1942
We come now to the last letter, written by the parents on October 10th, 1942, mailed on the same day by registered mail to Dr. Julius Ziegler in Vienna, who later mailed it to us in Cuba. He wrote on the envelope: “Farewell letter to the children.”
First the part written by the mother:
“My most heartily loved children:
We are writing these lines to you in great uncertainty about our fate and we also don’t know whether and when these lines will reach you! But we want to assert you that we are facing our fate quietly. We are happy – it is paradox – that you are not here. God had helped me to know that you are that far away. I know that all of you will be very happy, because my whole life was a prayer for you. The thought of us should not burden you. We were well off up to the end. We were in high esteem by everybody, especially Papa. Your pictures and some things of remembrance are with our landlady for preservation for you, and there, where Julius has the address. We put our future destiny in God’s hands. It is possible that we will have to leave tomorrow, on the 11th of October at 5 in the morning, can also take a few more days. It is also possible that we will still survive and will see each other again! Then our gladness will still be greater. So, fare well, my beloved children, let us always be among you, even if we are not alive anymore. That means, you should never be sad – I was so happy when I saw all of you merry. Love each other.
Your Mother.
To that letter father wrote a short addition, consisting of one long sentence:
P.S. One has to know how to rip out of one’s own heart one’s own suffering, like all anguish and worries about oneself and one’s own people, in sympathy with and in the face of, with human beings necessarily connected and at certain times still more increased, often unutterable grief.
Papa.
These were their last words.
I wrote all that with a heavy heart. I went for weeks through all their letters, reading all of them, taking out the ones I have translated and brought here, and by doing that I went with them through all the horrors they had gone through till the end, when they wrote the heart-rending fare-well letter.
As I said already before, during 1942 we had hardly any direct mail from the parents and as their letters were mailed to Julius, we did not know that they were in that terrible situation. These letters, written by them between August and October 1942, we received much later and we were unaware of all that had happened to them. We were unaware of Part 3 of that devilish plan, as mentioned before, hatched out by Hitler and his consorts in the Reichschancellery and executed by Adolf Eichmann. These 1 1/2 years of waiting in Poland, of reprieve, were part of that plan, necessary to give these beasts time to build the gas-chambers and the crematorium in Majdanek near Lublin. Then, when that was done, they continued the deportation by going with special detachments from village to village to levy their prey, which they did with special cruelty. The people had to run and those who couldn’t were shot.
This is not a fairy-tale. I have the proof of it, black on white, 10 pages of a letter, written in Polish by a man from Poland, Zbygniew Chorozinski, the son or grandson of our parents’ landlady, who was an eye-witness to all that happened there. Starting in 1976, this man wrote us many letters, sent by registered mail, in Polish, which we had translated, and which we answered in Polish. Each letter contained inclusions like photos of Hedy and Lisa, also Xerox-copies of documents like birth certificates, marriage certificates, and letters from the American Consulate in Vienna, etc. In these letters the consulate asked the parents for detailed information, how the sponsors who had written the affidavits would take care of them when they arrived in the U.S. At that time, Hedy and Johanna were already in Cuba, and now we found out that instead of mentioning it to us Our parents had written to Marianne Erdstein in New York, to get in touch with that Dr. Runes and ask her to procure that information and send it to the consulate. Marianne must have done that, but as we found out and know, this Dr. Runes never reacted nor did she do anything, although it was obvious that our parents would never have accepted any help from them. Our parents wrote in their last letters from Poland that Dr. Runes has them on her conscience. Now we understood what we never knew before, that the relatives of Dr. Runes had really sent an affidavit and that was at about the middle of 1940, but it was probably written in such a way that the American consulate could have had reasons to doubt their sincereness, and had to ask for detailed explanations. These were never sent, although Marianne intervened. It would have been so easy to save our parents lives. If they only would have written to us, instead of to Marianne, that there was an affidavit and that the consulate had asked for more information. But they kept it as a secret from us, didn’t want us to know about it, as they explained later, because they thought that we would, by trying to do something on their behalf, diminish our efforts to save Lisa and Francis. That was in the summer of 1940, when Lisa and Francis were in the Bernerie on the Atlantic coast, when we had no contact at all with them and were not in a position to do anything for them. Hedy and Johanna arrived in Havana on the 1st of October 1940, and had we known anything, we would have made efforts of all kinds, would have written to Dr. Runes, would have tried to get permits for the parents for Cuba. I mentioned already that I had offered them that, but they had declined, had said that they will stay behind till Lisa and Francis are saved. I think I am repeating here what I had already explained before. Of course, they did not know that they were in such great danger, at that time, and when they realized it, in February of 1941, it was too late and still to let us know they sent postcards, which arrived in Havana at about the 18th of March, when they were already detained. Repetitions? I can not help it, have to say it again and again.
