Newspaper Page Text
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Returned
to
l ienna
by
I ianna
\\ einstein
as
told
to
Dr.
A If red
einstein
I fled from Vienna to escape death in
the furnaces the Austrian Nazis built to
receive me in Theresienstadt. I returned
seventeen years later in the company of
my husband, who had been invited to
give a series of medical-surgical lectures
at the famous Vienna University Medical
School.
The first post-war Austrians 1 met were
on the train running from Venice
through the Russian sector to Vienna. One
was a thin sly-faced conductor. The oth
er was a jolly chubby-cheeked waiter.
Both had been Prisoners of War captured
by the Americans. They had “never had
it so good” as P. W.’s. The conductor
said he had no children because “each
generation in Europe is bred to fight an
other war.” He said, “I won’t raise a fam
ily unless I can get to the United States
of America.” The waiter with the Liber-
ace haircut said, “living in Austria was
like trying to sleep in safety in the middle
of a highway crowded with autos. Every
body who wants to fight somebody else
can get to him easiest by marching
through Austria.” He also wanted to mi
grate to this country "because the Amer
icans are so generous.” As a Prisoner of
War he served as a waiter in a United
States Officers’ Mess for fourteen months
after the War ended. When the fighting
was over, the Captain in charge of the
Mess said to him, “There’s too damn much
swearing in this mess. Every time
you hear an officer say J CH , tell
him I said he had to put 5 shillings (twen
ty cents) into this box.” The waiter col
lected 18,200 shillings before he was re
leased. His present salary is 1200 shill
ings ($45.00 a month).
The train pulled into the station from
which I had fled seventeen years ago. I
have to admit it, but it pleased me to see
that the Wrath of the Gods, in the form of
American and British bombers, had
wreaked vengeance on this building in
which I had shed bitter tears of sorrow,
fear and anger. And through the city,
especially in the international zone of Vi
enna, whole blocks still lay wasted and
desolate ten years after V. E. Day. There
were parts of the city 1 had visited daily
before the war which were completely
unrecognizable. In the American zone
the rubble had disappeared and were re
placed by single story stores. In the Rus
sian zone there had been very little re
construction.
Incidentally, during my four days in
Vienna, I saw only one Russian soldier in
uniform. But my pre-war girl friend,
Kitty, taught me how to spot them in civ
vies. They had shoes built like rectangu
lar boxes. And their civilian clothes were
a dull brown or black. And their trous
ers had a funny bell-bottom flair like the
American sailors.
I can’t tell you how many of the 2,000,-
000 inhabitants of Vienna are Communists
But I was in the city May 1, 1955, and wit
nessed an enormous parade that day and
the spectacular torch light procession of
the Communists and Socialist workers the
night before. There were thousands of
them parading openly under the Commu
nist Flag — a huge blotch of red with
hammer and sickle in the center, differ
entiating it from the Socialist Flag, which
was also red, but had a white circle in
the center pierced by three white ar
rows. There were large assemblies of
young folks. The girls were wearing
blue dresses and red kerchiefs, and the
boys wore darker blue shirts and red
flowers in their lapels. Platoons of them
were driving bicycles, the wheels of
which were trimmed with red crepe pa
per. There was even a group of children
about six years old, with red flowers in
their pigtails, all holding red streamers
which were attached to a May Pole. I
wrote down what some of the placards
said: “Freedom without Fear,” “No Atom
ic Death,” “Down with Wall Street Prof
iteers,” “Peace and Accord with Soviet
Union,” “A Neutral Austria for Austri
ans.” I had seen the same kind of par
ades seventeen years ago. Only the dom
inant color had changed from Nazi brown
to Communist red.
I walked down Karntner Strasse, the
equivalent of Fifth Avenue, New York
City, or Peachtree Street in downtown At
lanta. The smartly dressed Viennese dan
dy was no longer to be seen. The men
were hatless and dressed in nondescript
blues and tweeds. Clothes styles before
the war only in the country were common
place: coarse long green frock coats, lea
ther pants knickerbocker style, and green
ish hats with feathers. My friend Kitty
told me the reversion to peasant type
clothing was interpreted as an expression
of Austrian nationalism. In the process,
however, both the Viennese men and wo
men had lost their chic and sparkle for
which they had previously been noted all
over the world. The coiffure was non
descript, their clothes casual. I saw only
one well dressed young woman very
smartly outfitted in white handbag,
gloves, shoes and well matched afternoon
dress trimmed with blue. My husband
wagered she was American. I wagered
she was French. We asked her to settle
this bet. The lady told us she was a Hun
garian!
There were many women on the street
who were obviously overdressed for ob
vious purposes. And their numbers were
manifold in the early and late hours of
the night. My friend Kitty told me that
the red light districts had been abolished
and its inhabitants had taken to the
streets. They were unmolested by the
police, but were being given considerable
competition by amateurs. When I left
Vienna in 1938 there was already a great
The Southern Israelite
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