Object numberM2018/008:085
Description
In March 1938, Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in the “Anschluss”. From May 1938, the racist Nuremberg laws applied in Austria, and Austrian Jews were steadily ostracised from their societies during the process of “Aryanisation.” This tension came to a climax in the Kristallnacht pogrom from 9th-10th November.
In the meantime, Hardy Brothers, a British jewellery-making firm, offer young Leo Steiner from Vienna employment in Sydney, Australia as a jewellery mounter in July 1938. However, the Gestapo threaten to arrest Jews issued with travel documents who do not leave within a short time. Whilst Leo’s Australian landing permit is pending, it is therefore prudent to seek temporary refuge in a third country. Before he is discharged from his erstwhile firm Vienna Art Designs, Leo’s employer Oscar Fastlich writes that his stay in Switzerland is necessary for business. In July, Leo moves to Zurich on a temporary stay visa, leaving his parents, Adolf and Hermine, and brother Paul, behind in Vienna.
Once established in Australia, Leo makes various applications to the Australian government for landing permits on behalf of his parents and Paul, all of which are denied. All three family members would eventually perish during WWII.
Whilst in Australia, Leo remains in contact with a wide network of friends and family. His maternal Aunt Anna and her husband Abraham Seifter are amongst the prisoners to be released from the Ferramonti di Tarsia camp following the downfall of Mussolini in September, 1943. They are also two of the approximately 1,000 refugees from the camp shipped to the US for the Fort Ontario refugee settlement in Oswego, NY - the only concerted effort made by the US during WWII to house Jewish refugees.
Leo's Aunt Anna Seifter wrote this letter from Fort Ontario. Although they have relatives in Theresienstadt ghetto, she states she has not heard news of them. Her and her husband’s stay in the camp is only guaranteed until the end of June, since the area will then be required for use by US soldiers. This letter expresses their longing to walk free again. It also passes on the news that some people from Paul Steiner’s Kladovo Transport group were deported to Sajmiste concentration camp in Belgrade (however, by this point, Paul himself had already been shot at the end of a cross-country death march). Enclosed is a newspaper clipping containing some of the names of Austrian refugees accommodated in Fort Ontario.
In March 1938, Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in the “Anschluss”. From May 1938, the racist Nuremberg laws applied in Austria, and Austrian Jews were steadily ostracised from their societies during the process of “Aryanisation.” This tension came to a climax in the Kristallnacht pogrom from 9th-10th November.
In the meantime, Hardy Brothers, a British jewellery-making firm, offer young Leo Steiner from Vienna employment in Sydney, Australia as a jewellery mounter in July 1938. However, the Gestapo threaten to arrest Jews issued with travel documents who do not leave within a short time. Whilst Leo’s Australian landing permit is pending, it is therefore prudent to seek temporary refuge in a third country. Before he is discharged from his erstwhile firm Vienna Art Designs, Leo’s employer Oscar Fastlich writes that his stay in Switzerland is necessary for business. In July, Leo moves to Zurich on a temporary stay visa, leaving his parents, Adolf and Hermine, and brother Paul, behind in Vienna.
Once established in Australia, Leo makes various applications to the Australian government for landing permits on behalf of his parents and Paul, all of which are denied. All three family members would eventually perish during WWII.
Whilst in Australia, Leo remains in contact with a wide network of friends and family. His maternal Aunt Anna and her husband Abraham Seifter are amongst the prisoners to be released from the Ferramonti di Tarsia camp following the downfall of Mussolini in September, 1943. They are also two of the approximately 1,000 refugees from the camp shipped to the US for the Fort Ontario refugee settlement in Oswego, NY - the only concerted effort made by the US during WWII to house Jewish refugees.
Leo's Aunt Anna Seifter wrote this letter from Fort Ontario. Although they have relatives in Theresienstadt ghetto, she states she has not heard news of them. Her and her husband’s stay in the camp is only guaranteed until the end of June, since the area will then be required for use by US soldiers. This letter expresses their longing to walk free again. It also passes on the news that some people from Paul Steiner’s Kladovo Transport group were deported to Sajmiste concentration camp in Belgrade (however, by this point, Paul himself had already been shot at the end of a cross-country death march). Enclosed is a newspaper clipping containing some of the names of Austrian refugees accommodated in Fort Ontario.
Production placeOswego, NY, USA
Production date 1945-05-03 - 1945-05-03
Subjectrefugees, family life, refugee camps, Fort Ontario, Ferramonti di Tarsia internment camp, rebuilding lives, tracing loved ones, Kladovo Transport, Theresienstadt ghetto, Terezin, Czech Republic, concentration camps
Object nameletters
Dimensions
- letter length: 280.00 mm
letter width: 214.00 mm
newspaper clipping length: 108.00 mm
newspaper clipping width: 67.00 mm
envelope length: 165.00 mm
envelope width: 92.00 mm
Language
- German Dearest Leonku and Bettinko!
We haven’t received anything from you since December, even though you are the only person we have left, since alas we have had no word from anyone else. Whether my siblings are still in Theresienstadt, I don’t know; many people went to Switzerland from there but none of our own it appears. I still look in the Aufbau newsletter regularly and have found many acquaintances from Vienna; but what use are these strangers to us? About Pauli’s ship Kladovo we learnt that they were all sent to a camp in Zemun, Belgrade, but what has become of them no-one knows.
How is your business going and did you do anything over Christmas? In general it looks as if we will soon be freed from here. Everyone is working on it and people are writing to all possible channels; they want to be free as 7 years as an internee is enough for anybody. We are going very well here. We are carefree but we can’t live fenced-in forever as one wants to walk free again.
I’m attaching an excerpt from the Austrian paper here with the address. Write to them and see if you can find out anything. I have already written and expect to see the answer in the paper. Inquire also with the Red Cross about your dear Mama – maybe she has a note to send you from Poland. It is difficult for us to make enquiries here as we only have certain number of hours free and the city of Oswego is very small so it’s hard to arrange anything there. I found a card from your mother in the meantime. She left Vienna on 3.6.42 and was born on 16.4.1891.
I have been working until now in the kitchen, but should really stop as I have rheumatic hands. Uncle has enough work here, but earns very little as he only does repairs. Do you have any acquaintances from Vienna in Sydney? How is your dear wife, and are you two healthy? We have had a terrible winter here – so much snow I have never seen in my life. What do you say about the war ending? One can only rejoice!
There is much excitement here at the moment as we will be able to stay until the end of June. What will become of us after that we don’t know as the camp must be vacated from then on for soldiers. I would hate it if we were to be sent back. We would much rather stay here as we have no-one in Vienna left.
Write to us very soon,
Warmest greetings to your wife and in-laws,
Many kisses,
Your Aunt Anna and Uncle Edi Seifter [a.k.a. Abraham Seifter].
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Pauline Shavit