I am now bringing the sad letter, which the Polish man, Mr. Zbygniew Chorozinski, wrote us, 10 pages. This is a letter, written by an eye-witness to the deportation of our dear parents from Kunow to an extermination camp in Majdanek. The writer was a young boy at that time, but he wrote the letter in 1977, that is 35 years later. I had the letter translated from Polish into English, and I am bringing the translation at the end of the 10 Polish pages.
[insert letter scan here]
March 25, 1977
Dear Mrs. Hedy Mechner:
I returned from Dublin today and found your letter. In spite of the letter having been mailed by “special delivery”, it arrived in poor shape. Until now not one letter arrived without being damaged. They were torn on their way here. I will contact the main post office and ask them to save letters in the future. I doubt the success of my attempt! I will enclose the envelope of the letter I received from you, with the stamps on it. Lately packages from U.S.A. don’t arrive in Poland….the press here mentioned it.
(I was) sad about the death of Dr. Erich Ziegler. What did he die from? How long was he ill? Any children left? Thanks for the New Years card from you and your sister. Thanks for the family photo, it tells us a lot! I would love to keep it forever. If you don’t want me to keep it, I will send it back to you. Great changes can be seen in your face. and your sister’s face, from the years of your youth….What colossal changes!! This is human nature, no one can avoid his destiny. About the dollars you sent to me, I did not receive them at all.
I wonder why you did not confirm the receipt of the letter, in which I wrote to you about your parents’ visit in Kunow! Perhaps somebody did not like the details I described in the letter.
I will now describe the sad visit of Dr. and Mrs. Ziegler in my town. Kunow is a small town. Before the war, we had quite a number of Jews here. During the war, the Germans transported Jews from Vienna here, most of them older people, whose belongings had been taken away from them. Your parents lived in the house we live in now. The house was my grandfather’s property. He worked in a factory, and as a carpenter did also other factory work. Your parents received packages from overseas. Your mother used to sell parts of the contents of the packages, to get food supplies. Jews were punished if they sold for business; they were often searched, it often happened that people were killed. They did not find out who did the killing. The killers were protected and not afraid of killing.
The doors of Jewish apartments were painted with red paint. We helped each other with food supplies. They used to sell items of clothing to get food. We used to buy meat secretly for your parents and other provisions not too easily to be gotten. Your father was a man of culture, good brain, and he had a good heart. He was patient and tolerant and divided his possessions. He was very honest and devoted. He knew the nature of human beings as a great doctor and was always honest. Lately packages did not arrive in Kunow anymore from abroad to your parents.
Grandfather had hidden cows, pigs, and chickens. He had enough bread, milk, potatoes, for all of us. Your father helped grandfather in his illness, a day before Jews from Kunow, Lagow, Rakow, etc. were sent away. We knew about it! We were shocked and knew their sad destiny.
To refuse to move was impossible. The resistance of Jews was nil – they knew their hopeless lot. Your parents were very shocked about their sad future, – father protested of no avail. We wanted to hide your parents, but father would not consent to such a step. He was afraid. He hoped Jews will not perish. Mrs. Ziegler refused to be hidden by herself. She declared she wished to die with her husband, instead of leaving him. She was loyal to him till the end. Before leaving, she said she would love to see her children before her death once more.
A special group of Germans, Ukrainians, and Latvians arrived in Kunow. They planned their action with precision, those hated bandits.
Early in the morning, Jews from areas near Kunow were gathered in the market place. Kunow Jews were told to be in the market place at a certain hour. The latecomers were shot! A Viennese Jew was led in pain – strangulated hernia – by his wife. They pushed her away from her husband, crying with pain; they hit him with bayonets. He bled, so they shot him in the head. The possessions of the Jews were taken away from everyone. They arranged the people, four in a line. The people were scared, with a deadly pallor on their faces. We were not allowed to talk. If anyone wanted to go to the bathroom without permission, he would be killed on the spot. The older men were not here anymore, they were victims before or worked in labor camps.
