Koplowitz + Rose _____ b. Belgium bur. Belgium + Solange 2] Michelle Blau b. New Jersey Mordechai-Simcha m. Jan. 1988 1] Lauren Odes Blau 3) Malvinka Blau 1) Babàt ? + Kim Odes (Morton/Martin-Eng) b. teenager? + Larry Plakey (Marton-Hungarian) labor camp with Babàt d. May 24, 1945 + Berta Gewurtz wrote letter died after liberation 3] Michael Blau (half-sister of bur. Csernowitz b. New Jersey Samuel Schwartz) b. Halmi & Cluj 4] Leo Blau b. 1903 1] Otto Blau 1] Patricia 1] Matthew Halmi, Romania b. 1930 Bucharest Leonore Blau Jeremy Karmitz (Transylvania) + Nadia Segal b.1964 b. 2001 Toronto d. 1945 (b. 1934 Bucharest) Toronto, Ont. Wels - Austria + Jean Marin + Leontine Indig Karmitz 2] Stephanie (b. 1903 (b. 1964 Paris) Isabella Karmitz Kolozsvar) (Kiki) (d. 1944 Riga) b. 2004 Toronto

5] Marcus Blau 1] Asher Blau b. Hungary or b. Uruguay Romania (Transylvania) 2] (female) Blau bur. Israel

see Chart #3 for more of Mordechai-Simcha's children

114 FAMILY TREE CHART BLAU FAMILY CHART #3

DESIGNED & PREPARED BY SOURCES: MAX SCHWARTZ KIMBERLEY ANNE OSMER MORTON BLAU 2006 OTTO BLAU Revised by Ed Schwartz 2013 WW II LETTERS

1st Generation 2nd Generation 3rd Generation 4th Generation 5th Generation

See Chart #2 1] Robert Fabian for more of Meister Mordechai-Simcha's b. Hungary children + Sharon _____

6] Eszther Blau 1] Gita Weiss 2] Rosanne (Etus) (Olga) Meister b. Austria-Hungary + Zoli Meister b. Toronto, Ont. + Fabian Weiss (Sam) + Benjamin Shore

Mordechai-Simcha 2] Irving Weiss 1] Shirley Weiss Blau + Elizabeth ____ b. Toronto, Ont. (Morton/Martin-Eng) (Marton-Hungarian) 2] Norine Weiss b. Toronto, Ont. + Berta Gewurtz (half-sister of 1] Moshe Blau 1] ____ Blau Samuel Schwartz) (Michael) b. Halmi & Cluj 2] ____ Blau

7] Adolph Blau (Adi) 2] Gita Blau 1] Isabel Hersh b. ~1890 (Olga) (Bobbi) d. 1944 Auschwitz + Benjamin Hersh + _____ 1] David Piekacz (d. 1944 Auschwitz) 3] Ibi Blau + ___ Piekacz 2] Harry Piekacz

4] _____ Blau d. 1944 Auschwitz

5] _____ Blau d. 1944 Auschwitz

6] _____ Blau d. 1944 Auschwitz

7] _____ Blau see Chart #4 d. 1944 Auschwitz for more of Mordechai-Simcha's 8] _____ Blau children d. 1944 Auschwitz

9] _____ Blau d. 1944 Auschwitz

10] _____ Blau d. 1944 Auschwitz

115 FAMILY TREE CHART BLAU FAMILY CHART #4

DESIGNED & PREPARED BY SOURCES: MAX SCHWARTZ KIMBERLEY ANNE OSMER MORTON BLAU 2006 OTTO BLAU Revised by Ed Schwartz 2013 WW II LETTERS

1st Generation 2nd Generation 3rd Generation 4th Generation 5th Generation

See Chart #3 for more of 1] Eduard Katz Mordechai-Simcha's b. 1929 Cluj children d. 1944 Auschwitz

8] Kato Blau 2] Judith Katz d. 1944 Auschwitz b. 1932 Cluj + Solomon Katz d. 1944 Auschwitz d. 1944 Auschwitz 1] Mady Rosenthal Mordechai-Simcha 9] Bözsi Blau b. 1938 Halmi Blau (Elisabeth) d. 1944 Auschwitz (Morton/Martin-Eng) b. 1916(?) Halmi (Marton-Hungarian) d. 1944 Auschwitz 2] Peter Rosenthal +Hendryk Rosenthal b. 1940 Halmi + Berta Gewurtz d. 1943 Ukraine d. 1944 Auschwitz (half-sister of Samuel Schwartz) 10] Fred Blau 1] Bruce Michael 1] Deanna b. Halmi & Cluj (Farkas, Lupu, 1] Raela Jean Blau Forman Marissa Benyomin-Zev) b. Jan. 24, 1940 b. Mar. 27, 1967 Forman b. Feb. 4, 1909 Sharon, PA Abington, Pa. b. Aug. 4, 2004 Halmi (Hungarian) m. Aug. 2, 1964 m. Fern Bell (dau of.Fern Bell) Halmeu (Romanian) + Leonard Forman m. Vickie Wallins Halmin (Yiddish) Transylvania 2] Michelle Gail imm. April 20, 1939 Forman m. Margaret b. Feb. 3, 1971 Schwartz Abington, PA. (her father's half- sister was Fred's mother) 2] Morton Roy Blau 1] Andrea Elizabeth (b. June 19, 1908) (Mordechai-Simcha) Blau (d. 1957) b. May 31, 1943 b. Jan. 16, 1978 d. Jan. 7, 1967 Youngstown, Oh. Philadelphia, Pa bur. Miami, Florida d. Apr.2, 2006 Philadelphia, Pa. 2] Louis David m. Doreen Shatz Blau (b. Dec. 8, 1948) b. Mar. 20, 1981 ( Philadelphia, Pa.) Philadelphia, Pa

see Chart #5 for more of see Chart #5 for more of Mordechai-Simcha's Fred and Margaret's children children

116 FAMILY TREE CHART BLAU FAMILY CHART #5

DESIGNED & PREPARED BY SOURCES: MAX SCHWARTZ KIMBERLEY ANNE OSMER MORTON BLAU 2006 OTTO BLAU Revised by Ed Schwartz 2013 WW II LETTERS

1st Generation 2nd Generation 3rd Generation 4th Generation 5th Generation

See Chart #4 See Chart #4 for more of for more of Mordechai-Simcha's Fred and Margaret's children children

10] Fred Blau Mordechai-Simcha (Farkas, Lupu, Blau Benyomin-Zev) 3] Robert Lee Blau 1] Megan Johanna (Morton/Martin-Eng) b. Feb. 4, 1909 b. Mar. 15, 1947 Blau (Marton-Hungarian) Halmi (Hungarian) Youngstown, Oh. b. Sept. 27, 1988 Halmeu (Romanian) Austin, Tex. + Berta Gewurtz Halmin (Yiddish) m. Jan. 10, 1976 (half-sister of Transylvania Rockford, Ill. Samuel Schwartz) imm. April 20, 1939 + Kimberley Anne 2] Aaron Jonah b. Halmi & Cluj m. Margaret Schwartz Osmer Osmer (her father's half- (b. Feb. 28, 1954) b. Feb. 27, 1992 sister was Fred's (Freeport, Ill.) Austin, Tex. mother) (b. June 19, 1908) (d. 1957) d. Jan. 7, 1967 bur. Miami, Florida

11] Johanna Blau b. ~1892, Halmi d. 1944 Auschwitz + _____ (d. 1944 Auschwitz) no children

12] Lajos Blau 1] Rozsi Blau 1] Peter (Louis) b. 1916 (?) Halmi Rosenheck b. 1886 (?) Halmi d. 1945 Auschwitz b. 1937 (?) d. 1944 Auschwitz + ____ Rosenheck d. 1944 Auschwitz + ______(d. after 1990) (d. 1944 Auschwitz)

13] Moritz Blau 1] Eva Blau (Maurice) b. 1936 Halmi b. Halmi d. 1944 Auschwitz d. 1943 Storoshojewo, 2] (male) Blau Ukraine b. Halmi + ______d. 1944 Auschwitz d. 1944 Auschwitz

117 118 Appendix D – Letters from the Holocaust (Hungarian) On March 19, 1944, German Troops occupy Hungary with the acquiescence of the Hungarian government (Horthy – the Hungarian Regent). The Jewish leaders in Budapest had received credible warnings that the Nazi’s had systematically destroyed all the Jewish communities in the rest of German occupied Europe and that deportation meant death. However, the general Jewish population is not warned by their leaders. The first step of Adolph Eichmann and his Hungarian collaborators was to reassure the Jewish leaders that they mean no harm to the Jews of Hungary but needed accurate information about the Jews for reasons of military security. On the 26th of April, 1944 a decree is issued that the Jews in certain of provinces have to be relocated for military reasons. The concentration of rural Jews in Ghettos begins. May 15th the first deportations of the Jews from the Ghettos to Auschwitz begins. In June of 1944 the Pope receives credible evidence of the destruction of the Hungarian Jews and appeals to Horthy to stop the war against the Jews. On June 26 Roosevelt sent a personal message to Horthy demanding an end to the deportations and threatening retribution. King Gustav of Sweden adds his voice to the protests. Horthy realizing that Germany has lost the war, and fearing retribution, orders the halt on July 8 to the mass deportations. The Hungarian Gendarmes & the German SS (small in numbers) had rounded up and deported 437,400 provincial Jews in just 54 days in 148 trains to Auschwitz. In October 1944 Horthy is overthrown in coup by the Hungarian Nazis. The new government continues the killing of Jews. In December Soviet troops are beseiging Budapest. Erno’s mother (Hedvig Weiss) was Risa Weiss’s sister and lived in Balassagyarmat, a city almost due North of Budapest on the border with Czechoslovakia. On June 21, 1944 the Jews of Balassagyarmat are deported to Auschwitz. Erno’s letters tell the most complete story of the fate of my grandmother’s, Risa Weiss’s, family at the hands of the Nazis. The relatives living in Budapest, Balassagyarmat or Helmeu (Fekete Ardo) if selected for labor in 1944 had a chance to survive the war.

- Bucarest, Romania 3/12/1945 Klari & Otto Page 120 - Halmeu, Romania Fall 1945 Joseph Hirtenfeld & Malinka Page 121 - Balassagyarmat, Hungary 3/24/1946 – Alpar Erno Page 124 - Budapest, Hungary 9/9/1946 Janos & Baba Page 152 - Balassagyarmat, Hungary 9/23/ 1946 – Alpar Erno Page 153

119

From: Klari, Bucarest, Romania Hungarian March 12, 1945 Sonnenkler Ignacz Dear Babi, I don’t know what to write, because so many things to write about, but nothing good. We went through many things - and in the meantime only Renee, Otto and I are still alive. I did not have any news about my family or about yours. I hope that Pirinke and Lee will come back. I escaped first, almost at the cost of my life. I did not hear from anyone. Then 3 weeks ago Otto arrived and after a few days Renee came back. Their trip home was not easy. I believe you know that all the Jewish people were deported from Hungary and only a few have the hope of ever returning. Otto will be with me in the meantime and I will try to bring him up to be a man and if God wills it his parents will return. They would find happiness with him. Klari (The rest of this letter was handwritten and tells some of the story during the war years.) Dear Babi, I am alive thank God. I don’t want to talk about myself. I was lucky to stay alive. Now I would like to tell you what happened in our family since 1941. You don’t know anything about our fate. 1941 - March 15 Last postcard from Belgium (I think Herman Blau who was Grace Blau’s brother went to Belgium). 1942 - Moric, Henri, Dudi (the husband of Rozsika) and Moise (the son of uncle Adolf) were sent to the Ukraine. Moise and Moric became prisoners of war, at the end of that year. They sent us messages. We went to Pest (Budapest) to live. Ede had a bar mitzva (son of Kato), Grandmother and Kvarsa Laszi participated. (Aldolph Blau was another brother of Grace who had three children Moshe, Gita and Ibi ) 1943 - On April 27 Henrik died from Typhoid in the Ukraine. In the summer - we are in Halmi (birthplace of Samuel Schwartz) with Kato. Bözsi has 2 very sweet children. 1944 - Everyone was deported. The last postcard came from Jaszi (Joseph Hirtenfeld - Grace’s son by first marriage). I think he was in Galicia. That’s all I know, unfortunately. Some people say that they will return, others say that they will not. A few days ago a family came back to Cluzs from Szilezia and they said that there are 120,000 Jews over there. Most of them from Erdély (Hungarian for Transylvania, today it’s part of Romania). Young people survived because they received some food. The most important thing is that they are alive and they are on their way home. If that is true, then all we can do is hope and wait. How are you otherwise Kusiek? Please answer all of you and fast. Kissing you all, Otto (Otto Blau is the son of Grace’s brother Leo Blau & therefore Grace’s nephew).

