C. MARIENBAD.

 1. Discovery.
  Marienbad was founded sometime in the 18th century by monks of the Tepl monastery, who had there found some mineral wells which they decided were good for their health. The small town was located in a narrow valley surrounded by pine forests.

 2. Development.
  It developed into a very famous spa visited by many kings with their "courts" and other heads of states.  The  mineral waters were used for drinking as well as bathing.  Especially famous was the peat, used for bathing (in tubs).  The entire area was owned by the Tepl monks who built the large bathhouses, the wells. promenades and also owned some hotels.  The town developed to about 7,000 inhabi- tants.  Many of the buildings were hotels.  At its peak about 40,000 guests came to take the treatments.

There was no industry except to take care of the visitors: tradespeople, shopkeepers, of course a great number of doctors.  Many of the doctors  came only for the "season", which started in May and lasted to the end of September. 

About two miles from the center of town was a railroad station, with one streetcar line to connect it with the center of town.  There werea great number of horse-drawn carriages to bring the new arrivals from and to the railroad station, as well as for the use of the visitors for their transportation. These carriages were gradually replaced by automobiles.

 3. Climate.
  The weather in Marienbad, except from June to September was not very good; there was snow from the middle of December to the middle of March, but it was not very reliable and sometimes missing for long periods.  At age 7 I had my first skis.  The slopes on any little hill in town were used by the children - there also was a sled run, and of course an ice skating rink!

 4. The "Season".
  The "Season" began in the middle of May and lasted to the middle of September.  The majority of the "guest" came for a 3-week "cure".  After arrival they had an examination with their doctor, who prescribed the necessary treatments.  In the morning they had to go to the promenade (with an orchestra) to drink the prescribed number of the prescribed kind of mineral water (there were a great number of DIFFERENT kind of mineral wells!).

 Except in the larger hotels, there were not many restaurants in town, but many were located in the surrounding woods,where the people walked to and had their breakfast, and in some of them there was dancing.  Dancing was part of the "treatment"!  There was dancing in some of these restaurants already at 9 o'clock in the mornings, then in others dancing started at 11.  In the afternoon and at dinner there was some more dancing; others started dancing after dinner and of course there were the night clubs with some more dancing.  For many guests the main reason for  coming to take the cure in Marienbad was to lose weight - and they did!  Of course others had all kind of ailments, and the mineral bath or mud bath gave them relief. 

The thousands of employees, maids, waiters, housemen, and other service employees had their permanent homes in the villages surrounding Marienbad and came to their places of employment in spring, returning in fall.  They usually married other service employees and their children, when they became old enough, continued the careers of their parents and also came to work in Marienbad.  Their pay was very low and their income was mostly tips they received from the guests during the time they worked.

D. KÖNIGSVILLA.

  1. Building.
  In the winter of 1911/1912 my father tore down the old building and built a five-story building, with 68 rooms (110 beds) and 4 stores. The building was something between a hotel and a guest-house; there was no restaurant, but on special request (diet), a guest could get meals. There were two larger corner stores and two smaller stores. One large store was my father's delicatessen and grocery store with very large storage rooms (for the wholesale tobacco goods) and an office; the smaller adjoining store was his stationery/tobacco retail, lottery, stamps etc. store.  In the other corner was a shoe store and the small store sold sporting and hunting articles.  When my father liquidated the delicatessen/grocery store it was rented to the owner of a large fabric store (material for women and men's clothing) in Karlsbad, who wanted to open a branch in Marienbad.  Later, when the shoe store became vacant, my father moved his small store to that corner and his former store became a store for ladies' hats. Attached to the back of the main building was a small two-story building, creating a backyard;  on the ground floor of that building were originally the stables for the two horses and place for the carriages and sleds;  underground in the backyard (with a cover!) there was the dung-heap.  An iron gate closed the back yard from the small alley which led to the street.  At the top of that building were 5 small rooms for the female employees.  In later years, when there were no more horses, the stables were converted to garages and the backyard was given a concrete surface.
 
