Object numberM2015/005:003
DescriptionThis is a handwritten two-page letter (written on front and back) from Gyula [Heitler, later: John Hilton] in Zurich, to his dear ones [presumably Alexander and his wife in Australia]. The letter is dated 18th March 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 among other things: "I am asking you, dear Landor to include Emil in the Permit application, in case I should perhaps decide to come earlier, he would have the possibility to come as well. I was at the English Consulate today about the visa, and they gave me forms to fill in, but telling me that I will need confirmation from the shipping company that I have a reservation and only then can the visa be issued. I have accordingly written to dear Paul in London that he should make enquiries about shipping options."
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 among other things: "I am asking you, dear Landor to include Emil in the Permit application, in case I should perhaps decide to come earlier, he would have the possibility to come as well. I was at the English Consulate today about the visa, and they gave me forms to fill in, but telling me that I will need confirmation from the shipping company that I have a reservation and only then can the visa be issued. I have accordingly written to dear Paul in London that he should make enquiries about shipping options."
Production placeZürich, Switzerland
Production date
Object nameletters
Dimensions
- width: 208.00 mm
height: 298.00 mm
Language
- German My Dear Ones, Zurich, 18/03/1946
Hopefully you have received my first letter after arriving here with Jolly, but as no reply since then, I will write to you again.
Today it’s already three weeks that I am here and I can tell you that I am feeling really well here, we were in Davos for two weeks during the holidays, unfortunately I sustained a small foot injury there and for a week now I am back again with Jolly. But I have to tell you, unfortunately, that in my opinion, our long range plans, and mainly Michel’s idea, of staying here permanently, are out of the question. There is no point therefore that I spend a lot of time here with nothing to do. It would be nice if I could spend some time working with Michel here, but I can see now already that this is impossible. As I have already written to you in my last letter, I am not only ready to join you, according to your wishes, but find it an ideal solution for our future, which here, alas, will not …..(?) So I am therefore speaking for many of us, as I am including dear Emil, with whom I don’t want to separate again, as I know that neither he can be deserted here all alone. All the time I am reproaching myself on account of loosing dear Imre, if only we had not parted company, he would perhaps still be with us, and so I am asking you, dear Landor to include Emil in the Permit application, in case I should perhaps decide to come earlier, he would have the possibility to come as well. I was at the English Consulate today about the visa, and they gave me forms to fill in, but telling me that I will need confirmation from the shipping company that I have a reservation and only then can the visa be issued. I have accordingly written to dear Paul in London that he should make enquiries about shipping options. In any case I believe that this could take up quite a lot of time and I don’t know that I can wait that long here. I have got a valid Czech passport so that I could perhaps come over from Prague.
Once again I want to express my thanks for your efforts and words fail me to express my feelings, which were for me just a few genuine and warm lines, and you thinking about me and our future in spite of your horrible pain. I don’t want to go over my own cruel encounters but alas, I have indeed good reason, after all this suffering, not to start again where we left off.
I know it will, for sure, be very difficult to start a new life in a strange country, and I am no longer that young any more as I thought (34) and the last few horrible years have left a deep mark and unfortunately I have no special contacts with whom one could start something easily but believe that with hard work I will, with time show some results. Unfortunately my language skills are very limited too, which will be an obstacle over there, though I am now trying to pick up some English, which of course does not come that easily but am hoping to prove myself, achieving the same as other people have. As of now, with Emil in Budapest, we started from nothing, working and earning quite nicely, but no longer finding any pleasure from my work in this setting!
I have also been on business to Vienna a couple of times recently, making enquiries about Sigmund at the ….(?) but they had no information, it looks awful there, there are about 4000 Jews there together with newly arrived Poles and it looks very hopeless. I have to point out to you that in general, the endemic Anti-Semitism is nowhere denied, neither here with us nor in Austria, I feel it is more noticeable than before the war, despite the fact that so few of us have survived.
(2)
Here at home in N-Zámky [Nové Zámky] the buildings, that is the 4 walls, are intact, but everything else has disappeared and got lost. I could have rented our earlier premises again but I didn’t really want my own business there again. Apart from that the only significant remaining valuables were left with Jolly, altogether not much, but that doesn’t worry me, material things are replaceable but lost lives cannot be replaced, alas never!
So then, my dear ones I am about to close my letter for today, and should I shortly hear something from Paul about the trip, I’ll write to you right away, and so I will ….? the original Permit (without photo) for the possible visa , as I was told today at the Consulate.
In eager anticipation, looking forward to your early reply and advice about dear Emil. I am sending my best wishes and regards
Gyula.
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Jeffrey Hilton