Uncle Samu, Special kisses to you. Babi, how many kids do you have? “That” dollar I haven’t received. (Babi is Grace Blau’s brother Fred Blau (also listed as Farkas.Lupu.Benyomin-Zev ) who came to the U.S. in 1939 after marrying Margaret Schwartz in 1938. They had two children during the war. Margaret’s brother Alfred Schwartz told me in 1998 that Fred was called Bobby.)

120 From: Joseph Hirtenfeld, Mayer & Malvinka, Halmeu, Romania Hungarian Page 1 Probably written in 1945 after liberation

Dear Beloved Mother(Grace Blau), Siblings(Esther & Monyi Hirtenfeld) and everyone!

Already five years have past without our seeing your handwriting. I had to pinch myself - to make sure that I was not dreaming but I am alive, but at what a price. Unfortunately only a few of us stayed alive. I can’t thank God enough that you my dear family were far away from the horrors of this time. It reinforced my will to survive, thinking of you during the most dangerous times. I thought if I can stay alive in these terrible times and places, I will have a place to go. After coming back, my Dears, my first action was to find out who came back.

Unfortunately, even from our family only a few have returned. I hope more will arrive. In the meantime no news from Kato (F) and family. From Etuká (F) and family only Gitta(F) and Putyu (nickname). From Uncle Lajos and family - only Dudi (M). From grandmother’s Halmi (town in Romania) nobody has returned. From Uncle Adolf and family 3 girls and a boy stayed alive. From Marika (F) and family - only Májér (M). Poor Malvinka (F) came home by herself. Her poor little Babá (F) died in her arms, after the liberation. These are the results of my inquiries - all tragedies.

Empty houses or demolished apartments we are all so poor like “the church mouse”, no clothing, no underwear, no bed linen, no furniture - I am not exaggerating. I am walking around in borrowed clothing - but all this is nothing in comparison with all the lost lives. I have been home for 3 weeks now, but I can’t get all the memories out of my mind. From each family only 1 or 2 came back if any.

Dear Mother, on September 1 I sent a telegram. On the 10th the answer came back, but I was not home. I only arrived here from Cluj (Romania) - Halmeu yesterday. I am very happy that you my dear family are all healthy and well. So much time has passed since your last letter. It seems unbelievable that I can write to you and again feel like a human being. Manyika D., I heard that you got married, and God saved you from our Hell, he will make sure that you will be happy forever. I kiss your husband, and I hope he realizes what a treasure he received. I hope in the near future - I will get to know him. You Ester D. did you get married, yourself? How are all the other people, Uncle Samu (nickname for Samuel ), Babiék (F), Szerénék (F) and family? I can hardly wait until I will receive a detailed letter from all of you. We have forgotten all their addresses. We have to start a brand new life if it is possible. I wish I could forget. We wish to see you all very much and tell you everything in person.

121 From: Joseph Hirtenfeld, Mayer & Malvinka, Halmeu, Romania Hungarian Page 2

My dear family - If you could send us packages, mainly clothing - we are in real need. I am going to rest a few days and start working. I have no idea how long it takes for this letter to get there. I leave some space for Malvinká (F) to write to you and after receiving a letter from you we will write you a more detailed letter.

My dear, I have a very nice neighbor. She asks you for a favor. Her brother lives in Bunes Ajres (Buenos Aires, Argentina?) and they have lost the address. His name is Solo (M nickname) Schwartz, born in Csernovits (in Ukraine near Romania) - his wife is Roza and his daughter is Analiza. They were living in Germany and immigrated in 1939. In 1940 they wrote from Bunes Ajres, If you would let them know (put an ad in the paper) their name and address, my neighbor who is also in a very miserable condition. Million kisses and kisses and kissing all of you. Joseph (Jaszi )

AD. Nusika - please send her address to me. My neighbor is Sáli Merdinger

Sam Schwartz’s 2nd wife was Grace (Blau) Hirtenfeld- Gizi who he married in 1938 on a trip to Europe. She came to the U.S. with her two teen age daugthers from her 1st marriage Monyi & Esther Hirtenfeld in 1938. I believe that Joseph is Yosi Hirtenfeld one of her three children left behind in Romania.

Dear aunt Gizi (Grace Blau also called Gizi)!

After a few terrible years, thanks to God, we can write to you again about ourselves. We came back in a very sad and miserable condition. We did not find anything at home. Only four empty walls. No news about poor father, mother and Pirke (F). Only Jaszi, aunt Malvinka and I came home. We live together. It is very difficult for us to get back to a normal life. Aunt Gizi how are you all? Manyi and Esther (same as daughters in 1st letter) how are they? I hope they are all well. I am longing to see aunt Gizi, Manyit and Esthert. It is very possible that both of the girls are already married.

Dear aunt Gizi we lost all of our memory. We can not recall the address of Szerenanéni (F). Please forward this letter to her. That way she will hear about us. I have nothing more to write about, even what we all went through. It would take a lifetime to tell you all about it. I finish this letter kissing the hands of aunt Gizi. Kisses for Manyit and Esther and all of you.

Mayer (not Joseph’s brother maybe a cousin)

122 From: Joseph Hirtenfeld, Mayer & Malvinka, Halmeu, Romania Hungarian Page 3

My dear Siblings (Grace Blau - Gizi and Fred Blau - Bobbi)!

I have arrived very unhappy and miserable. All broken after a whole year of suffering. On May 24 (,1945) I buried my dear jewel, Babát in Csernoviez (Czernowitz, Ukraine or Romania?). You would not believe what a beautiful angel she was, very talented and I am alive without her. In the past I could not even spend 5 minutes without her. She was a strong child, athletic, but could not take the suffering. We got the worst camp. The winter was horrible, strong cold winds, we had to stand outside hour after hour, even when the stars were in the sky we had to stand “auf stein” with tools in our hands in summer clothing. Digging anti tank trenches 3-4 meters in summer clothing, wooden shoes, without stockings. For food we received 200 grams of bread and ½ litter of lukewarm water (for soup). We slept in a wooden open structure on hay, under that ice. I cannot describe the behavior toward us. Only with a strong will and the fact that I could stay with my little one kept me alive. After the liberation they brought us back in a carriage. I had some hope to save her, that I could find someone at home, maybe Tibi.

Unfortunately, I am alone. Here we are 3 of us (you can imagine my life) Jaszi, Mayer and I. Apparently, I had to stay alive and this way they have somebody, dear boys.

Please write to us. I would like to see your handwriting. Everybody - please write by yourself. I am worried about Szerénék and family. Are they all well? Dear Gizi this letter is for everyone. After reading it please send it to everyone in the family, that way they can answer. Did Nusi and family succeed in getting there? Manyika and Esther please write and be happy that you are there and stay healthy.

The city looks terrible, like a desert and young women like myself only 7 of us stayed alive and just a few young men from the little towns. I hardly can wait for your letter. Here already we have cold evenings. The autumn has arrived. I am in rags, my boots are size 44 (that way I got home from camp) our clothing at home all disappeared. One couldn’t even find a needle. I would be good if you could send some packages. We have no clothing, no underwear, no tablecloth, eating on paper.

But for me it doesn’t matter any more. Kissing you with lots of love. Malvinka.

123 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat (& Budapest) Hungarian March 24, 1946 Page 1

Alpar Ernö Civil Engineer, MasterBuilder and Court Certified Expert (Diploma Holder) Balassagyarmat

Dear Uncle Samu, dear Children! On October 23rd last year (1945) I sent a letter to you with a nice and kind American soldier, who promised to forward it to you. As of today, I have not received an answer from you. Therefore, I am repeating the letter word for word: “ I am your only family member who survived the Holocaust. I am not turning to you for a favor or help, but with a request. I will describe to you all, what happened here. In July of last year (1944), my parents, my in laws, my wife and my 7 year old daughter: Kato, my sister Hajnalka and her husband, their 5 year old daughter Noémi and my sister in law from Balassagyarmat - all were deported to Auschwitz and unfortunately none of them came back alive. On January 18th, 1943 my brother Imre became a prisoner of war at the Russian front (around Uspenka ) and did not write from there. My brother Gyuszi had an unsuccessful tonsil operation on April 6, 1943 and he bleed to death. Because of this I am alone and the only one still alive. I was deported too, went through the death camps of Mauthausen and Gunskirchen in Austria. The invention of the gas was the brain child of those devil Germans. I was liberated by the American Army, but I feel like this is a punishment for me for staying alive without my family. Our common cousins, the children of Aunt Juliska/: the Gönczi family / only Baba, Edi and Szidi came back. They all arrived back from the death camp of Auschwitz. Misa and Illés became prisoners of war, of the Russians in 1943 and from that time there is no sign from them, if they are alive. Gizi last year was so afraid of the deportations, that she poisoned herself and died. I came back recently from the deportation and realized then, not only that my family members were taken away, but they robbed me and my family , everything was taken away. They robbed me. I have only the clothing which is on my body. Baba generously took me in and tries to help me, to start a new life. For this “starting a new life” only the feeling of duty is moving me, that maybe someone from my own family would return. Only then will I have a reason to stay alive.Until then could you inform me about the possibilities of immigration to America or to the colonies for me and my family? (as soon as possible).

124 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat (& Budapest) Hungarian March 24, 1946 Page 2

Can I ask you to answer as soon as possible? How did you survive those terrible war years? Please send me correct addresses. Could you ask the authorities to inquire about my younger brother Imre, or bring him home? Here we live in misery. We were robbed of everything we ever owned and after that they lost the war. Life is very hard here and harsh. Everything, is very expensive, food and clothing especially and we have no money. So we live from day to day and hope that our relatives will come back some day. A few days ago I went home to Balassagyarmat. One of our good neighbors brought me over a few photographs of my family and an old postcard, which he found on a garbage heap. One of the photographs depicts Uncle Samu, and an other of all of you. My Margit, the postcard came from you and you signed :”Your beloved, faithful cousin”. If you are, as you said, then, you won’t desert me together with your family and help me with my request. When I get your correct addresses, I am going to write to you more often and more lengthily, to complete that friendship, we enjoyed in our childhood. Remember our correspondence with you and Zolti. Please send me photographs of the family. I can hardly wait. Kissing and hugging you all Ernö “

To this letter, which is the repetition of the former one, from 5 months ago, I can only add that none of my relatives has returned, no sign that anyone is alive. I had to return here from Budapest, because there is danger of starvation and a very harsh winter is coming. Without financial resources I could not replace my professional equipment, tools, all of which were stolen from me. They robbed me. Without them I could not take up an assignment in Budapest. I am waiting impatiently for your answers. I would like to repeat, you don’t have to be afraid, I am not asking for any kind of support, so it will not prevent you anyway from answering me. I have real needs, but I don’t want to use you, not monetarily or any other support. I only ask you to reply to all my questions. This even a total stranger would do willingly, so I hope this won’t be a problem. I hope you send me a quick answer. Many kisses to all of you, Ernö My address: Ipoly-utca 5

125 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian May 23, 1946 Page 1

Alpar Ernö Civil Engineer, MasterBuilder and Court Certified Expert (Diploma Holder) Balassagyarmat

My Dear Margit and Fred! You can’t imagine how happy I am. Half an hour ago I finally received your letters which proved to me that you still loved and cared about me. I have been waiting almost a year for these letters and they both came at the same time, the one from you and the one from Zolti. I felt the same kind of happiness I felt when I came back last year from the German hell on July 14 and saw Baba. This meant that I had finally found a few people who are close to my heart still alive. I had found all of you who were close to my heart from my early childhood, even though fate prevented us from knowing each other more deeply. In order to appreciate this sort of happiness one needs to have had the same horrible experiences that I have had. I hope your fate will not be similar. Your family picture is in front of me. It shows Uncle Samu, 3 of you and the wife of Aldar (my father’s brother Al Schwartz). I am sitting here with a broken heart and soul and tears in my eyes trying to think of what I can write to you that will not disturb your happiness and peace of mind. Unfortunately, I have nothing of this kind to tell you. All I can tell you is very very sad. But I have to tell you everything once and for all and get it over with. Maybe when time passes I will be able write about more cheerful things. That is if my fate improves and I decide that I want to stay alive without my family. I will write the short history of my family in a way that tries to spare you and me from the all the pain, the anger and hatred that can result from the telling and the reading. The evil in these people was endless and without bounds. It started in 1938. The Hungarian Government ruled that the Jews are not equal citizens. Their economic pursuits were restricted by law and their situation steadily deteriorated after that. Everyone was effected by this; politically, socially and economically. After the first “anti-Jewish Law” , came the second one. In 1941 came the third “anti-Jewish Law” to “protect” the “race”. From that time on, the Jews became a despised minority and constantly victims of persecution. Jews could not be soldiers in the Hungarian Army, but forced laborers next to the Hungarian Army. This term “Jewish forced laborers next to the Hungarian Army” deserves a special chapter in the history of Hungary. In summary it means constant torture, endless hatred, sadism, beatings, and unjust accusations and lies about defenseless victims. I was one of those victims. To even put this down on paper is emotionally draining. In the summer of 1942 I was taken to the Russian front, where they put the Russian, Polish and Jewish forced laborers in the front line. There they were shot both from the front and rear. My younger brother Imre was there too, 35 kilometers from my unit at the curve of the Don River. His unit was the infamous “crowing” unit because the commander of the group sent the Jews naked up in the trees in -40 Celcius (8 F) and they all had to crow like roosters. The Hungarians enjoyed this. The poor Jews had to crow in the trees until they froze to death. This was an easy torture - there were many more harsher ones.