 2. Location.
  The Königsvilla was situated on the main street, at the bottom of a hill.  It was separated from the next building (also a "Hotel  Garni" like the Königsvilla) by a 6 yard wide foot path leading to the nearby woods.  From the main street, looking through that space between the two buildings, one could see the Russian Church on top of the hill.  About 20 yards from that church was the only elementary school of the town - in order to go to school, I had only to climb the hill. Across the street was a promenade with a park and benches.  On the other side of that park was another street with a streetcar.

 3. Employees.
   There were always a large number of employees.  To start with the employees of the guest house (Hotel Garni): there was the "houseman" for general house work, repairs, luggage, to meet the trains for arrivals of the guest; then the "concierge" for taking care of the guests' mail, telephone calls, and to assist the guest in a lot of ways;  the elevator boy to run the elevator and do small errands for the guests.
 The reception desk  was attended mostly by my mother, with the assistance of "Uncle Ernst", a brother of my father.  In later years I was in charge of the "management" (my uncle was getting too old and a little senile).
 There were 4 maids, one for each floor with 17 rooms, with 2 assistant maids to help where needed.  In the kitchen there was the cook, who had a young girl to assist her.
 In the delicatessen store there was the cashier, one to three salesmen, depending on the season, and one apprentice. As was the custom, all employees lived and ate all meals in the building;  there was a small dining room next to the kitchen.

 4. Grandparents.
  My grandparents had a small apartment on the second floor (which was called "Mezzanine") consisting of a large living/dining room, a small formal den, a bedroom, a bathroom and a kitchen with an attached storage room; the apartment was separated from the floor with a glass door.  The rest of our family as well as the remaining employees lived on the second floor from fall to spring (the kitchen was also moved from the basement to the second floor in the fall), but in summer my parents, my brother and I moved to rooms on the 5th floor.

 5. Activities.
  a. Spring Cleaning.
             As Marienbad was a summer health resort, life in the Königsvilla started in April.  The 3 men and 6 maids arrived and the entire building was cleaned from top to bottom.  First the men uncovered the balconies (in fall they were covered by large boards to keep the snow away).  The maids cleaned the walls, floors, windows and furniture, while the men waxed and polished the hardwood floors and laid the rugs in the rooms as well as in the hallways, the stairs and in the lobby.  The elevator was activated by special mechanics and plumbers were all over the building to restore the water supply (which was shut off for the winter to prevent freezing). The kitchen was moved from the second floor to the basement and the winter employees ( cook and 1 maid) moved to summer quarters (on top of the garages).  Coal supplies were ordered for the entire year.  All these preparations took one month.
  b. Arrival of Guests.
             For Pfingsten (Whitsunday/Pentecost) weekend the first guest would arrive;  some of them would leave after the weekend, but some of them would stay.  The weather was usually not very good in May and the start was very slow.  In June it improved and from the end of June until the middle of August the "Season" was in full bloom with its high point about the middle of July.  There were times (rarely) when guest came begging for a room and when that happened my uncle and I had to move from our rooms on the the 5th floor to rooms in the attic (but mother gave me the money she got for the days my room was "taken".)
  c. End of the "Season".
             After the middle of August the weather got bad again, it rained frequently and the guests started to leave, returning to their homes.  There were still some guests left in the lower floors, but the employees already started  with cleaning the top floors, trying hard not to make too much noise.  The men loaded the rugs on hand pushed carts and took them to the woods to beat and clean them.  On nice days the maids took linens to lawns outside town to water and bleach them in the sun.  All rooms were cleaned and furniture pushed together.  Finally the balconies were covered with boards and the family, employees and kitchen were moved to their respective winter quarters.  When all was completed, my parents left for their very deserved vacation to spend 4 weeks somewhere in the south, very often in Meran, which was beautiful at that time of the year.  In the later years I was left "in charge" of the store.

  d. Liquidation of the Delicatessen Store.
             As neither my brother nor I were interested in taking over the delicatessen store, our father liquidated it in 1929 and rented it to the owner of a fabric store from Karlsbad, who wanted to open a branch in Marienbad.  My father concentrated his efforts on the other stationery/lottery/foreign money exchange store.

