A Jewish girl in Vienna: correspondence

Nothing is known about the provenance of these copy letters from a Jewish girl and her aunt to relatives in Great Britain. They are mirror image typescript mimeographed transcriptions, the majority of which are copy letters from Leni, the 12 year old girl. It is apparent from the content that Leni's mother and father died within a short space of time of each other in 1938, both at the relatively early age of 53. Her brother also died at Buchenwald at the age of 18.

During the period of the correspondence Leni stayed with an aunt, Martha and her young cousin, Hansi. Martha was imprisoned for 3 months for maligning the regime and it appears that Leni remained in the house during her absence. Two of the subsequent letters are from Martha in prison. In her last letter Leni mentions that her departure from Austria to the USA is immanent. Martha also expected to leave within the year. Nothing is known of their fate and without even a surname it would be impossible to find out.

Jewish Central Information Office