126 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian May 23, 1946 Page 2 At the same time my family was at home worrying. They had heard about the horrible crimes against the Jews. We could not write to them and they had no idea if we were alive or dead. Even though we had been promised that we would never return home from the front alive, by pure luck I came home in March of 1943, thanks to the Russian Army, who pushed the Germans back. After 6 months I was drafted again, for a short time. At that time I had a reason to stay alive because my family was waiting for me. On March 19, 1944 the German occupation of Hungary started. All Jews had to wear the yellow star on their chest. They had to turn in all their jewelry, gold, silver, rugs, paintings without any compensation. In no time they started to concentrate the Jews in Ghettos. The police tortured people to try to find hidden valuables. People were tortured, deported or killed. The survivors were put in trains, 80 people per wagon. The doors were only opened at Auschwitz. The young people were sent to work. All the others were sent straight to the gas chambers. All this time I was hoping that my family members had been spared from this fate. This thought kept me alive. I will continue this story next time. Already this is too much for you to hear and for me to tell even though I tried to make it easy. Dear Margit, there was a sad part in your letter. What happened to Uncle Samu that he left you at such a young age? I am sorry that this terrible life did not permit me to know him in person. My wife and I were once planning to visit you for a few weeks. People make plans …. And believe me I would like to still be with her and over there with no evil people, only peace and harmony. I am very glad you grew up and all have kids. You have two. I would like to know them even from a photograph with their father and mother. Please send me some pictures. You did not write about them. What are they like? Are they playful? Beautiful? Even their names I would not understand. I don’t speak or read English. Thank you for the addresses of the children of Aunt Emma. I am going to write to them too. What is Schrop doing? And by any chance do you know the addresses of the children of Uncle Dori? My dear Margit, thank you very much for what you sent to me. I am very happy to receive your gift, but I am sure that you are even happier that you can afford to send it. Please from now on do not send me money by wire or check. For now I eat in the kitchen of the JOINT (American help food & clothing) and almost don’t need money. I only need clothing and food. I don’t want to take anything away from your hard earned wages. It would be better if you spent them on your own children. If from time to time your would send me a small package, I would thank you for it - but only if you are not depriving yourself. Thank you for your offer of future packages. Here a lot of people are getting packages from their American relatives and they are lined (probably means there is some money inside). I will not wait for your answer. I am going to continue this one at the end of this week. Until our next letter exchange love and kisses to all of you. Ernö

127 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian May 24, 1946 Page 1

Alpar Ernö Civil Engineer, MasterBuilder and Court Certified Expert (Diploma Holder) Balassagyarmat

My Dear Margit, Fred, Zolti and Aladar! This letter is for all of you including your wives, who I have never met. Yesterday afternoon I received your very kind letters, Zolti’s too. These letters reached me unopened, without any interruption or censorship. I answered your letters immediately last night and sent them by registered mail. I wrote you in that letter how happy you made me with your letters. Those two letters caused me unimagined happiness. My answer was just sent a short time ago and I am again sitting in front of my typewriter (please don’t laugh at me) at 4:30 in the morning, approximately 9 hours after my first letter was sent. So many thoughts are accumulating in my head and heart, I will try to tell you about them. This is going to be hard to do through correspondence, but I have the need to tell you everything. I could sit and write to you all day long, if you have the patience to read that much. In the past 9 hours I have read both letters more than a dozen times, from the first to the last words, and I am going keep rereading them not only today but also in the future. I will try to take some encouragement from your endless goodness. If my behavior seems a bit strange or childish to you, the explanation is my tremendous longing for love and warmth. My need for love should be compared to a traveler in a desert who is in desperate need of some cold water. I had a very loving family in the past. These days I only have Baba and a very few friends who survive whose love I can enjoy. But, this is not the same. In your letters you provided me with some love and warmth that my suffering heart badly needs. I came to the conclusion that “ the blood did not turn into water”, and there still are people who care about my fate and who feel my pain in this terrible tragedy that fell upon me. From a far away country you are offering your arms to pick me up and lift me out of my misery to make me a human being again. With this discovery I found the possibility of a new life. I would like to be near you all, to enjoy your love and warmth. In your children I would find my lost Kato. I would like to stay with you until my last days - which I hope will not be too long. This thought is too nice and almost impossible to achieve. Not only because you are not in a financial position to put up with a lonely, robbed individual but I also could not accept this myself, even for the short time it would take me to learn the language. I don’t ever want to be a burden for anyone especially people I love. My late mother and my late wife called me “stubborn Adler” if I decide about something I would never change my mind. I would only immigrate to America if my financial situation would allow it and insure that I would not be a burden on you. Even though I am stubborn, everyone who knows me thinks that I am a decent, serious person (in my thoughts and life style). I am sure that you know that I am right.

128 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian May 24, 1946 Page 2

I repeat the same questions that were in my previous letter. What are the possibilities for immigration to America or the colonies? Are there enough builder, engineers or architects? Could I work there in the beginning without knowing the language? Unfortunately, I am only familiar with French and German. Do salaries in America provide a decent existence (food & clothing)? How many years would it take for me to be eligible for American citizenship? How would a get a permit? I would like your answers to these questions. If I stay here in a few years we will have tremendous opportunities for work in my profession. I have a very good name with other professionals. Everyone respects my work and my life would be like other people “at home”. From the other side of the coin it won’t work. I am constantly in the past, with my lost loved ones, in sleepless nights, and in my dreams and during the days. I try to run away from myself, in order not to think. My old environment, which was very pleasant and happy, has a bad effect on me. It is very hard for me to live here with people who are flatterers, but full of hostility, low morals and the anti-Semitism is even greater now than Hitler’s and the Hungarian Arrow Cross times. The difference is that now they are wearing a rubber sole (the anti- Semitism is quieter). This old Europe was always a nest of war and I am have had enough wars for a life time. Even ignoring the emotional part, reason is telling me to get out of here as fast as I can, but I am not so young anymore. I have to think it over very seriously. If I get positive answers for my questions, that I could get decent work in my profession to support myself, I would fly to you. I consider you a found treasure. I would not even wait for my younger brother Imre to come home. He could join me later after I had prepared some place for him. He is an extremely talented goldsmith and businessman. I would fly over because Fred’s profession is very similar to mine. Is Fred a builder contractor? If so we could work together and make a very successful business. Dear Margit, I am sorry if I hurt you inadvertently but you have to understand, what my mental state was when I wrote you my first letter. I compare myself to someone drowning who can barely keep himself above the water, to get air, yelling for help and trying to grab at the last straw. You did see the drowning person and with unexpected kindness and love you started helping. All this was done with selflessness. I feel myself privileged. You are that last straw, if I could be with you my mental state would heal faster. I was afraid that I would never find you. That the storm of war had sent you to an unknown place. I had heard that Zolti and Aladar were in the Navy which is not a very safe place. That is why I was so happy to see your handwriting. In the past we -the relatives neglected to keep our correspondence alive. Everyone was busy with their own life. From time to time we heard about each other only nice and beautiful things. But in the meantime the whole world changed, and I am the only one who stayed alive. I would like to spend the rest of my life with less work and more brotherly love. I don’t think I am going to marry again all my stored love is for you all. In my childhood I remember that my dear mother loved you very much and you were the example for us kids. Your visit here in 1936 made a real impression here. You and Baba are the two women I trust in my life. I was a serious person all my life. Maybe you remember Aunt Malcsi made fun of me “Mr Fleischman is going up to the attic to laugh”. But this is true what ever I say I mean. By now I know that you are a loyal cousin and that your heart is not made of stone.

129 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian May 24, 1946 Page 3

Think you for the portrait of Mr. Washington (probably referring to a dollar bill), you sent one in Zolti’s letter and one in yours. It is here and I will not send it back. But I am not a beggar because this is going to be pretty expensive for you. Unfortunately, I am not in a position to reciprocate. I would not mind if you have plenty however it might be better if you spent the money on your own family. If cigarettes are not too expensive, I would accept them gladly. I am a very heavy smoker. That’s my only sin, I keep myself away from women, I live a very quiet and lonely life like a monk. But, I smoke. I hear from people that they are receiving a lot of packages from their relatives in America. Most of the time these packages include money. There was a rumor that someone received a package from America with unopened cans and one can contained a thousand. This is dangerous because they can be stolen. I am writing this just for your information. Could you tell me what the purpose is of the American Committee of Joint Distribution which has representatives in the larger cities? Are they trying to help only the Jewish population or all poor people? And who are the contributors, Jewish or everyone who wants to contribute? I have a reason to ask all of these questions. My Zolti, what are you doing these days? According to your address do you work for an insurance company? Are you very busy there, or do you have some free time? When did they start calling you “Max”? Why did you change your name? Is your wife American? Would you send me some photographs of your family? At least you can practice your Hungarian. Margit’s letters are written in very good Hungarian even though she has been, like you, away for a long time. My Aladar, I have a family picture of yours in my room. Please write to me about your children and send photographs. Everything interests me: how big is the city you live in, how large is your apartment, how is it furnished, what are you doing all day long? It is better for me to think about you all than to think about my own misery. In January I received a letter from my father-in-law’s brother, Louis Friedmann, 7513 Voodland Dr., Cleveland, Ohio asking about his brother. In my answer I asked them to look you up. He did not answer even though my letter was sent registered. My Margit, would you mind sending him a postcard and check to see if he received my letter about the terrible fate of his brother? I thank you for doing it. Mr. Morton Radnai might write to you. He was one of the people who I asked to contact you. Mr. Radnai, had a drug store. I sent the letter to Mr. Radnai at the same time you sent your letter to me on April 23. In the near future I am going to write to you very often. I am going to number the letters to make sure that you have received all of them. My birth certificate I am going to send next time. In the meantime I am sending a lot of love and kisses, to you all and to your children. Your Ernö Please address your future letters to Ba’stya-utze 14. I am going to write the reason for this later.

Ernö

130 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian May 26, 1946 Page 1

Letter #5 Alpar Ernö Civil Engineer, MasterBuilder and Court Certified Expert (Diploma Holder) Balassagyarmat

My Dear Margit! I am going to take your advice and my letters from now on will be addressed to all of you. That way I will not have to repeat myself three times. I have read your letters more than 20 times and each time I find something new. New kindness, love and affection. You would understand this better if you had known the terrible suffering, evil, hostility, degradation and lack of brotherly love that I have experienced. That is why I am so happy with your expression of love. After receiving your letters, I feel driven to take up the pen again and write to you in order to free myself from the heavy burden on my heart. If I can share this load with you maybe it will be easier for me … you see how selfish I am? Last night I mailed you letter #4, and this morning I started #5. I am sorry for you that you are going to read all these unpleasant letters. I apologize. Your kind patience, goodwill, and love is a blessing for me in my misery, in that I don’t feel quite so lonely. It would give me new hope, if I could spend whatever is left of my life near you. I could benefit from your spiritual help if I could be with you. You are telling me that you cannot help me recover mentally but I know that if I could be with you all again, it would give me the energy and love I need for life and work. I will try to recover from the miserable life and situation that I am in now. I know that love connected everyone in our family. My dear deceased mother, was very very sad, that fate had sent your mother, her beloved older sister, so far away that they could not be together. She was concerned about aunt Malcsi. My siblings were happiest when they could give presents to any of the relatives. They willingly helped anyone just to keep good relations. I was the same. But, I was upset that we only heard from you on leap years. Even then, only a very short letter or sometimes a photograph. We should now try to compensate for the past, and take pen in hand more often. Maybe you don’t like my forcing this upon you, but I won’t be dissuading from asking you for more frequent correspondence. Now I am going to continue the story of letter #3. When they killed my family, I was in the military’s forced labor. This is a separate story, I will tell you all about it, if you are interested. When the Russian Army was near - close to Boldogasszony, in the province of Zala, after they had used us, and deported us. Before that in the city of Körmend they beat us badly, bloody, and stole everything of value. At the end, on March 1, 1945 they transferred us to the Germans at the border of Austria at Szentgotthard. 32 Hungarian soldiers took us, our unit contained 260 people, to the Austrian border and there we were received by 2 German soldiers. We worked near the border, digging trenches for the Germans at Inzenhof and were treated fairly well. But, in less than a month we were dragged moved through the city of Graz toward Mauthausen concentration camp. The Russian Army was pushing the Germans then the mess started.