E. MY CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.

 1. Birth.
  As the old building was torn down in 1911/1912 and my parents did not have an adequate temporary apartment, my mother went to Prague for my birth.  There two of her favorite sisters lived and she was well taken care of.  I was born in a Prague hospital on November 21, 1911 and was brought back in a very nicely decorated basket (which was used in the household as long as I can remember).

 2. 1914-1917, Preschool.
  My parents were always working very hard and both my brother and I had nannies, and later governesses to take care of us.  Starting from age 3, she brought me daily to the Kindergarten, located on a hill at the end of town; it was a 1/2 hour walk from our home to the Kindergarten, which was run by very kind nuns, whom all the children liked very much.  In winter the governess took a sled along and it was a lot of fun to run the sled on the streets downhill (there was practically no traffic in winter!)

 3. 1917-1922, Elementary School.
  Right behind the Königsvilla was a wide footpath leading up a steep hill to the town's only elementary school which I attended for 5 years.  The walk up to school took me about 10 minutes, but to run down (one had to RUN, one just could not WALK down!) took only 3 minutes.  I started elementary school at the age of 6 in September 1917.  World War I was still going strong and I remember that we sang the Austrian national anthem at the morning session.  On October 28, 1918 the Czechoslovakian Republic was created and we had a few days off because the teachers were all used to stamp the Austrian paper money in order to convert it to the Czech currency. I finished elementary school in June of 1922, "graduating" from the 5th grade. The school system was entirely different from the American on. Schooling was compulsory for all children until they reached age 14.  After finishing elementary school everybody had a choice to either continue the remaining 4 years in a "Bürgerschule" (translated: citizen school) or go to high school.  There were three basic kind of high schools: Realgymnasium (Latin-8 years for graduation-called "Matura", for students wanting to further study in medical field), Gymnasium (Greek-also 8 years, for students of philosophy), and Realschule (technical-7 years, construction ).  Graduation in any of these high schools equals apr. 2 year of American universities.  Actually, the location of the high school was much more important than anything else - at the age of 10 very few student knew what career to pick.

  4. 1922-1924, Realgymnasium.
  As Marienbad had no high school at all, some parents got together, hired professors and started a private Realgymnasium in Marienbad, but the students had to undergo fairly strict tests in the nearest public (government) Realgymnasium in the small town Plan. There was a lack of support (and interest) and after a few years the school closed its doors.  I was not a good student. I was not very ambitious, did not want to do my homework and preferred learning how to ride a bicycle (on a friend's bicycle). The school was located on a hill, at the end of town and I had to walk a 1/2 hour to reach it every morning.  In winter we brought our skis or sleds and during the break between classes we skied or rode our sleds on the hill in front of the school. After the second year my parents sent me to a boarding school, which happened to be a Realschule.

 5. 1924-1927, Realschule.
  The school was located in Elbogen near Karlsbad.  Life in that boarding school (it was called "Konvikt") was quite different - strict discipline.  There were about 50 students ages 10 - 17 who  slept in large bedrooms according to their age: the younger the students, the larger the bedroom; older student slept 4 in a bedroom. Food was served in one large dining room.  There was not too much food and if a student wanted a bread with lard in addition to his meal, it was "charged" and the bill sent monthly to the parents.  One of the school professors was the director of the Konvikt and he had two assistants who actually were in charge of the students.  They woke them in the morning, led them all together to school, supervised them at mealtime and during study periods and took them all together for daily walks.  I don't remember if there ever was some other recreation.  I had become quite a good student, because I just had to do my homework during these study period - there was nothing else I could do at that time.  During my second year at that boarding school, my cousin Pepo Mautner also came to the school.  He was 3 years ahead of me and when he graduated in June of 1927 I had completed my 4th year, the equivalent of junior high school.

