1943
One day, we read in the newspaper that there was a shortage of doctors in the United States on account of the war. That gave me an idea and I explained it to Hedy: I saw a chance for me and Francis to get visas for the United States. We had to make a drastic step: She and Johanna should return to New York, should apply for a hearing in Washington and explain our situation. I figured that she would make a good impression there and would achieve the result, visas for me and Francis. Hedy got tears running down from her eyes, but she saw that I was right and agreed. I had at that time the money for their voyage and a little more for the beginning, till she would find a job. She knew there a couple from before, Michael and Amelie Rosen, where she could find a place to stay. And I and Francis found also a place to stay, with friends, Mr. and Mrs. Zobel, who lived nearby, and we moved there into a nice room. For food there was Lisa, also nearby. So, Hedy and Johanna left, it was in May, 1943 — this time by plane to Miami, where she visited Mrs. Wagner, and from there by train to New York.
They got a room in the apartment of the Rosens, who took them even along for a summer vacation somewhere in the Catskills. Hedy prepared herself very well for the hearing in Washington, got advice from a lawyer, Mr. Milton Pariser. He had told her to buy government bonds for the war effort, which she did, also to do voluntary work for the Red Cross, and she did that too, making gauze bandages for wounded soldiers.
The day of the hearing in Washington came and she took the train. She had a paper prepared by the lawyer, but she had to do much talking on her own and she cried there too. She was asked about government bonds and voluntary work for the Red Cross too. The result was as expected: Visas for me and Francis, which arrived around Christmas time, and, extremely happy, we started right away with our preparations for the trip, which was not an easy undertaking, since we had accumulated quite a lot of things in over 5 years, from October 1938 till February 1943, among them two big display boxes filled with butterflies and other insects. For the last two days in Havana I had hired a taxicab to take me to the many friends to say “good-bye”. In the laboratory Vieta-Plasencia I had left a large amount of ointment for a long time to come and I told them that I would probably come over from the United States to prepare more ointment for them. The formula I did not give them and they did not ask me for it, since I had great plans for Viperin for the United States.
The following 4 pages (starting from the page 375A) show a petition which Hedy had prepared for her hearing in Washington D.C., and following these 4 pages a letter of the Department of States to the U.S Embassy in Havana approving the issuance of immigration visas to me a and Francis. A great success! Another dream came true.