131 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian May 26, 1946 Page 2

Can you imagine about 5000 people being forced marched by the German SS. Old people and young, men and women, healthy and sick, with hunched backs, limping, more than 2 days, walking without food. Sometimes we would get once a day a little soup made of turnips without any fat in it and 10 dkg of black something, they called it bread. We were walking in the mountains of Austria, with no drinking water, rest, personal toilet. Whoever left the line was shot. Whoever could not keep up with the others was shot immediately. Thousands of bodies laid on the side of the road. People who could not keep up with the others. Cold nights, hunger, tired and suffering people all around. Terrible times. In Eisenerz the traffic was halted by 168 fresh bodies, Jews shot on the spot. Endless suffering on the road, everyone was waiting for a quick death. Here and there some good hearted Austrians gave us some bread and potatoes in secret, endangering themselves, and for us this could mean immediate death. Finally we arrived at the Mauthausen concentration camp. A few were sent to wooden houses but most of us stayed outside under the trees. Hunger and beatings were everyday happenings. We were surrounded by wire fences. Anyone who ventured near the fences was shot. Starvation, robbery, murder were our lot. Men and women had lice. In Zeltlager, people were standing constantly in long lines for the open air latrines. Hundreds of people died every day. One day again 5,000 people were sent by forced march to another concentration camp, toward Gunskirchen, which is near Linz, 7 km from the city of Wels, in the middle of a forest. Again the same terrible situation was repeated. Hunger, many people died along the way .. people who could not keep up were shot. People were at the end of their energy and life. I was very weak and felt that the end was near when we arrived. Here we were put into barracks, 2200 of us in a place with room for only 600 people. Our treatment was very rough, rude and inhuman. The hunger and constant danger brought out the worst in people. Constant fighting over a little food, noise, stealing from each other in this wild crowd. I sold my fountain pen for a piece of bread, and just 24 hours before the liberation I sold my wedding ring which was sewn into my coat, my last memory of my wife. Morning and evening we had to stand in line to be counted. Always fewer and fewer weakened people, without food in the cold. It was difficult even to stand up. We had to stand in long lines for some water and to use the latrines. Filth and lice, sickness and typhoid were all around us. I felt that I could not survive much longer. Only the hope that my family was still alive and waiting for me kept me alive. Then I have a duty to return. The doctor said that I could only survive another two days in my condition and that when my life is over it is going to be wonderful on the other side in the after life. No more suffering, no more hunger, no more evil, only poor souls. We realized that the SS in the camp were preparing to burn the whole camp down with the Jews inside and whoever tried to escape through the barbed wire would be shot with machine guns. There was a rumor that Hitler was killed. Later we knew it wasn’t true. We were caught between hope and desperation. Nobody wants to die in the last minutes of the war. A million times I thought of escape, but this would have meant certain death. After this most desperate time a miracle happened.

132 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian May 26, 1946 Page 3

On May 4, 1945, we heard the roar of cannons and then machine guns coming nearer and nearer. The SS disappeared from the camp and about 4 PM a single American military vehicle with one American soldier appeared and drove through the camp in the middle of a tremendous welcome. “We were saved” we were liberated, we outlived Hitler and his dogs. I can’t describe the crowd’s feelings. The first thing the crowd did was to break open the locked food reserves. I was too weak to participate and it was also against my nature. Later people in groups started to leave toward Wels (Austria), on foot, in cars, toward the unknown, but “home”. I left on Sunday morning together with 2 engineers who were friends of mine and the older brother of one of them, on foot, with my last strength. This strength came from thinking about my family which might be waiting for me. Now I know that it would have been much better for me to have died on the side of the road like the other thousands and hundreds of thousands of people. I will continue the story of my life in my next letter. I have not been able to think or sleep or work after receiving your last letter. I have not checked my mail nor read the professional articles which are very important for my recovery. Dear Zolti, do me a favor: try to help me to find, to locate my dear brother. Hopefully you will be successful and I will be grateful to you. His personal details are as follows: ALPAR: / ADLER:/IMRE Born: May 29, 1911 in the city of Esztergom/ county of Esztergom/ Hungary Mother’s name: Hedvig Weisz Father’s name: Sámuel Adler Occupation: goldsmith (helper) His last military unit: 101/29.sz. Jewish forced labor unit, stationed in the county of Monor on June 11, 1942. A few days later they were sent to the Russian front. His units post office number was:292/60. The company commander: Dr. Hammer Ferenc, who was recently executed for crimes against humanity. According to the “Hungarian Red Cross” my brother “disappeared” in January 18, 1943, during the great retreat in the curve of the river Don, between the cities of Nowyj Oskol and Oshtrogoshk, around the county of USPENKA and next to the small city of Budjennyj. The few people who returned from there, told me that my brother and 70 other people escaped to join the Russians. From that time on we have heard nothing from him. As far as his politics is concerned Imre was a social democrat, union member, and he had connections with the communist party and suffered because of it, since before the war they were persecuted, sometimes with death sentences. I am going to talk more about Imre later. He was a wonderful person. Margit, do you remember him? I have made a serious decision about my immigration. I have always wanted to immigrate, but I did not want to leave my parents alone in their old age. I would feel guilty because they brought me up and made a man of me, so I could not leave them behind. If I had listened to my wife we would have left a long time ago. Even if we had gone to Turkey she and my Kató would still be alive. My decision to leave Hungary is being reinforced by the anti-Semitism against the Jews which is becoming very strong again here. There is no security here and therefore no reason to stay.

133 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian May 26, 1946 Page 4

Please help me, not financially, but to leave here and come to you in the USA. The latest anti-Jewish demonstrations are bringing up bad memories from the recent past. This is why I am sending you my birth certificate, to expedite my journey. I can not live here not only because I am a Jew and am unwanted here and will always be unwanted here but also because of the terrible memories that make me not want to live among these people. I have an idea. Maybe one of the architectural or engineering firms could give me a document about my “previous” employment there and say that they need me to follow up for some time period. If I were there it would be easier to arrange something. How about a fictional marriage to someone in order to get American citizenship like poor Gizi who had to do it. I have no idea if this is possible. I am going to continue this letter later. Kisses to everyone. Ernö

134 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian June 2, 1946 Page 1

Letter #6 Alpar Ernö Civil Engineer, MasterBuilder and Court Certified Expert (Diploma Holder) My Dear Margit! The last few days I discontinued my letter writing because I had the prospect of a new job which took up all of my time to pursue. But now I dropped everything so that I can continue writing the story of my liberation. So now I will continue… When we were on the march back to Hungary through Wels, Austria a convoy of American military vehicles crossed our path and gave us food and cigarettes and were very nice to us and cheered us up with the reminder that we were now free men. We were all quite moved. Some of the refugees even kissed the hands of the American soldiers. This was such a memorable day for me that I have to write you more details about it. The day started with a breakfast of raw beets. A little later in the day the Americans threw a whole box of walnuts down from the truck to us. In the meantime we arrived in the city where there were many civilians who had survived the bombings. From the civilians we received cooked potatoes and soup. We were so hungry we devoured everything. In the town we exchanged the leftover walnuts with an Austrian family for noodles and sugar and the family let us bake a walnut strudel in their kitchen. It turned out not the best but it tasted wonderful to us. It had been a year since we had the pleasure of eating something that good. We were not fussy. After our stomachs were full we rested in the garden and tried to pick the lice from our clothes and bodies. Then the nice sunny day turned cloudy and chilly. After we put our “clean” clothes back on it was already 4 PM. I started shivering from the cold. I realized that I had a high fever. My typhoid fever had just started. A short time later the American soldiers obtained quarters for us in the homes of Austrian families and ordered them to take good care of us with food and clothing. I wound up in the home of an Austrian grocery store owner, who gave me a cup of sweet milk, good bread and butter. They were more fearful than enthusiastic about my being there. After I devoured what they gave me, they gave me a second helping, only this time instead of milk they gave me tea and a bowl of sausage. After all the good meals I had on this day I could hardly move and my rising fever was taking a toll on me. But I still took a bath from head to toe in an ice cold washroom in the basement. I received clean clothing without lice from my Austrian “hosts”. For the first time in ages I was able to lie down on a sofa with feather pillows and blankets. Finally I felt like a human being again. It was a wonderful feeling. The next morning we were called via the radio to the city center and from there special buses took us to a huge camp in Neubau-Hörsching near the city of Linz where there were a dozen tall buildings that had served as barracks for the German army. Here, my fever went up to 41 degrees Centigrade (106 degrees F) and my health was rapidly deteriorating. I had been carrying this problem with me since May 17th. Finally the Americans brought me to the hospital on a stretcher with a rash all over my body and a high fever. I was somewhere between life and death. The American doctors gave me different medications. They had given up on me but through a miracle I survived. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I was nothing but skin and bones. I could only sit on a chair if a folded blanket were put under me. Everyone was horrified by my shape and look. I felt very depressed, but even though I was still ill I felt I should go home as soon as possible. I was hoping that someone would be waiting for me.

135 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian June 2, 1946 Page 2

From the hospital where the Americans nursed me back to health, we were allowed to send letters home, through the International Red Cross (maximum of 25 words per letter). All of us sent several letters but they never arrived. The hospital food was scarce and given in small portions. Our meals were made from dried potatoes, beans, peas, etc. which were difficult for the sick to metabolize. I was constantly hungry which was a great disappointment. After liberation, I thought that I would never be hungry again – but I was wrong. Maybe it wouldn’t have been necessary for me to be hungry if I could have brought myself to beg from the American soldiers, but I have a very bad flaw – I have never been able to ask anyone for anything except small favors. Some of the refugees did beg. They received bread, chocolate, cigarettes, and other American food supplies. Especially our women took advantage of the American soldiers. The black American soldiers were especially nice to the women. After a great deal of hardship, I arrived in Budapest on July 14, 1945 at Baba’s house. She was hugging me and with tears in her eyes told me that nobody was waiting for me at home any more. She had received some letters from me from the forced labor camp and she was sure that I had perished. I had come home in vain, hurried home in vain, nobody in my family had survived and all my earthly belongings had disappeared. I tried to get back on my feet in Budapest. For some time I stayed with Baba and her husband who were very good to me. They gave me a place to stay, food and tried to cheer me up. The American JOINT gave me some used clothing, shoes and shirts. After my first walk the soles came off of the shoes. When I returned from deportation I only had the clothes on my back and two blankets. An insurance company offered me a job but I left after 1 ½ months because they paid very little. I was hoping that I could make a lot more money as a self employed person. I needed money. However, to be self employed one needs to make a good impression by ones appearance and that takes money. But it was too late for me anyway because the building season was already over. Besides I did not have an apartment or office out of which to run a business. My brother Imre’s apartment was next to Baba’s apartment. The authorities had given his apartment to a family whose home had been totally destroyed by bombs. No power could have removed this family from the apartment even though Imre’s furniture was still in it. I needed tools for my profession (drafting board, etc.). The JOINT offered financial help (loan) to people who had just returned from the concentration camps for rehabilitation. I was told that my tools and drafting board were too expensive and I didn’t get anything to start a new life with. At the same time they gave the people from Poland a lot (they were not architects or builders). They gave large amounts of money to non- Jewish institutions, which are repaying with growing anti-Semitism and hatred toward the returning Jews. Please believe me when I tell you these people are the biggest liars and crooks. To cover their tracks they claim that they are supporting all needy Jews in Hungary. Since the war building materials are very scarce, money is scarce and there is terrible inflation.

