Schnapsen Log Archives
Columns for December, 2013
Pressured Out
Martin Tompa
December 7, 2013
Thursday, June 23, 1938
Dresdnerstraße 80/9
Vienna XX, Austria
“Glebe”, Crymlyn Road
Skewen, Neath, Glamorgan, Wales
Dear Hans,
It has been an eventful week for us, not in a happy sense. Early Monday morning the police came to the house to arrest Anyu. It is not that she had committed any great crime, of course. It is simply what is happening everywhere in Austria these past few months, the German…
Threats
Martin Tompa
December 11, 2013
Wednesday, July 13, 1938
Dresdnerstraße 80/9
Vienna XX, Austria
“Glebe”, Crymlyn Road
Skewen, Neath, Glamorgan, Wales
Dear Hans,
Yesterday I was summoned to the police commissioner’s office. They had begun deportation proceedings for me and for Tibor, according to which we should be deported to Hungary as soon as possible. I requested that they wait until we receive our Hungarian passports…
Nowhere To Go
Martin Tompa
December 15, 2013
Wednesday, September 21, 1938. Sopron, Hungary. Peter and Tibor sit on a hard bench in a jail cell. They are playing cards, because there is nothing else for them to do. This is the second jail in which they find themselves within the span of a few days.
One month earlier, on August 20, a young SS Sergeant named Adolf Eichmann oversaw the opening of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Vienna, whose mission was to increase the pace of forced emigration. Peter’s and Tibor’s deportation procedure might have otherwise dragged on for months, but Eichmann’s office demanded efficiency.
Thus, on September 15 the German security police arrested Peter and Tibor and deposited them in the Rossauer Lände Prison in Vienna, where they were detained for a few days awaiting deportation. At dawn on September 19, two police detectives escorted Peter and Tibor on a train to the Austrian village of Loipersbach im Burgenland on the…
Waiting for Change
Martin Tompa
December 20, 2013
Sunday, September 25, 1938
Rottenbiller utca 33
Budapest, VII, Hungary
“Glebe”, Crymlyn Road
Skewen, Neath, Glamorgan, Wales
My dear Hans,
After one week of worries, Peter and Tibor are finally here. We did not know where they were from Monday until Thursday. We now have to continue trying to obtain Hungarian passports, and we again face other difficulties. It would really be good to have some peace, but…
Exit Plans
Martin Tompa
December 29, 2013
Saturday, August 19, 1939. Budapest, Hungary. It is twilight. There is a knock on the apartment door and Anyu goes to answer it.
“Who’s there?” she calls out in her lyrical voice.
“Peter,” comes the muffled reply. Anyu throws open the door and wraps her son in her arms.
“Oh, Peter, we have missed you!” she coos in his ear. “It is so lonely here without my boys.”
Apu hears the unaccustomed commotion and emerges from the bedroom. “Welcome home, son!” he says with the hint of a smile. “How was Paris? Tell us all about your trip!”
Peter comes in and takes off his hat. “The trip went well. Most important, my mission was a success. I went to the Dominican…