 6. Buick automobile.
  It must have been sometime in the spring of 1927 when my father bought a large (7 seater) Buick "Roadster" (3 seats in back, 2 in front, and 2 seats were hidden in the back of the front seats).  At that time only professional chauffeurs could drive cars.  I must here add some remarks about automobiles at that time.  Mostly they were open cars;  when it rained they had to be closed by hand (more primitive, but similar to today's convertibles) and transparent side panels added.  There were no heaters, nor electric windshield wipers When the weather was cool, the passengers had to wear leather coats, leather hoods and goggles. Feet were put in bags with fur linings and legs were covered with large blankets.  In summer people wore white "duster" coats and also white hoods.  Our car was used to pick up guests from the railroad station, to drive them on excursions and also as a taxi for hire.  That was during the season.  The family used the car in spring and fall, but in winter on ice and snow it was never used.  I started to learn (age 16) to drive on that car by trying to turn it around in the small backyard and later I also learned to drive on the open road.

 7. 1927-1928, Bergmanova Obchodni Skola.
  By that time it became apparent that the Czech language had become important and it was decided that I should go to a Czech language commercial school (Business Administration) in Prague, where the main subjects taught were bookkeeping, correspondence, shorthand.  The school in Elbogen was a German language school and we had only 2 hours a week of Czech instruction; my knowledge of Czech was very limited.  In order to learn it faster I was to live with a strictly Czech family for room and board.  In addition I also had a private tutor together with a cousin of mine.  As I had a large number of relatives in Prague, the year passed very quickly. I learned to speak and write Czech pretty well.

  8. 1928-1929, Hotel Sroubek, Prague.
  My parents thought it would be a good idea to send me to a hotel school; but the prerequisite for that was prior practical experience in a hotel.  Through some "contact" the owner of the Hotel Sroubek in Prague accepted me to work there in all departments without pay from September 16, 1928 to January 9, 1929. I again stayed with the same family (I believe they were the "contact" with the Hotel Sroubek) and during these 4 months I really went through all the departments of the hotel.  Karel Sroubek and his wife ran the hotel very efficiently and I learned a great lot there.

  9. 1929, Juan les Pins - Nice.
  But after the 4 months of practice at the Hotel Sroubek my parents learned of a possibility of my getting a job as a waiter on the French Riviera.  There was a retired waiter living in Marienbad  who had been a waiter on the French Riviera for many years and tried to make a business out of using his connections there in arranging jobs.  In January 1929 I went to Juan-les-Pins and met the contact, who sent me to the Hotel Provencal in Juan-les-Pins and I was accepted as a room waiter.  But the job did not last very long.  It was a very modern, new hotel and everything went fine for a couple of weeks.  One nice day I had to serve a large platter, which did not fit into the "dumb-waiter";  I had to pick it up in the kitchen and hurry up the 7 floors.  I always was inclined to get bronchitis easily and the rushing up these 7 floors resulted in a bad case and I got very sick.  I gave up the job and as it was a very severe winter my parents wanted me to stay the rest of the winter on the sunny Riviera; I had a good time there, right at the time of the famous Nice Carnival.  In April I returned home and during the summer I worked helping my parents.