We were watching your mother saying good-bye to us and to the house she lived in. She was an intelligent, honest, and wise person. She left good memories! The Ukrainians, we heard, beat your father. Those who could not march they punished by beating them. At the station we saw trainloads of Jews in the wagons, ready to move on! They were thrown in forcefully and were being hit with bayonets and fists. A German would grab an infant, hit it and hit the mother who was hysterical.
People were packed in wagons without water or light, and no air. The farmers in the fields heard the screams, coming from the passing trains. Trains were going to Majdanek or, who knows, to Treblinka for killing of the victims by gas. Fate gave them unnatural death – Fascists killed and destroyed them. The world powers could not prevent these horrors.
Your last letter was in German; I tried to translate it. Write in German, but clearly, please. I dream about the city you live in. I wish I could see your city. I dream about your country in which you live now – U.S.A.
For a long time I kept documents of the family that your parents left with us. Did you receive my recent letter with some documents? I have great respect for your family, which suffered so much during the last war. I didn’t know them all. Please write to me about them.
Best wishes (signature).
After the war, a court in Nueremberg sat in accusation of the most important criminals, who were caught, but some had committed suicide, like Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler, and Goering. Many important ones had escaped and live somewhere under false names, mostly in Argentina or Brazil, and were never found, like Bormann. But one very important and perhaps the cruellest, Adolf Eichmann, was found, thanks to Simon Wiesenthal, who had an office in Vienna and discovered many criminals, no matter how far away they lived. Adolf Eichmann was one day caught by special Jewish detectives in Argentina, brought to an airport and from there by airplane to Israel, an enormous undertaking and success that brought protests and denunciation by the Argentinian government, furious comments by many other countries, which called it piracy, on the other hand admiration and favorable comments by other governments. Adolf Eichmann was brought before a court in Israel, where witnesses from the whole world, also delegates and observers from the whole world were participating and watching. Adolf Eichmann was there in a glass cage and had to defend himself. Nothing could help and save him. He was adjudged as guilty for committing the most heinous crimes and was finally put to death by hanging.
I am now leaving the story of our parents. They have died as martyrs, innocent victims of abominable hate and despicable baseness of men or rather beasts, who were adored by almost all the Germans, who were participating wherever possible in great crimes, disregarding love of humanity and moral doctrines, assuming thereby the guilt of their leaders.
For us, our parents are not dead. They live on as shining examples of all that is good in men; and with them the great many other members of our family, who were the victims of the Germans and had the same fate. May they all rest in peace.
A page of glory
A page of glory is due to the many relatives in Vienna and Tchechoslovakia, who were so helpful to our parents by frequently sending them packages with food. In the first place were Julius and Antoinette, who were constantly in contact with them and sent lots of things. The parents wrote that they were their ‘good angels’. Again and again they wrote it. From Tchechoslovakia they got very frequently food parcels, from the Landlers and their two daughters Grete and Minnie and the husbands of these two, Karl Neustatl and Erwin Feldmann, and from Terry and others, as long as these relatives were free. But that came to an end, when they themselves were deported and sent to extermination camps, together with their little ones. There were friends in Vienna, Mr. and Mrs. Welzl who helped also by sending packages with food and other things like cloths, handbags, gloves etc., which they could sell and thereby lighten their misery. Hugo Husserl, who was still in Germany and in danger, kept contact with them. He later escaped to Switzerland and ended up in Australia with the help of our Erich and Lisl, the same as Walter Ziegler. They all deserve praise and our thankfulness.
Antoinette, the only survivor, has reason to be proud of all the good things she had done for our poor parents, the only one who will perhaps read these lines.
