Object numberM2015/005:002
DescriptionThis is a typed one-page letter from Gyula [Heitler, later: John Hilton] in Zurich, to Sandor [Alexander] in Australia. The letter is dated 26th February 1946.
John Hilton was one of Sydney’s most successful fashion manufacturers. His success in Australia had its roots in a small town near Bratislava, where the parents of Gyula Heitler depended on his help in their general store. Here he learned how to buy and sell. Arriving from Europe in 1947, Gyula changed his name to John J Hilton and worked for his sponsor Alexander ‘Gigi’ Schwarz at Olympia Fashions, a dress shop in Pitt Street. Together with his elder brother Emil he started a business manufacturing ladies knitwear.
Adopting the trading name, John J Hilton, they looked around for what Australia might not have in fashion and decided to focus on women in their mid-twenties and older, offering them elegant frocks at a fair price. The dresses would be durable and not likely to go out of fashion quickly. He made up a slogan ‘It’s a Honey, It’s a Hilton’. The business grew to 100 employees. With showrooms around Australia and representatives in Paris, New York and London, John J Hilton was one of the first to export Australian fashion to Japan, as well as to Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada and United States. A pioneer in the use of wool in women’s dresses, John J Hilton was the recipient of fashion awards, including the Australian Wool Award.
This letter is a part of a correspondence between Gyula [John], Emil [Gyula's brother] and Alexander [relative of Gyula and Emil, often referred to as Sandor], in order to settle Gyula and Emil over to Australia. In this letter, Gyula writes about the loss of his parents and his brother Imre due to the Holocaust an continues about his own future situation: "On no account do I want to continue living at N-Zamky where perhaps it used to be a very nice spot , it would be too sad and the memories too painful, so after the move to Budapest, where we settled down at the beginning I thought at first to move on to Prague. (...) I was reading your nice letters about your situation and the sincere call about my future. As I want to express my deepest thanks for your efforts on my behalf I will gladly accept your plan and will try to prepare steps towards emigration. In this regards I have also written to Paul in London and am requesting you to enquire there about the details. In any case I would very much like to continue living with Emil and should I be moving out earlier I would like him to follow later. If you dear Sandor agrees I am requesting that you would obtain a Permit for him too."
John Hilton was one of Sydney’s most successful fashion manufacturers. His success in Australia had its roots in a small town near Bratislava, where the parents of Gyula Heitler depended on his help in their general store. Here he learned how to buy and sell. Arriving from Europe in 1947, Gyula changed his name to John J Hilton and worked for his sponsor Alexander ‘Gigi’ Schwarz at Olympia Fashions, a dress shop in Pitt Street. Together with his elder brother Emil he started a business manufacturing ladies knitwear.
Adopting the trading name, John J Hilton, they looked around for what Australia might not have in fashion and decided to focus on women in their mid-twenties and older, offering them elegant frocks at a fair price. The dresses would be durable and not likely to go out of fashion quickly. He made up a slogan ‘It’s a Honey, It’s a Hilton’. The business grew to 100 employees. With showrooms around Australia and representatives in Paris, New York and London, John J Hilton was one of the first to export Australian fashion to Japan, as well as to Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada and United States. A pioneer in the use of wool in women’s dresses, John J Hilton was the recipient of fashion awards, including the Australian Wool Award.
This letter is a part of a correspondence between Gyula [John], Emil [Gyula's brother] and Alexander [relative of Gyula and Emil, often referred to as Sandor], in order to settle Gyula and Emil over to Australia. In this letter, Gyula writes about the loss of his parents and his brother Imre due to the Holocaust an continues about his own future situation: "On no account do I want to continue living at N-Zamky where perhaps it used to be a very nice spot , it would be too sad and the memories too painful, so after the move to Budapest, where we settled down at the beginning I thought at first to move on to Prague. (...) I was reading your nice letters about your situation and the sincere call about my future. As I want to express my deepest thanks for your efforts on my behalf I will gladly accept your plan and will try to prepare steps towards emigration. In this regards I have also written to Paul in London and am requesting you to enquire there about the details. In any case I would very much like to continue living with Emil and should I be moving out earlier I would like him to follow later. If you dear Sandor agrees I am requesting that you would obtain a Permit for him too."
Production placeZürich, Switzerland
Production date
Object nameletters
Dimensions
- width: 210.00 mm
height: 298.00 mm
Language
- German Dear Sandor, Zurich, 26/02/1946
As you can see I finally joined up with Jolly. You can’t imagine how much joy it was to meet up again after such a long time.
I have already been in touch with you a few weeks ago from Budapest so that you will probably be already informed about this past terrible period and events. I won’t write in detail about our catastrophic losses but unfortunately I have to tell you that our dear parents will never return. They were deported in the first transports to Auschwitz and we know what this means. My one and only dear Imre died of Typhus in a camp near Oedenburg in Agfalva about a year ago, after I had already been liberated by the Russians. I can’t describe to you what this means for me. He meant everything for me. He meant more to me than a brother and for a long time I thought I would not be able to survive this catastrophe. You would know how I worshipped him, how much I loved him but alas I have to accept that I have to live now without him. Yes, fate has not spared us. Unfortunately, I do know that you too have suffered an irreplaceable loss with your dear son Heinz and perhaps we will never get over these blows in our lifetime, but life goes on, and since we have been condemned to live on we have to pick up courage so that we can fulfill our duty to Life. We have to console ourselves.
And now I want to take up the matter of our plans for the future.
On no account do I want to continue living at N-Zamky where perhaps it used to be a very nice spot , it would be too sad and the memories too painful, so after the move to Budapest, where we settled down at the beginning I thought at first to move on to Prague. There were good opportunities for work there but when you have to make a fresh start and dear Michel sending for me here, I was going to try it here.
Here I was reading your nice letters about your situation and the sincere call about my future. As I want to express my deepest thanks for your efforts on my behalf I will gladly accept your plan and will try to prepare steps towards emigration. In this regards I have also written to Paul in London and am requesting you to enquire there about the details. In any case I would very much like to continue living with Emil and should I be moving out earlier I would like him to follow later. If you dear Sandor agrees I am requesting that you would obtain a Permit for him too. I know that this will take up a lot of time and so I thought I will carry on working with Michel as far as possible and then emigrate from here. In the meantime we will try hard to learn English, as you recommend, knowing how important that is.
So, in one word, agreed in principle with your invitation and plans, with thanks, and preparing for the next steps.
I will keep you posted shortly about the on-going next steps and fond regards to you and Lucie too.
Your Gyula.
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Jeffrey Hilton