 10. 1929-1930, Hotel School.
  The prerequisites for being accepted at the Hotel Management School ("Ecole Professionelle de la Societe Suisse des Hoteliers in Cour-Lausanne") were met: I was over 17 years old and had "practical experience" in hotels.  Our tailor had made "tails" for me and at the end of August I left for Lausanne, Switzerland.  There were two kind of students: "Interns" and "Externs", the only difference was the age of the student.  (Interns lived in dormitories at the school, Externs had to look for rooms nearby.)  I was one of the youngest students, an intern of course and assigned a room in the dorm with 2 other students: a Swiss and a Scotsman.  The majority of students were the sons of Swiss hotel owners.  The meals were served in a large dining room, 10 students at a table with one professor at the head of the table.  The entire service was directed by the instructor of the class "Service" and the waiters were students of that class.  There were student from all over the world, including 2 students from Czechoslovakia, one from Prague, the other from the Hungarian part of Slovakia.  The instructions were in German, French and English.  I had a very good French (Swiss) language instructor, who could not speak anything but French.  He was excellent and I learned a lot from him.  We frequently went on excursions to also learn the practical side of the hotel business.  We went to linen factories, to watch the harvesting and the making of wine, to slaughterhouses and actually watched the slaughtering of animals.  We also had to work for periods of 3 weeks in Lausanne hotels as waiters, serving on banquets.  Once I went with a group to the horse races - not to watch the horses, but to be waiters at the restaurant there - that was the first time I handled money and got tips!  Lausanne is on the Lac Leman (Genfer See) and after lunch (we passed the kitchen of the school and asked for some salad oil for our faces) some of us raced (5 minutes) to the lake to get a suntan (1/2 hour).  On Sundays some of us rented a sailboat together and sailed on the lake.  As punishment (usually for being late) we were punished and had to polish floors in the school class rooms or dining room during our free time.  I don't think we had a vacation (Christmas or Easter) during the school year.   On June 27, 1930, I finished school and I returned home to help my parents.  It must have been during my year at the hotel school that my father decided to liquidate the delicatessen store.

F. AERO AUTOMOBILE.

 1. Purchase.
      I always wanted a motorcycle;  I had saved enough money, but my parents did not like the idea and thought it was too dangerous and that it would not be good for my health to ride in bad weather.  Just then a Czech airplane factory started to make very small cars (one cylinder!) and after I returned from the hotel school in Switzerland my parents paid the difference between the cost of a motorcycle and one of these cars.

 2. The Car.
      The car was very "primitive".  It was a two-seater with a rumble seat in back with space for one person, maybe two very slim ones.  When getting gasoline, one had to mix it in a can with motor oil.  No windshield wiper. I later bought one and clipped it to the top of the windshield;  it had to be operated by hand.  No heater or defroster.  There was a canvas roof and on the sides there were steel frames with canvas and clear plastic inserts.  There wasn't even a horn, only a kind of trumpet with a rubber ball to be pressed by hand.  Of course no starter;  from the driver's seat I had to pull a lever several times to start (hopefully) the car.

 3. My first long trip.
      In September I drove to Lausanne to pick up a fellow student, my good friend Gottfried Heckel, who from June to September had attended an extension of the hotel school, a cooking class, and drove with him to Linz, Austria, Heckel's home.  On the way we stopped at the hotel of a fellow student in Grindelwald, Switzerland.  Before going to sleep, he took us outside: it was a clear night with a full moon and I never forgot the sight: all around the snow covered peaks of the Eiger, Jungfrau and Mönch.  After my return from that trip in October of 1930 my parents went on their vacation and I was again "in charge".