136 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian June 2, 1946 Page 3

The winter arrived and it was cold and there was no wood for the furnace. Baba and her husband were running out of food. I was ashamed to still be a burden on them. I decided that the best thing for me to do was move out. I took my backpack and went home to Balassagyarmat. Initially I got a few weeks of work and then almost nothing. I am doing odd jobs, free consulting, designing, etc. but without building materials we can not execute them. The construction business is dead right now. There are no construction law suits at the present time and therefore nobody is calling on my services. Only horse and oxen law suits are taking place in the courts and that is only good for lawyers but not for me. This explains why even today, I am living from the kitchen of the JOINT. This is really not enough. I am not starving but there is a need for something more. In the past the food that I am eating now wouldn’t be fed to the pigs. Dear Margit, I know in your home such a thing would never happen to me. If I were far away from here with its memories and people and with you in a new environment with better people I could start over. I am hopeful that that day will come soon. The only side-effect would be that I would regain my former heaviness. Here there is no hope to regain my former weight. When could this ever happen that I could be with you, not as someone for you to feel sorry for but as someone who will contribute his fair share? Even if I were in America today it would be a little late since I am almost 39 years old. My father’s younger brother lives in Budapest with his family. He was always indifferent toward us and he still is today. He did not care about me in my younger years when I was studying at the University even though he had promised my father that he would always be there for me if I needed him. He never kept his promise. He was always very polite and invited me from time to time to lunch or dinner. Once he gave me 5 pengö to give to his poor brother’s even poorer son. Even though he was rich then and even richer today. I will not be heart broken when I leave this old Europe together with him. Even so I still love him because he is family. He too has his share of problems. He has a son and daughter. His son’s name was Imre. I met him in Mauthausen. He was in terrible shape. There is not very much hope that he will return. His daughter Magdi is married and living in a very nice apartment in Budapest. They gave me a loan which, I repaid with my first earnings. Oh well, how can I be mad at these people? They are the only family I have left from my father’s side. Now I am going to describe my room. Most of the furniture belonged to Hajnalka and another part belonged to the previous Jewish owner who never returned. One clothes closet, one book shelf in very bad shape, an old vanity with mirror, one bed which used to belong to my brother Gyuszi, a green table, which you saw when you visited us in Hungary some time ago, a desk, 4 chairs and a small stove with which I am able to heat the room. Above my bed there are some family photographs. Everything is old and junk. Before my deportation you couldn’t imagine the beautiful apartment I had, but now I have no money and no desire to have a nice apartment here in Hungary.

137 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian June 2, 1946 Page 4

I don’t want to stay in this country of hatred. I was planning to immigrate to Australia where I have a good friend. But now that I have found you and through your letters felt your love and warmth, I would prefer to be with you and not among strangers. I understand that Fred has a similar profession and I could join him. I found Fred to be a very nice and kind person. After I learn English I think we would have a great future together. I have an idea to create a factory to build wooden houses. I am an expert in this. What do you think? Is there a need for something like that? Fred, my brother-in- law, what do you think about it, and Aladar and Zolti, and Margit what is your view about it? When I was a married man I learned to respect a woman’s opinion. Is there any possibility of a livelihood in the USA or more in Canada? According to the radio, people who have relatives there and whose relatives are ready to take financial responsibility, could immigrate to Canada. With a little money we could create a joint-stock company. We would need a lot of courage, and daring on my part since I don’t know the language. But those daring will get their reward. As you see I have a lot to talk to you about. For a number of years I have had no one to share my thoughts with. Baba and her husband are living well. Her husband is in a high position as the secretary of a theater. It is difficult for him to make a living on his salary, but he supplements his salary as needed with other work. Today, the other work is very important because food prices are sky-rocketing. His salary from honest work is not enough for decent clothing. They live in Budapest in a 2 room furnished apartment. They were spared from the war’s disasters. They have no children. Baba was taken away to forced labor for a few weeks, but her Christian husband managed to rescue her with false Christian documents. That is how she managed to survive. After I was taken to the forced labor camp and my family deported, Baba regularly sent me packages with food and cigarettes. At that time Jews couldn’t get any cigarettes in the camps, even by trading or for money. Baba was the person who kept my hope alive in those terrible times. I owe her a lot for her every bit of warmth and humanity. Baba and her husband will be the only people to whom it will be hard to say good bye. However, I prefer that to the other choice; continuing to live side by side with these people, who deported my family, who received me with hatred after my return from deportation, who refuse to return my belongings and who are just waiting for the right time to kill us all. To these people the jews are “Prügelknabe” (German for scapegoats). That’s why I want to immigrate from here. Baba’s two sisters, Edi and Szidi, luckily survived Auschwitz, and returned to Hungary. They can thank their survival on their youth and not having their children in their arms while on the line-up in front of the terrible Dr. Mengele. He was the medical doctor who choose who would do labor and who would die in the gas chamber. Those he sent to the right went to work those he sent to the left went to the gas chamber. Edi’s son luckily stayed home with his Christian father in Hungary. Szidi’s child was in the camp at the line-up but Aunt Juliska grabbed the child out of Szidi’s arms shortly before the line-up. So, because Szidi was without child, she was sent to do labor and not to the gas chamber, but sadly, Aunt Juliska and Szidi’s child perished. The following spring the camp was liberated by the Russian Army. Both of them are back home in Szolnok in Hungary. Edi’s husband is a clerk at the Hungarian streetcar company and Szidi is managing her late husband’s dental laboratory since he has not returned from the war. They are living pretty comfortably.

138 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian June 2, 1946 Page 5

In the summer of 1942 Misa and Imre Illes and I wound up together on the Russian front. Both of them were taken prisoner by the Russians and taken to an unknown location. Imre Illés sent a postcard from there once but, the last 3 years have passed with no news. Misa’s wife announced that she is too young to wait for her husband to return. Her father was an opera singer. Gyuszink once took lessons from him. I will tell you the fate that befell Aunt Malczi even though it is very sad. As you know they were living in Vienna until the persecution reached them there. They were Hungarian citizens. For a short time their citizenship protected them but when all the Austrian Jews had been killed their turn had arrived. They didn’t wait for their deportation but crossed the Hungarian border in secret in the middle of winter. It was very cold and snowing and uncle Samu’s feet got badly frozen. For a long time he was sick from this. They arrived in Budapest in 1942 in terrible physical and mental condition. They stayed with uncle Samu’s brother and notified us that they were there. My mother immediately invited them to stay with us saying that we would take good care of them. They promised to come to visit at a later date for a short time because they wanted to work and be independent. In the meantime some evil person reported them to the authorities as foreign citizens and they were arrested. It did not matter that they had documents showing that they were Hungarian citizens. Somehow they were freed and came to visit us at Passover and stayed with us for a month. My mother pampered her younger sister and they recuperated. We gave them food, clothing and money. They had their own room but they became impatient and decided, against our wishes, to return to Budapest. They moved back to her brother in laws apartment. What happened after that I only know from rumors because I was taken away for forced labor at the Russian front. I heard that they again had problems with the Hungarian police and were taken away as foreigners. Even my father was called to Györ by the police because they were “hiding” Aunt Malczi and her husband. Aunt Malcsi was put with her husband in a camp as a prisoner. Gyuszi, Baba and Gizi used to visit them. My mother and father corresponded with them, their physical condition prevented them from visiting. We tried to help them with food and clothing but they were prisoners and suffered constantly. Finally they were deported, disappeared, perished. They loved Gyuszi very much, and he visited them often with love, presents and good will. They were distraught when this child left us. I could write a book about Gyuszi. When I think about him, my eyes still fill with tears. There are not very many like him being born. Maybe it was better for him that he didn’t have to go through what we went through - the humiliation, the suffering, the barbarism. He was a wonderful human being, loving brother, friend and family member, helping everyone. He had diabetes, but did not talk about it. He was hiding his suffering and that led him to his untimely death. When I came home from the front on March 15, 1943 I was told that even Gyuszi was summoned by the authorities to do mandatory labor. The job consisted of hard, physical labor in Budapest. He tried to convince them that he was very sick and diabetic, but nobody believed him, not even the doctor who examined him. They said that he was faking it. He did not get proper food or insulin. He had to buy insulin with his own meager funds and inject himself. His condition deteriorated so much that he was sent home temporarily.

139 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian June 2, 1946 Page 6

After he came home his tonsils became infected and two terrible doctors suggested to him that he have his tonsils removed. Gizi and Baba were against the operation but the two doctors convinced him that it was necessary. On April 5th he had his tonsils removed and he bled to death the very next day. A court hearing followed blaming the doctors for malpractice. He had wanted to surprise us and visit us on Passover. He came home in a coffin. Our parents suffering was very hard to take. He was the youngest child, the sickest. He was the child, “der Kleine”. They brought him home in an aluminum coffin, his head covered with a Talesz. To add to the suffering, the authorities decided to do an autopsy. So we only got him to bring home and bury on the same day April 18, 1943. Gizi was with us at the funeral and told us of the final weeks events when she was with him in his dying moments. She saved the handkerchief that she used to dry his forehead for Hajnalká. Even that has disappeared. We were living this way, very sad, until the Germans came and occupied Hungary. We prepared the stone and his grave. My father wrote the Hebrew text. I was back in the forced labor camp. My parents were in the Ghetto, they were not allowed to go to the cemetery, to put the stone over the grave of their son. When I was around I went to the cemetery to the fence, since I am a Cohen I am not allowed to go beyond the fence. At least once a week I visited him in secret. After my return from deportation I visit him less frequently. He is resting there peacefully next to his grandfather. I photographed the grave and the stone. I will send you a copy. After all these family tragedies the next one was Gizi. She grew up in Budapest. When the bad times came to Hungary, they gave her a hard time because she was a foreigner. They wanted to deport her. She decide to marry a Hungarian citizen to stay. She married Varga László. After the ceremony she did not see him any more. She was working for a family, earned money, which she sent to her parents, who were in a camp near Lublin, the place where Uncle Dori and family were taken in “Konzentrazionslager”. They were prisoners there. Once a package came back with a note that the address is unknown. Luckily Baba got the package and did not tell Gizi about it since it is clear that her parents had perished already. Gizi was waiting for answers, which never came. Then after Gyuszi’s death, Gizi went through a gynecological operation and went to live in Gyuszi’s apartment which was next to Baba. She kept working. When I returned to forced labor on May 8, 1944 she was already very depressed. That was the last time I talked to her. Baba told me that a little later she went back to her work place, turned on the gas in the kitchen and they found her the next morning dead. According to Baba she was terrified of the thought of deportation. That is why she committed suicide. Her grave is in the Jewish cemetery of Rákoskereszturi. I went with Baba to visit there. Her grave is well kept. Her former boss took care of everything. We still haven’t put up a stone. I need money for that. But sooner or later the time will come. While we are talking about the past, tell me where your beloved parents (Sam Schwartz & Risa Weiss) are resting. Are they in Farrell? Do you keep in touch with your step mother (Grace Blau)? I could not read your daughter’s name but I would still like to write to her, to your son, and to Zolti and Aldar’s sons in English. I have collected all my knowledge of English. Please read this to them:

140 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian June 2, 1946 Page 7

“My dear Baby and Boys! I write You a letter, although I cannot spek english. I ought to learn the english language and afterwards to write? I am Your oncle, an elder cousin Your parents. You are my nephew and unokahug. My mother and Your parents mother are sisters. I am going to see You at home and I hope we shall have time for learning, for drawing, for gambling togheter. I am going also to build many buildings at USA. I promise You I shall go to You as quickly as possible. I am allways with You in remember. Write answer and You may be good and diligent children. I shoud like to make an aquaintance with you. Send photograph. I kiss you well-beloved You allways lover oncle: Ernest.-“ Please do not laugh at me, for my English and spelling mistakes. I read 5 paragraphs from an English book and this is not enough for a decent letter. You could then ask why did I write? I would like to have some contact with the younger generation so that know that I exist. I hope that I will be the uncle that the children will always be happy to visit and find my doors open with much love and a full wallet although I hope they will never need it. Until the next letter I kiss everyone. Ernö As of now I have not received any more letters or packages from you.

