1941
But then came something that disturbed us very much, a postcard from my father-in-law. It was dated February 18th, 1941, arrived in Havana on March 6th and probably one or two days later in our home, and contained the following sentence: “But we see for us worrisome into the very near future, since we will hardly be able to stay here. We don’t want to enlarge still more your circle of worries.” We did not understand the meaning, and I took the bus and went into the city to visit some friends and ask them what the meaning of all that could be. I met one man, whose name I have forgotten, in the street and he told me that the New York newspaper Der Aufbau had brought lately bad news, that tie Germans had started to arrest Jews in Vienna in great numbers and to deport them to Poland. I was consternated, crushed, and it was difficult to tell Hedy, when I had come home, what I had found out. It was difficult to console her, and I needed consolation myself, since I loved them so dearly. We thought that we had to do something that could perhaps help them in their terrible situation and I sent them a telegram, informing them that the Cuban visa for both of them are on the way to the Cuban consul and that they should get them soon. That was, of course, not true, but we thought it might help them. In our despair we wrote a letter to Mr. Max Bruell and asked him also to send a telegram that he had sent tickets for the voyage by boat to them, he had found out lately that he had really sent one ticket for my father-in-law, one only. There came soon one or two more postcards from my mother-in-law, with a few lines from my father-in-law, which were not very clear, but seemed to tell us that they were not anymore at home and somewhere detained. I also went to Mr. Agramonte, the man who had helped us so wonderfully with Lisa and Francis, but he said that he could not do anything anymore for me.