G. DREIHACKEN.
   I want to mention this, because it was very important in my life and nearly brought a disaster to our family.  It was an excellent lesson for me, not to enter any partnership in the future.  A number of years before 1929 were very good years for Marienbad and my parents.  Business in the store was very good, the Königsvilla had a high percentage of occupancy and prices for rooms were high.  There was some money left over for investment and my father's lawyer got a group of people to establish a "partnership" and buy a factory, making wooden toys, as the owner needed fresh money for expansion. Even though the group bought the factory, the former owner continued managing it.  While the "investments" grew from year to year, the previous owner always needed more and more money to achieve higher profits, so that the profits decreased from year to year and in order to safeguard the investments and to avoid loosing everything the partners had to pay more and more.  Eventually one after the other partner dropped out and at the end my father held the bag and the owner made so many debts that the bank asked for payments and the plant was declared bankrupt.  In 1937 my father was informed that he  either had to pay the entire debt or everything my father owned, including the Königsvilla, would have to be sold.  My lawyer-cousin in Prague arranged a deal with a bank in Prague where my father had to deposit a large amount of money at that bank and the previous owner got his factory back - now completely modernized - but he would have to pay the Prague bank a certain amount every month.  All our cash reserves went into that bank deposit, many of our relatives helped and the Königsvilla was saved, but a year later, in 1938 everything was lost anyway.  Many years later, after end of the war, I found out that the owner had been a German citizen all along, had joined the Nazi party already in 1926 and was a big crook.  After the annexation of the Sudeten area and after Hitler invaded the rest of Bohemia the owner not only stopped his payments to the bank, but went to court and received from the entire deposit my father and our relatives had had to make to the bank he also received the credit for a second mortgage against the Königsvilla.  But by then my father had died, my mother and the rest of the family had been sent to concen- tration camps and killed, so it did not make any difference anymore.  Later, while I was stationed in Germany I hired a private detective who found out that the owner's brother had been building roads in German occupied Poland during the war using concentration camp inmates as workers and that crook who wanted to ruin my father used his trucks to drive to Poland and returned with tremendous amount of "loot".  After the war he owned a large factory in Bavaria, again making wooden toys and was reported to be very prosperous.  (I have kept that report in my files, but can not find it.)  At the time I could not start any proceedings.  But even in later years I could not do anything, as I had no proof, no documents, and by now Anton Engel is dead (he was much older the I).  This gave me a good lesson, never to get involved with "partnerships".

H. 1930-1933, TRAVELS.

 1. Galtür.
  In February of 1931 I went skiing for 4 weeks in Galtür, the Austrian Alps.  I don't remember how, but somehow I "discovered" Galtür.  The village is in the Austrian Alps at the end of a beautiful valley, surrounded by high mountains.  At that time there were only two small hotels in the village, no ski tows, lifts or any other means of getting uphill;  one had to get special strips of seal furs to attach them to the bottom of the skis.  At the top of one of the high mountains there was the Swiss border.  After the first time in Galtür I was hooked on skiing in the Alps and not satisfied with  skiing on the small slopes in the area of our home.  I made several trips there, usually taking a couple of friends:  imagine a small two seater open car, 3 persons, their skis and luggage!  And there were no snow tires, only snow chains, which had to be attached by me when the car left dry roads and hit the snow, and taken off again when the car entered dry roads.  But we all were young and enjoyed it.

 2. Nearby Towns.
      The rest of the year I helped my parents and enjoyed having my car.  I frequently drove to Prague to visit my mother's relatives there; on weekends I drove to neighboring towns, Eger, Franzensbad and Karlsbad, and attended dances and "balls" there, and also drove to go skiing in the nearby mountains.
 
 3. Dolomites.
      In the fall of 1931 our Autoclub had arranged a car tour for its members to the Italian Dolomites.  My father decided to join me in my small two-seater open car.  We went in columns (about 30 cars) on narrow dusty mountain passes (no hardtop roads yet!) and at times our faces were all white and we looked like we had been working in a flower mill.  Many of these roads were built during the middle ages for goods to be transported with horse teams from the Mediterranean ports to Central Europe.

