I was finally released from customs and then joyfully discovered that my Uncle Paul was waiting for me! He gathered my luggage and we shoved what seemed like hundreds of packages, into a taxi. We sped to the railway station and thence back to Washington DC — where I now spend my days walking around in the clouds.
EPILOGUE
Helen continued to correspond with Arthur, the handsome desk man from Budapest. He wrote that he lost his job and was looking for another. She sent him money several times, when he indicated that he had no one else to turn to. He continued to profess his desire to be with her.
Helen resumed foreign travel in the 1960s, after which she enthusiastically explored regions of the world that intrigued her. She visited China soon after it was opened to tourism. She took a cruise down the Amazon River, visited the South Pacific islands, and traveled to Alaska where she rode a bush plane above the Arctic Circle. Her subsequent passports display stamps from Australia, Spain, Singapore, Bangkok, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Kenya, Manila, Tanzania, Zambia, and Egypt, Before each vacation, she would design and sew a mix-and-match wardrobe to wear. In 1985, my Aunt Helen invited me to join her on a two-week tour of Italy. It was one of the most wonderful two-weeks of my life. I recall that when we landed in Rome, her suitcase did not arrive. I was worried for her, but she seemed confident that her luggage would show up — and it did. Now, that I am familiar with her 1938 trip, and know just how many times she was separated from her luggage, I understand why she refused to worry about it in Italy.
Helen was a very intelligent, kind-hearted and generous person who loved others unconditionally. She is sadly missed
Reader please note:
I am including below, two letters from Nazi soldiers that she met on the trip. I have no personal knowledge of their character, or how they conducted themselves during WWII. I am presenting this true story with the photos in a historical fashion, trusting that it will not offend any reader. Please feel free to draw your own conclusions from this book, the photos, and the letters. Several months after her return, Helen wrote a letter to a friend, which described the trip in great detail. She mentioned that she had received a letter from Hubert, the man who headed a Military Academy in Berlin. Here are her words about his letter:
“I received an interesting letter from Hubert last November, which I must say I have not answered. He wrote that he had been in on the military conferences concerning the annexation of the Sudetenland and was with the first German troops, which marched into Czecho-Slovakia. I was rather interested in his description of the joy and shouts of welcome, which greeted the Germans. It was very vivid and rather contrary to the general opinion that we have, in America. Of course, he is a Nazi and it couldn’t be anything else to him.”
At the end of her letter to the friend, Helen added:
“You see, this was just the time before the Munich Peace Pact was signed and I guess the countries were about as near war as they could be While in Germany, I had seen many soldiers, but there did not seem to be a great feeling of anxiousness. I believe now that things were bad there, and we didn’t realize it over here. From all I have read since then and from the facts related by my parents, when I returned, I now know just how serious the situation was.”
Here is the content of Hubert’s Letter which was written in broken English
Letter from Hubert dated November 16, 1938
“Dear Helen:
I have much enjoyed your letter, many thanks indeed. I had not hoped to hear anything from you after our farewell in Vienna. Many thanks also, for your snapshots, you have sent. Was it not a jolly occasion our riding on the Vienna Express…. I often and willingly make remembrance of the hours in the Rathouse Cellar, the Grinzing wine and Hungarian music. I am glad to hear that you enjoyed your stay in our country. I hope you found many interesting and meaningful things, and that you found a friendly and hospitable population. The Germans are not so bad animals as they perhaps are described in your newspapers.
Meantime I have had many interesting and important works. You must surely have heard of the Czechoslovakian Crisis, the political tension, the Munich Conference and its military consequences. With all those events, I was in high military staff meetings, and you can understand that it was very interesting for me. I was in the first groups that entered into Czechoslovakia. It was an overwhelming impression I never could forget. It is impossible to describe the enthusiasm of the population. Every soldier was considered as a deliverer. You scarcely can fancy the oppression and the harm that the population had suffered under the old regime, and joy finally, after several hundred years’ struggle, to have returned home. I never before had seen so much movement of souls and so many tears of joy as in Sudetenland. The year 1938 will always remain a year of joy and pride for all Germans. It is the year in which the German people hitherto, spread over the three European countries, and had found its definitive form in one Reich. I hope you willingly will remember all your impressions in Germany. Beg your pardon for all the mistakes I have made in this letter. The results of my English lessons at school are not important. Thank you again for your letter and the pleasant times at Vienna.
Sincerely Yours, Hubert”
Helen brought home a newsletter from the Queen Mary.
The headline reads “Early Results of the Munich Conference.”
The main article headline was “Token Occupation of Outer Sudetenland areas by German Troops.” Another article was topped by the headline: “Deliverance from Calamity” with the subtitle: “Hopes for removal of Czech Fears and German Grievances.”
I will let you, dear reader, draw your own conclusions.
After the war was over, Helen received a letter from Max, the Austrian soldier in Nuremberg. It is typewritten in German. I was fortunate to find someone who could expertly translate it. This is what it said:
Letter from Max dated August 18, 1945
“Dear respected, beloved Helen,
Six years have gone by that I have been without a sign of life from you. Your Christmas wishes in 1939 reached my hands, but I do not know if you received my answer to them. In this time frame, there has been a lot of change here and probably in your fatherland as well. What all happened I cannot tell you in details, it would be a letter of suffering. I want to bring you joy with my lines. I hope you can still remember me at all, your European boyfriend? I thought of you often and would have been happy to have exchanged thoughts and ideas with you through this hard time. To refresh your memory, I have enclosed a picture that you sent to me at one time (train station Nuremberg.) Due to bombing damages, I moved with my family to Bad Ischl in a country house. My apartment in Linz is being restored. The rebuilding work has thank God started. There is a large deficit of workers and materials, and especially food. The need is large!
We are living in the area of your people’s occupied zone and we have already started relations with them, as we had to clear out our country house within a few hours after they arrived to make room for their quarters. A few days later, we were allowed to move back in after these troops were pulled out. In November we will be in Linz again. I manage the business from Bad-Ishl until my apartment in Linz is ready to move back into. The connection to your people here has not yet bettered my English to the extent to write in English. Maybe one day. Did your German get better? If yes, then you are perfect, since you already could write understandable German. It will interest you that in the meantime, I married and have a family of four daughters and my dear wife, with whom I have a happy marriage. The biggest worry that we have at the time, is to feed these always hungry four mouths. Almost all of the goods have been destroyed or stolen throughout the war and its aftermath. We all thank God that this cruel fighting of mankind has found an end. You should be congratulated to be a citizen of the biggest nation in the world. We are again separated from Germany and are trying to become an independent and free land. Since our economy is almost on ground bottom, we really need help from stronger nations, especially America. We will not let our courage sink and will use all of our energy to make our Austria, that is unfortunately mostly confused with Germany, into a country where everyone is free and can feel comfortable. In a few years, we hope that we are so far to secure a comfortable stay for the many foreigners that will visit us.