141 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian June 23, 1946 Page 1

Letter #7 Alpar Ernö Civil Engineer, MasterBuilder and Court Certified Expert (Diploma Holder) Balassagyarmat

My Dear Margit! Three weeks have passed since I mailed my last letter to you. The reason for my silence is that I obtained some work in my profession. The preparations the work took up all of my time. I had to apply to different institutions and government departments for building permits and calculations to permit me to start working on a house that was demolished by bombs. Finally I have received all of the permits and can start working. Hopefully this job will bring me enough money to cover my food and other expenses for a month. I can’t expect to earn much more than that these days. I am happy to have this work. One cannot be too choosy and this kind of job brings some security. I must live and to live I need some money. The second reason for my silence is that I was hoping to receive some mail from you but nothing came. Day after day I have telling myself to wait another day for a letter but no letter from you. Now I have decided to break my silence. Margit, you promised to answer my letters immediately since you know how happy they make me feel. I have received nothing after your first letter and I am loosing my patience. I have been constantly dreaming about coming to America after your first letter. This has given me a goal in life, a reason to live. Until now I have achieved whatever goal I set in this miserable life, even overcoming major obstacles. I remember in the past that when I was 17 I wanted to visit the little village where I was born. I decided that I would travel to Boldogsszony during my next summer vacation and my parents did not object. After school I taught some children to earn the necessary money. I used the money to travel to Boldogasszony to visit Aunt Malcsi. Unfortunately, you had already left for America. I had a wonderful vacation there. I played chess with Uncle Dori and flirted with the local girls. I visited Neusiedl am See with Aunt Emma and her Laci I swam in the Fertõ , bicycled, target shooting, trying Uncle Samu’s home made liquors, and took a trip to Vienna with Aladar where we visited Aunt Sofie. It was a wonderful, unforgettable trip. Since then all of my plans are carefully prepared. My marriage was an example. I will do everything that I can to travel to be with you in America. Unfortunately this does not depend on my effort. There are a lot of obstacles like immigration documents. The third reason I postponed sending a letter is that I didn’t have money for the stamps to put on the letter. I hope that I will be able to send this letter in a few days. The inflation here is terrible. Even if I had some money in would only take a few hours before it would be worthless. Strange isn’t it? I will try to send you letters by air mail with a friend through Csehszlovákiá in the hope that they will get to you faster. I want to expedite our correspondence and my journey to the United States.

142 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian June 23, 1946 Page 2

Now I want to tell you about my big daughter Kató and Hajnalká’s little daughter Noémi. If I remember correctly today would have been her birthday. I met my wife in my childhood in 1924 when we moved to Balassagyarmat. It was love at first sight. We got married on February 23, 1936 and on February 14, 1938 our daughter Kató was born. I don’t want to say that she was a genius but she was really a wonderful child. She was full of the best characteristics that one can imagine in a young child. Total goodness, beautiful, loving, smiling, friendly. When she put her little head on my shoulder and talked I felt that I was happiest and most fortunate person in the world. Even strangers on the street talked to her and she had a kind word for everyone. She was my parents and our sweetheart. My wife, Rózsá educated her well. She was the light of our miserable life, made miserable by the constant persecution of the Jews. It is very hard for me to describe her, my beloved Kató, if you had known her you would know that what I have written is true. She was the reason for our existence and she is no more. I am here alone and asking myself constantly why? This is why I find myself alone in this big world with no reason to live. This is why I am looking to you for some consolation in my miserable life. If I can come to you maybe things will get better. Otherwise I don’t want to live and my life on this planet will be a very short one. I know it is hard to understand what I am going through but maybe as a mother and parent you can understand. Noémi, her nickname is Nonni, was a smart and beautiful child, 1 ½ years younger than my Kató. She had black hair and eyes, they were playmates. My whole family enjoyed them. My parents were very happy with their two granddaughters. When they went for a walk strangers would stop to admire the two girls. And now she is no more…. I don’t remember if you have any photographs of them. When my financial position improves I will order copies of them from the photographer in Budapest whose negatives survived the fighting and war. I will send a photograph of my Kató at 1 ½ years old and a photograph of the whole family taken for their 25th anniversary. My younger brother designed the silver frame. The frame disappeared but I am happy to have the photograph. Now I will talk about something other than my suffering. In the last week the mayor of the town asked to see me and offered me a position as the towns civil engineer. I flatly rejected the offer even though the position is very prestigious one. I don’t want to give up my independence for any official job. The reason is that I can advance myself much faster as an independent engineer. Also I can leave this place on a minutes notice to come to you. I have already lived too long among these people. The Anti-Semitism here is stronger than ever and they don’t allow people to immigrate. And the West is not willing to except people except in very small numbers. Without these obstacles all of the remaining 160,000 Jews would leave the country. They would get rid of 160,000 Jews. Not in and not out. People say that one can get to America through the “black market” withouts permits and without documents by plane or ship. The pilot receives $500 to $1,000 bonus after delivering the relative from the family. Some privileged people can do this, single individuals, but it is very difficult to check.

143 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian June 23, 1946 Page 3

I have no idea if my diploma from a Hungarian University would be accepted in the United States or whether I would have to take some tests if I want to work in my profession. Please supply me with information about this. I believe someone should hire me while I learn the language. I want to know if I will need to study for some tests and won’t be able to work. I don’t want to be a burden on anyone. I want to understand the total situation in the United States and if it won’t work I might go to Australia, or to Palestine, or any other place on this earth just to leave this place. The sooner the better. I am not prepared to stay here. Who wants to live among his mortal enemies? Not even a fool. I have one more question. I am told that you would have to deposit some money for my affidavit. How much money are we talking about? I would like to save some money for this purpose and bring it with me to take the burden off of your shoulders. Should I bring it in gold? In the present situation with the lack of work here it would be very difficult to do in a decent honest way. How can one transfer this money across the ocean to you? What is the name, address and profession of Fred’s nephew? I would like to correspond with him. Some more questions. I would like to know about the standard of living in the USA. What is the salary of an average American and how does it compare with the prices for food and clothing? What is the price of bread, oil, flour, meat, butter, sugar, the fabric for clothing, shoes, shirts, cigarettes, typewriter, office paper, etc.? I would be interested in knowing the price of everything. I need this knowledge to plan my immigration. How long do you think it will take me to perfect my English? I am also interested in hearing about the climate and geography. Are you living near a mountain or river, or valley? What is the population of your town? Tell me about your life style (cultural, economic, etc.). Why did you settle in the town that you did? Why did you leave Farrell? If you are willing answer me instead of Zolti or Aladar, please do it. I would like to know everything about you. In the past we did not correspond regularly. Ilcsi and Fini and family don’t answer either. Everyone is silent in our family. Nobody is willing to pick up a pen and write. I am the only one willing to write. Should I write to Zolti separately? He can answer me in English. I will translate his letter with an English speaking friend. Even an English letter is better than no letter. Boys, please write to your miserable European relative! In the future don’t donate any money to the JOINT. If you want to help people there are other ways so that the really needy people get the help. If you really want to know why I will explain it to you. Please don’t wait to answer. I send all of you kisses. Especially the children who must have laughed when they read my English letter. I keep waiting for your letters. Ernö

144 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian June 27, 1946 Page 1 Letter #7a Dear Margit, As you can see I didn’t send my letter #7 but not because of personal negligence. The post office cannot print stamps fast enough to keep up with the inflation. Because of the inflation one cannot put enough stamps on one envelope to send the letter. It costs 4 billion 800 million just to send one envelope today. I cannot put enough stamps on an envelope even if I use both sides to send a letter. So this week I cannot send a letter to you. Usually I am a fast friend - it is an honorable nickname. I used to call my little daughter Kato by that name. My thoughts are in constant turmoil and it is very hard for me to concentrate on one subject. It is good for me to share my thoughts, feelings and fears with you and thus lessen my burden somewhat. Since the post office didn’t have the appropriate stamps I opened letter #7 and added these pages. In the meantime I received your letter and a package from the month of May. The contents of the letter and the package demonstrate your concern for me. These are like the letters and packages that my late wife Rozsa and my mother used to send to me on the Russian front. To compare you to them is the highest praise I can give you. In Budapest the local post office repackaged it but by comparing the contents with your detailed list I determined that nothing was missing. However, I would prefer that you send me the affidavit to come to America instead of packages. Do you think that there is no way to get out of here? Is that why you sent all of this clothing? Or do you believe it will take a long time? This is not a good sign. I am very lucky the suit is almost a perfect fit. The rest of the items are also badly needed: soap, shaving cream, razor blades, needles, thread, tobacco, etc. Exactly what I needed. Please do not send too much. First I didn’t ask for anything and second if I really needed something I have some hidden items that I could sell. I will tell you how this happened. When the Germans occupied Hungary on March 19, 1944, a series of sanctions were proclaimed against the Jews. When they started talking about Ghettos the Jewish people sensed the approaching danger and started hiding their valuables. After Gzyuszi’s death we kept his belongings along with my brother Imre’s belongings at my parents house for safekeeping. These included suits, underwear, shirts, coats, shoes, etc. We didn’t want to leave these belongings in Budapest because we wanted to protect them from Allied bombing attacks. Baba promised to keep them in a safe place but we thought they would be safer in the countryside. I wanted to “wall in” the box in my father’s house but he was afraid of the local police who were torturing people to find out where they were hiding their valuables and then deporting them. Therefore the big trunk with the valuable belongings stayed in their house, and they were deported anyway and never returned. When I came home I found nothing. Imre had some jewelry, gold and silver, that we “walled in” together in the house. When I regained some strength I returned to the house and found the items that we had hidden in the ceiling and in the walls. This was all that I was able to find. So I have the items but I do not want to use them because they are not really mine they belong to my brother Imre. Baba is encouraging me to use them but if I did the money would be gone in no time. I found my wife’s diamond ring and her silver little powder box and a few of Hajnalka’ and my wife’s personal items. I will not sell these at any price because this is all that I have left to remember them. I want to keep these for the rest of my life. If I sell them I would be forgetting them.

145 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian June 27, 1946 Page 2

I am telling you all of this because I don’t want you to think that I am “schnorrer” like some people who want to “milk” their American relatives. I might do what Baba suggests and borrow some of Imre’s items to finance my journey away from here if I am absolutely sure that I could return everything to him. I will not use Imre’s belongings for daily living. They are at Baba’s and at my late wife’s aunts in Budapest. If you wish I will send you their address. In case something happens to me you will be able to return Imre’s belongings to him. He worked so hard all of his life. These items would make his life a little better if only for a short time. As you can see I am not totally poor. I don’t need hand outs. Although my scruples prevents me from touching Imre’s belongings I would take from him before taking from you. I know that you all work hard to make a living. If you still want to send me something please send only items that are scarce here like sugar, chocolate, coffee, tea, tobacco, cigarettes, cigars, etc. I am sure this will not be too difficult. About sending money - it is good that you didn’t send any. Because of the inflation money looses its value very fast. Illegally cash (probably American dollars) is worth three times as much as a check. When I opened the package I was desperately looking for a letter and found none. Please next time add a letter or a few words to make me happy. Margit tell your brothers that if they have forgotten how to write in Hungarian they could write to me in German. I hope they have a least retained that language. If not then ask them to write to me in English. At my age instead of chasing women I spend my time with correspondence. Even if their grammar is not perfect, they could still write to me in German. When I was in an American hospital, suffering from Typhoid a young German nurse took care of me. I wrote down her name and address when I was about to leave the hospital and promised her that I would write to her if I ever got home, which I have. I am not interested in her but the correspondence with her allows me to practice my German. It would be wonderful to correspond with Zolti and Aladar in English. I don’t want to bother you. You are busy with your children and Fred with his work. I wish I could help him already. From Baba I have no news. She is a terrible correspondent. It is easier to wake up a bear from its sleep in the middle of winter, than to convince Baba to write a letter. She only writes if there is trouble. If your want to correspond with her you will have to write the first letter. Baba is always very nice to me. I stay with them every time I go to Budapest but never empty handed. The last time I gave her a $5 bill and in the following letter she said that she had bought a beautiful pair of shoes for herself with the money. In January I had a good job and sent her some money and she bought a big goose liver and cooked it for me with a lot of fat. After visiting her I left with the liver and the fat. I got some bread from JOINT. This kept me alive for a while. Please do not mention anything about this to Baba. I gave a kilogram of the fat to the Pastors.