A special page of praise is due to our beloved Lisa, who took care of our Francis in a most admirable way, when he was left in Paris under her wings. She was like a mother to him, protecting him in dangerous situations in the war zone as well as from some of our relatives, who wanted her to give up Francis, to deliver him to a kind of orphanage. She threatened them with committing suicide and only then they gave up. The most heroic step she made, when she took a train to Paris with Francis and succeeded in getting a permission to cross the border from the occupied zone of France to the un-occupied zone, the permission given to her by a Gestapo-Officer, a most daring step under the prevalent circumstances. It turned out that this undertaking saved their lives. This comes to light by reading the chapter “Reminiscing” on page 632. This is one of the great achievements in her life, of which she can be very proud, but her whole life is filled with many more great achievements for which a song of glory is due. She is a great person and that is why everybody who ever came in contact with her loves her.
(More details in interview with Lisa.)
1942
In the meantime, my medical practice had grown and I worked all day long. My fee was very small, but at the end of the day I had accumulated a nice amount of money, and since our expenses were relatively small, we could save some money. Very often, a few times a week, I took the children to the movies, for which I did not have to pay, as a patient of mine, a Cuban, always supplied me with tickets. We also had a nice social life, had friends whom we visited or who came over to visit us.
One day, a patient and his family moved to Mexico, and they had offered me to buy their piano for a relatively small amount of money, which I did. I had it moved to our apartment, without telling the children anything about it, when they were at school – they both attended an American school, Miss Phillips School at that time – and when they came home they were surprised to find the piano in the house and were very happy. They were both very anxious to play and were in the beginning almost fighting to get the seat at the piano. I bought music books and Francis advanced very rapidly, since he had still some knowledge from the time he had learned piano in Vienna with Miss Feucht. Johanna had to start and I spent quite some time with her to give her the basic instructions.
There came a time when we had decided to move to a better apartment, as our apartment was quite primitive, especially the kitchen, and very hot in summer. We found an apartment in Vedado in a very good neighborhood on the Linea, in a modern building. It was on the ground floor and we liked it very much. But we soon became very disappointed, when we noticed that a construction of a new house was going on right next to our apartment, with a lot of noise from early morning till late in the afternoon. Otherwise it was a great improvement of our situation. Lisa and Paul lived very close by, and they made a living by renting two or three rooms and also providing meals for some of these people, a Mr. Adler and a Mrs. Gerenday. Besides, she had another flourishing business, baking cakes and cookies in good Viennese style, for which she had always had a great talent. Paul had a job in the diamond cutting and grinding industry, which was started in Havana by Jewish immigrants from Belgium. He had learned it quite well, did the cutting of raw diamonds into two halves, and earned a nice income with that. I should also mention here that Francis took piano lessons in Cuba with a Mrs. Freund for a few months.
We had the good fortune that Mr, Bernhard Reder, an old friend and schoolmate of mine, and his friend Mr. Lerner, a painter, lived nearby. They both liked Francis very much and started to give him instruction, Mr. Reder in sculpture, and Mr. Lerner in painting. Mr. Lerner visited us for months every afternoon and sat there for hours, while Francis was painting still-lives, making great progress. Mr. Reder had met Francis on the boat, when he happened to hear the name Mechner. He asked and found out right away that he was the son of his former schoolmate. He was then very helpful to Lisa and Francis, since they were travelling in the tourist class, where the food was very bad, whereas Mr. Reder was in the first class. Mr. Reder was a great sculptor in Europe, a friend of Maillol, but all his works were lost, after he left, stolen by the Germans. He became famous again in the U.S., showed his new sculptures in many exhibitions.
I should have mentioned that Hedy and Johanna had come from New York with so-called Re-entry Permits. Hedy had made out, shortly after she had come to the United States, a so-called Declaration of Intention, also called First Paper, in which she applied for United States citizenship. She had to stay in the country for 5 years, before she could get her Second Paper, the Citizenship Certificate. But there was a provision that she could leave the country during that 5-year period for 6 months with a Re-entry Permit, and possibly for longer on application for an extension of another 6-months period. But before the first 6 months were over, Hedy had applied for an extension for another 6 months. When we did not get an answer, we wrote to the Immigration Department and got a reply which said that her papers had been misplaced and that she will be notified when they will be found. We were extremely happy about it. We applied anyway every 6 months for an extension, by registered mail, of course. We were all together, had a relatively pleasant life, but still, I saw no hope for the future. I was a few times close to getting my visa, but the American consulate got usually only a few visa numbers for the Rumanian quota, but never enough to include me.