146 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian June 27, 1946 Page 3

I have received your two letters along with Zolti’s and one from Morton Radnai, I asked Radnai to look you up a long time ago, but you wrote to me before his letter arrived. He wrote that in the 2 minutes that he was on the phone with Aladar that he too was surprised that I didn’t ask for help. My immediate needs are for family and family connections. Right now the family is only you and your children. You live in a free country and not among murderers. Mr. Radnai notified me that he wrote to Aladar about my needs. I hope he only talked to him about my immigration, and not about financial aid. Mr. Radnai has beautiful children and grandchildren. He asked me how much it would cost to restore our synagogue, which was demolished by the Germans. The Germans did an excellent job. It cannot be restored. He said he could collect the money to restore the synagogue but for whom? In a short time there will be no Jews left to pray there. There is not even a minion (10 Jewish men). In this month the, on the 29th the whole surviving Jewish community of Hungary will fast in memory of the deported Jews. The 21st of this month is the second anniversary of the deportation of the Jews from Balassagyarmat, their arrival and destruction in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. A Jahrzeit in which for the first time in my life I said Kaddish. Margit, do you remember our mother’s parents, our grandmother’s and grandfather’s Hebrew names? If you do remember, please send them to me, in your next letter. Before I immigrate I would like to go to Boldogasszony to visit our grandparent’s graves. Maybe to put up a memorial there, provided those German barbarians did not vandalize the whole cemetery. Do you have synagogues in your city in American? Do you keep all the religious laws, Kosher kitchens? I do not keep them myself. I am as you know from a very religious family, but after my innocent family perished I lost my faith. I felt absolutely numb inside. I don’t think my faith will ever return. It would be a miracle if it ever did. When I started to write a few sentences, I was planning to fill up a half page and suddenly I realize that I have finished four pages. You see how much I have to tell you! More and more. Maybe when we see each other we will have long discussions. Love to you all Ernö

147 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian July 18, 1946 Page 1 Letter #8 Dear Margit, Almost a whole month has passed and I have not received any news from you. No answers to my many letters. I hope the only reason for this is that you, like Baba, don’t like to write letters. Baba seems to have distanced herself from me but I don’t understand why. Only she knows the reason. It has been a long time since I have written to her, giving her your address, your messages, telling her about the packages that I have received and wanted to share with her. I have received the package that Zolti (Max Schwartz) sent to me. It was very kind of him to remember me. “The blood in his veins has not turned to water”. We Europeans who have suffered so much enjoy a little bit of the goodies in the package. It was very kind of Zolti to send me a bathing suit which fits me. I received a piece of black cloth from the JOINT from which someone tried unsuccessfully to make me a swimsuit. I have been swimming often (8 times) in the river Ipoly since I received Zolti’s package. I send you special thanks. I can tell that Zolti is not a smoker since I found candy in the package but no cigarettes. You are correct about the health consequences of smoking, but I can not and do not want to give them up. Please add cigarettes to future packages if they are not too expensive. Aldar (Al Schwartz), like Baba, does not write, apparently they have lost interest in me. I am living in uncertainty and losing my patience about my immigration. Does anyone know how many months or years this will take? There are rumors here about restrictions, quotas or a total halt of immigration of homeless Jews from Germany and Europe. Recently I heard that people from the American Zone in Germany will receive preference for immigration to the USA. I am very lonely here. I would sell my soul to the devil to get out of here. I am ready to marry a modest, honorable American woman (maybe of Hungarian origin) my age to go to America. She could come to Hungary, marry me and then we could return to America. Maybe I am naïve to think that an American girl, who is not blind or handicapped, would be willing to make that sacrifice. I am very sad and lonely here and would like to spend the rest of my life in a place with stability and peace. Please forgive my constant insistence about immigration. Who else can I turn to if not to my closest relatives? I know you that you have problems of your own and work hard for your living. But I know if I stay here, after all I went through in the past, I will suffer to the end of my life. Please answer me Margit, you are my only hope. It is very hard for me to put my fears, feelings and suffering down on paper but I hope your will understand. I was busy recently with a job opportunity. There was a competition, to build a reinforced concrete bridge. Seven proposals were submitted and it is possible that the minister will choose my proposal. If I win the competition I will be able to wait for the affidavit to come to the USA.

148 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian July 18, 1946 Page 2

In the meantime, there is a new development in my life. One of my friends decided to act as a marriage broker for me without my knowledge. We have a common friend, Ziegellaub Erzsébet (Bözsi), whose father works in a New York or Brooklyn hospital. He wants to bring his daughter and son out of Europe to America. Bözsi would like to get married before immigrating. I am not against the idea. She is 27 years old and was a good friend of my late wife, Kato and she comes from a good family. I don’t have any objection since I am tired of this Gypsy life. If she agrees to the marriage, I am sure her father would do everything he could to get us out and help us survive financially. This way you would not have to act. Since I have not talked to Bözsi yet, I would like to know your opinion as soon as possible. Since Bözsi would like to marry as soon as possible, she will not have any problem finding a partner. Her father sends her an endless number of packages and I am sure will provide for her as much as possible in America. The future husband should be a doctor or an engineer. It is easy to find many candidates. I cannot decide by myself and am waiting for your thoughts. In my last letter I said that I had not decided whether to live or die. If the decision is to live then this is a special opportunity to establish a normal life. Maybe fate brought me Bözsi to take me out of my misery. What would you do if I got married and came to visit you? Would an American wife be better? Please answer by return airmail. In a previous letter to you I mentioned a wonderful Christian family who took me in like a member of their family. Before the war the man and I worked together. His name is Pásztor Pál and he is about 60 years old. He was the administrator at my previous workplace and I was more technical. He is a very good and brave man. He was a friend of a number of Jewish friends of mine and offered his help even though it was dangerous. When I was drafted he volunteered to keep my typewriter and camera for me. He returned everything afterward but I promised him that he can have them and I am only borrowing them temporarily. When I came back they took good care of me. They gave me food and clothing, linen, like I was their child. I am very grateful to them. He has been without work since his ???? was deported. He cultivates a little garden and tries to sell the products. His wife asked me to ask you for a little rice and black pepper, to make sausage. They will kill a pig and prepare it for the winter. They live in Bástya- utca 14 and they pick up my mail when I am absent. Please send all my mail to this address. I have no idea when this letter will be sent. Because of the terrible inflation the post office cannot print enough stamps for airmail. They are manufacturing new monetary units now. The name will be “forint”. I will try to mail this letter from Szlovakia. Don’t be surprised if the name of the sender will be unknown to you. Dear Margit and the rest of you I am waiting impatiently for your answer and your views about my problem. Kisses to you all, especially to the kids Your Ernö

My Margit, I have visited Bözsi, and we decided to get married. In the next letter I will tell you everything. Her father in New York will contact you soon.

149 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian August 2, 1946 Page 1 Letter #9 Dear Margit, I have received your letter dated July 6. It made me very happy to see the photographs of your family. I will try to analyze each of you from these pictures. Raela ( Margaret’s daughter Raela Blau Forman) - is beautiful, seems to be extremely intelligent, well behaved, friendly, bright and modest child. She resembles Noémi, the daughter of Hajnalka. I am sure she is an excellent student. Your son is a wonderful little guy. He was born at a lucky time. The way he is posing in front of the camera, I fell in love with him. Alert, mischievous, bright, he reminds me of my Kato. Margit and Fredi, I congratulate you on your successful children and wish them luck and happiness in their life. If I had not decided to immigrate until now, after seeing you and your children’s photographs I would do anything to see you all, my flesh and blood. I am showing your photographs proudly to everyone. The pictures of Max’s and Al’s families are missing. Apparently sending pictures is not important to them. They don’t know how important it is for me. From the photograph and the hand writing of Fred, he seems to be a very well balanced person, friendly and very likable. Margit, I am not very happy with your photographs. They are not very flattering. I would like you to tell your children about me. I would like to start a very loving and friendly relationship with them. I hope the time will come when I can play with them like my Kato. This would make me very happy. In my previous letter I asked you to find me a wife in America, but in the meantime a marriage broker intervened unasked and by accident found me my future wife Bözsi. Since that time I have been visiting her every day talking over our future life and waiting for the affidavit to come. Time is of the essence because of the peoples hatred of the Jews here. Pogroms and lynching of the Jews is an everyday theme here. Who knows when they will make a lampshade out of me and then my immigration will no longer be possible. If no more letters from me arrive this may be the reason. I don’t want to scare you but recently in Miscole they murdered Jews and this event has caused my dark thoughts. I can imagine myself hanged. This is not a pleasant thought for a man about to be married and about to immigrate. Everything depends on the affidavit. Actually my financial situation does not permit marital responsibilities. The situation in Hungary is deteriorating daily due to the inflation. Thoughts of immigration dominate my thoughts day and night. I don’t want to commit myself to a permanent job. I am afraid of being stuck here in Hungary if I find a decent job in the meantime. I think constantly about the SS and the Hungarian police. In the recent pogroms, the Hungarian army was present but did not intervene. In Kunmadaras even the police helped beat up the Jews. We told Bözsi’s father about our marriage plans and asked for his blessing and for the affidavit for both of us. I am sure my future father in law already contacted you by telephone. I have some feelings of guilt about my future wedding because of my beloved wife Rozsi. I promise you that my memory of her will be with me to my final breath. When we saw each other for the last time before I left for the draft at dawn on May 8, 1944 she said to me “We are seeing each other for the last time alive.” I am sorry I am so weak and cannot resist the hope that my life might be better and that a married life might bring some peace to my soul. I am just a human being. Anyone who survived needs to find some meaning and peace in life. I have discussed these thoughts with Bözsi, since she had visited our home in the past and she has agreed to marry me and start a new life in America. I think it is better to marry her than to marry an American girl that you would choose for me to take me out of my terrible mental misery.

150 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian August 2, 1946 Page 2

I share my thoughts with you here. If it is too long or bothersome don’t read it. Usually I am not a very talkative person which you will see if I ever get to visit you. I try to express myself clearly but my thoughts are not very well organized or easy to understand after everything I have been through. I am numbering my letters just to make sure you get all of them. In your letters please mention the number of the letter you are referring to. If Al does not read Hungarian why do forward my letters to him? A few days ago I received a nice letter from Ilcsi (Weisz) and she tried to convince me to start a new life in Vienna. But, Vienna too is still in Europe and they have plenty of local Nazis there. She wrote part of the letter in German. “You are not alone. There are relatives here who are ready to have you come to us. However there are still Nazis here who commit pogroms like in Hungary and Poland. But know that you are not alone.” I would like to meet her before I leave for America. I only met her once in my childhood. She has a very nice husband too. Margit, you and Ilcsi are the only two people on earth who understand my lonely soul and my need for love. Your family picture is on my desk in front of me. I look at it every few minutes. I love both of your kids. You haven’t answered all of my questions. I still don’t know where your father is buried. The story about Max’s change of name is interesting. For me James is a more appealing name. The Schrop is really Laci. The Radnai’s are very nice people. I thanked them for their efforts in looking you up. Yesterday one of my friends received an affidavit to immigrate to America. I envy him. Try to locate my future father in law and together with him try to figure out how we can immigrate to America. I think that Bözsi will get preference with an American father and her husband as well. I can hardly wait for your next letter and the package that you mentioned. I hope there are some cigarettes inside. Bözsi will mail this letter in Czechoslovakia, hopefully it will get to you faster. I am sending kisses to all of you and still waiting for pictures of Max’s and Al’s family. Your Ernö Dear Margit, Fred and Children, I already know you from your photographs, but I hope to meet you in person. My father lives in New York: Simon Zicegenlaub, 251 West 87th Street 24 Apartment 66 It is very possible that he has contacted you already. Please help my father to get an affidavit for your brother and me. I have heard a lot of nice things about you. Soon we will travel to Budapest and get some professional photographs for you. Kisses to you all, Bözsi

151 From: Janos & Baba Budapest, Hungary Hungarian September 9, 1946

Dear Margit, I think you are right to be angry with me. I could have written to you from the time that Ernö sent me your address. Szidi wrote to you already. You might have gotten her letter in the meantime. You know it was always hard for me to write letters, and now even harder. I am very happy to hear that you all are well and will even be happier when I will read your letters. A few years have past from the time that you were here, but those times were better. Many bad things happened after that. Unfortunately, we had to live through some very hard years. Thank God Janos and I are alive and healthy. Janos works very hard and he earns hardly enough for existence, but this is not the problem. The problem is that the boys have not come home, now we expecting only them. We heard some news from Illes, he is around Kirov, #101 (camp?), but he has not written, and he is not coming. From Misa we heard that he is a medical aid in the hospital at Tambor. I don’t understand why haven’t written to us. My Margit! I hope you won’t wait a long time with your answer and I promise, that I will immediately answer you. Until now, the weather was too warm, and I was not able even to write you. Please write to me and tell me how you are. Are you teaching? And how are the boys, what are they doing? Janos works as business manager at a theater close to the place that we are living, but the problem is that the theater went bankrupt. People have no money, that’s why the theater had financial problems. Even the businesses are very slow. Did you have very hot weather? We have had a heat wave here for weeks. Even yesterday the temperature was constantly 40 degrees (about 96 F). My Margit, do you have a baby? Or, you have but did not write about it. Edi’s little boy is 8 years old, very smart little boy. I believe, sooner or later you will come and visit us. Or am I mistaken? For us it is much harder to travel and see you, financially. I wish we would be able to do so. Lots of kisses for all of you Janos and Baba

152 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian September 23, 1946 Page 1

Letter #10 Dear Margit, It is very hard to understand your silence. I hope there isn’t a serious reason that you don’t answer my letters. You know very well how important our correspondence is for my mental well being. I happily read your letters from July 5 and July 25. However I have not received any letters since then from you except for two packages that you and Al sent. These packages arrived unopened. In your package the box of cocoa was damaged and everything was full of cocoa powder. Thank you very much, both of you. I hope, that I will one day be able to reciprocate. I cannot take your silence any longer. I have decided to write to you. There is so much I want to tell you. I will try to make it short. First of all my marriage plans ended. It started fast and ended fast. I had an argument with Bözsi about one of her friends. I told her that she has to choose between her friend and me. Bözsi decided to choose her friend and I decided to disappear from her life forever. Now I think I am very lucky because she was not for me. All she wanted was to get married but she was not a serious person at all. All she wanted was the marriage certificate immediately. She did not keep her promise to find an apartment for us in Budapest, to expedite our journey to America. All she wanted was to be supported by me financially. I have difficulty supporting myself. Bözsi demanded that I accept a job offer to be the head of a civil engineering department here as the basis of our marriage. I realized that she actually does not want to immigrate. She prefers to stay here. No one will keep me here. I repeat again the question. Could you find me a girl who will marry me and get me out of here? To save my miserable soul? If it is possible she should be intelligent, decent, good looking, black hair, good homemaker, she could be good to me and be my wife. You are the only one I can ask for this favor, to look out for me, to save my soul. Enclosed you will find a very bad photograph of me for the girl. If she is willing to cross the ocean for me, if the correspondence is serious and if I have some money I will order a better picture of myself. What happened between me and Bözsi is very unpleasant. I am sure her father already contacted you. But I am happy that we cut the ties earlier rather than later. In the future I will not take any more steps to come to America without your help. But what is the reason for your silence? Did I take too much advantage of you? Is the problem in the Post Office? The Radnais are receiving their letters and packages constantly! Would you try to send my letters to my friends address in Czechoslovakia, ( in double envelopes). Here is the address: Arpad Deutsch Slovenské-Darmoty Okres Modry Kamen Ceskoslovensko Please write all this on the outside envelope. On the inside envelope write my name and address. Now we will see how important I am to you. Or are you tired of me? You are the only ones I have now on this earth. Thank you again for the package. I was able to use everything. Especially the socks, which we cannot buy here at all. Thanks again. I did not get a single picture from the Rajkos. I have received 4 packages but very few photographs.

153 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian September 23, 1946 Page 2

Recently I received a letter from London from Fini. I have difficulty writing letters in German. Writing letters in Hungarian is much easier for me than German. I was quite busy recently with the little job that I mentioned in the previous letter. It was very hard work. I made enough money to buy myself a top coat and a pair of shoes. (If the JOINT is willing to provide my food without pay). The building industry came to a complete stop due to the financial instability and it seems to me that I will not get any new jobs until spring. I have no idea what I am going to do in the coming long winter. I will write to you more often, if you don’t mind. I will send this letter from Slovakia, it might get to you sooner. Lots of kisses to all of you especially to the kids, and waiting impatiently for your letters. Your Ernö

154 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian December 26, 1946 Page 1

Letter #11 Dear Margit, I am sorry that it took me almost 3 months to answer your letter. Even though I had a bad cold, I started a letter to you but the letter was so confusing that it did not represent me and I decided not to mail it to you. I was very busy professionally. I won the bid to build a reinforced bridge. Concrete reinforced with steel. This was my first serious work that I took after coming back from the concentration camp. I had to race against time and the cold to meet the deadline. My bid was the lowest of the 7 bidders. The bridge was supposed to be finished just before Christmas. All of my tools and books had been stolen. Since I had no financial resources I had to take in a builder who had money but no real knowledge. He was a Christian man about 60 years old that I had worked with before the war. I don’t want to burden you with all the details but I had to work on the plans day and night. We finished 4 days before the real cold weather arrived. This job was a fantastic success which brought me a lot of honor but little financial reward. I did not receive enough for a decent living. I did not have time for any private life. No private time for example to write you a letter. I was asked to prepare a memorial in the city of Szécsény, in the Jewish cemetery. I was busy with this project too. I could not refuse to take part in designing a memorial there for all those people who were deported. With so much work you would think I earned a decent living. However on the contrary before the war with much less effort I earned enough to support a pretty decent life style for myself and my family. But today with much more work, I can’t make enough money to survive. We live in a very strange world. I am not complaining just stating the situation. I hope the conditions will improve in the Spring. There is only one good thing about my present occupation, that is I don’t have much time to think about my own misery and about my lost family. The little money I made I gave to the cleaning lady, the Pastor family and Baba. They all have cared for me and deserve the best. Why should I put money aside for the future? For whom? Naturally I am donating my time to work on the memorial in the Jewish cemetery of Szécsény. I am interested in the project since my whole family perished. I have made three models of a memorial in gypsum. When I have a photograph of it and my bridge I will send them to you. You have not taken proper action on my request to find an American girl or woman for me. That woman with gray hair that you mentioned would be all right if she is not too old and if she would love me in time but if Fred does not like her he is looking at her with the eyes of a man and I trust him fully. Margit don’t worry about your mistakes in Hungarian in your letters. I don’t care about mistakes in spelling or grammar. I would like to have answers to my many questions and you are not supplying them. If you won’t find me somebody I will have to do it myself but then there is the risk that I will be stuck here in this terrible old Europe. I am still young in my appearance but old in spirit. Pretty soon I am going to be an old man that no woman wants. All my life I will have to cook my own breakfast and my tea, make my own bed. I will be stuck here and won’t even be able to see you.

155 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian December 26, 1946 Page 2

Ilcsi wrote to me from Venezuela. She offered her help but we can buy everything here. Only the money is missing. I do not want to ask for this. It is okay if she want to send me cigarettes or sweets. I would prefer to be in America and supporting myself. As I see it now there is no hope for me to immigrate from here. You are telling me it is almost impossible these days. I wrote to someone I know in Australia. I would like to go and visit him. Maybe I could stay there. I don’t want to repeat myself but I already wrote to you that I don’t want to live here among those people who murdered my family. The anti-Semitism here is getting dangerous. Why are the American authorities giving a few miserable Jews such a hard time? I am very happy that you have a large extended family. I did not know that your step mother is also your sister in law. I see you have a new letterhead with Fred’s company. Would you translate it for me? Because of my business I have neglected my study of the English language and without it it is hard for me to understand the meaning. I don’t understand why you show my letters to so many people and what is laughable about it? These letters come from deep in my heart. I have exposed my secret life and feelings only to you not to the general public. Until now only my wife knew all my hearts secrets. They do not belong to people who are indifferent to my fate. I am sure nobody except the smallest family circle wants to help me in my misery. Am I right? Baba is constantly calling me the crazy Alpar. I think there are more things to cry about in my letters than to laugh about. If my letters sound comic to you I would say they are tragicomic. For an old man, like myself, to have to beg for an affidavit is really sad. I would like to enjoy myself in your warm family. I gave the Pastors the presents from your package. I read to them about your offer of a house robe for her from your letter. They politely refused but I think they would be very happy to get it. If they hadn’t been around I could have died like a dog with no one feeling any sorrow for me and no one coming to my funeral. In the beginning people invited me to visit their houses but I refused. I don’t have any social life, I live like a lonely wolf. Only work, work and more work. This is my only consolation. In the beginning after I came back from the camps I started to drink. When I was really drunk I would laugh and forget my sorrow. My goal was to destroy my body as fast as I could and disappear in hell. But I have stopped doing that. I became disgusted my drunkenness. I only drink water these days and try to keep my sanity intact. How is Al’s child? I hope he or she is developing normally. Al and Max are neglecting me constantly. Not a single letter from them. Recently I traveled to Budapest and visited Baba. She is very pleased that I write to you positively about her. But it is true. Unfortunately, I don’t visit them very often. I don’t like to visit empty handed and my finances do not allow me to pamper her with presents. Poor Gyuszi, he liked to give presents to everyone. Enclosed is a photograph of Gyuszi’s grave stone. Lately I have not been visiting his grave. Before I visited the cemetery at least two times per week.

156 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian December 26, 1946 Page 3

Did you mention my existence to your little monkeys? I would like to know them, play with them, to forget everything and be a child myself. Ilcsi hasn’t written for a long time. When I have some time I will encourage her to write. According to the newspapers here, Fascist movements are developing fast in the southern part of the USA. If this is true, I would be disillusioned about the Americans. There are a lot of German people who still love Hitler in this world and they want to export the Fascist ideology and again turn the whole world into a blood bath. I hope this wont happen in America and they will stop this at the start. What happened to the American dollar? Inflation? In the near future I will go to Szolnok, to be a witness in a trial about cruelty against the Jewish men in the labor camp. I will visit my younger cousins Szidi and Edit. I am looking forward to seeing them again. I gave testimony three times about wartime cruelty and one of my former captains was hung. I watched it to the end, which came too fast in comparison to the suffering that this person had caused. I have seen a lot of Jews shot but this was the first hanging. The hangman worked too fast. The guy did not suffer much, as much as he deserved. Even today Germany and Austria are full of them. Even the Austrians are Germans not because they speak the same language but because they share the same feelings. If I were their judge, I would kill them, to the last person. America is too soft on them. This would be my goal in life. I could execute the last German myself. Dear Margit, I still waiting for the long letter from you in which you answer all of my questions. Please do not let me wait too long. A lot of kisses to everyone together and separately including the families of Al and Max. Your Ernö

157 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian September 12, 1947 Page 1

Letter #15 Dear Margit, I received your kind letter a month ago and it made me very happy. Since then every morning when I wake up I promise to answer your letter but the constant struggle to make a living gets in the way. I don’t want to complain so I will talk about something else. As I mentioned in my previous letter I am going to marry Gitta in the near future. This means you are not responsible for my future anymore. All you have to do is answer my letters from time to time, even if it is a burden for you. If it is a burden you will forget it sooner or later. Congratulations on the birth of your second son. I hope he will give you great happiness. But if the baby is really such a wonderful child and sleeps all day long, then you could take some time off and answer my letters. Otherwise I would consider this indifference. Even Baba took your constant silence to heart. My future wife speaks English, so you will be able to write in English and she will translate your letters for me. My friends Max and Al apparently use their pens to write other things but not letters to me. I was surprised to find a few sentences from Fred. It made me very happy. I wish all of you the best for the coming holidays. I hope you will never have a reason to complain or to be unhappy. About the Pastors, she is a short but fat lady. That means you would have to send a large amount of fabric to make a bathrobe her size. Gitta could make two robes for herself from the same amount. I would advise you to spend the money on yourself. I have heard from friends that we can receive woolen fabric by mail from America. If you can send me the fabric for 3 or 4 suits I will send you the money immediately for the fabric and postage in Hungarian Forints. This would be of great help and I would thank you for it. If you could also send me a large amount of matching socks I would thank you and pay in Forint. This will only be for my personal use. I cannot find as good quality here as in America. Baba asks you to send her nylon stockings, but I say there is no need. I will find them here for her. Please don’t send me any more packages as presents. I know your financial situation does not allow it. I could use some soap, like you sent in the past. I can buy soap here but not so fine. I mean the soap with the picture of the swan on it. Now we can buy almost everything on the (black) market. We only need enough money. So please send me things only if I can pay for them. Sorry I didn’t send you pictures from Szolnok. I will spend the holidays in Budapest. Szidi will be there too. Illes is still in Russia, in captivity, but we had news from him and can hardly wait for his arrival. We have not heard from anyone else. My dear brother in law, to answer your letter, I wish you luck and I hope you will become a rich man soon. I am sure this will happen because there is a lot of money in America. According to the newspapers, the prices in America are up because of the political situation there. Is that true that fascism has deep roots in America? Please inform me about the political situation there. People say our prime minister (who escaped) bought a big farm there for himself with the money he stole from our embassy in Svaja. Ilcsi did not answer, for months. I owe an answer to Aranká.

158 From: Alpar Erno, Balassagyarmat, Hungary Hungarian September 12, 1947 Page 2

Again I wish everyone well, including Max and Al and families. I am waiting for the photographs of the new member of the family. Hugs and kisses Your Ernö Max you answer about the political situation in this country. I don’t know from nothing. (my guess is this postscript was added by Margaret when she passed this letter on to my father).

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