 4. London.
January 21, 1932 - April 4, 1932: The Gregg Schools Ltd., 165 Finchley Road, Hampstead, London, N.W. 3.   Marienbad being strictly a summer resort there was nothing for me to do during the winter months.  My father took care of the business and my parents and I decided that it would be good for me to improve the little English I had learned in the hotel school in Switzerland. I left with my little car in January of 1932, drove through Germany and France.  I stopped  for a few days in Paris, where two of my fellow students at the hotel school had found employment and both showed me the city on their free time.  After the Channel crossing I stopped in Dover where my friend Heckel worked at the time in a nice hotel.  I remember that we went dancing that night at a typical British dancing hall.  The next day I continued on to London.  I found a Secretarial School and registered as student from January 21, 1932 to April 4, 1932, at The Gregg Schools Ltd., 165 Finchley Road, Hampstead, London, N.W. 3.  While in England, I joined the AA Automobile Club and obtained my British driver's license.  I have a faint recollection that I had been in London once before:  My parents had  learned that a brother of somebody they knew lived in London with his family and as the son of the family had been away at college they rented the room to me and I also had full board there - all to learn or improve my English.  In April I returned home and helped my parents prepare for the coming summer season.

  a. Meeting Gerdi Brill. (August 1932)
           In the building next to the Königsvilla there was a ladies' dress shop.  The owners of a dress shop in Karlsbad wanted to open a branch in Marienbad and sent their daughter to operate it.  Ann was about my age and one of my friends had become her boyfriend.  I had the little car and we three drove to the various dances.  Ann was sorry for my always being the "fifth wheel on the wagon" and once home in Karlsbad she asked her girlfriend Gerdi Brill to come along to Marienbad, after explaining the situation to her.  Gerdi's parents were not excited about the idea of their innocent 18-year old daughter being with Ann in Marienbad, but they somehow finally agreed.  One nice day in August Ann told me that her girlfriend was   arriving from Karlsbad and asked me to take her to the railroad station to pick her up.  After Gerdi's arrival it was just time for an afternoon five o'clock dance and we went right to the dance from the railroad station.  Gerdi stayed with Ann a couple of weeks and that's how our friendship started.  It lasted just about 1/2 year.  In the winter of 1932/1933 we drove to the the mountains to go skiing.  But in the spring of 1933 I was drafted by the Military Draft Board for military service and I felt that our relationship had become a little too serious, and as I was only 22 years old I felt that I was much too young to get married, especially not with my military service ahead of me.  We just stopped seeing each other.  Once however Gerdi was at a dance in Karlsbad with her parents and we danced.  The next time I saw Gerdi was 8 years later, in 1941 in New York.

  b. Parent's trip to Casablanca.
           In the fall of 1932 my parents travelled to Casablanca, Morocco, to visit my brother.  Paul had been living there for over 5 years and this was their first visit.  I was left in charge of the store and I don't remember having had any problems.  After their return, Yo-Yos had became a fad and I had them made in the wood factory in Dreihacken and sold them in many stores in the entire area.

 5. Vienna-Venice-Rome-Naples.
      Before my army service I wanted to "live it up" once more and as neither a friend of mine from the elementary school nor I had ever been in Vienna, we decided in August 1933 to drive there.  Because of the currency restriction each of us was allowed to take along only  1000 Czech Crowns, an equivalent of - at that time - US Dollars 40.00.  It was a very hot day in Vienna and we did not know what to do, so we decided to drive to the Semmering, a mountain resort in the Alps, not far from Vienna.  I don't remember where we stayed overnight, but the next day - he had not travelled very much in his life, and never had been in Venice -  we drove there.  But in Venice it even was hotter and the air smelled so bad.  I don't remember HOW we managed to travel and live with so little money.  We stayed in only small hotels, bought some food in the market (bread and cheese) and when we ate at a restaurant we had the cheapest items on the menu - Spaghetti or Risotto.  When we arrived in Rome, my friend Heckel who worked in the hotel Albergo Imperiale, Via Vittorio Veneto, was on night duty as desk clerk;  he told us to sit in the furthest corner of the lobby, switched off the lights and we slept on some of the couches in that lobby.  As he had been on night duty, he had 2 days off.  He had asked the cook for some food, and in the morning all three of us left for Naples.  We all had heard so much of Capri and wanted to get there.  We arrived at the pier in Naples and were frantically looking for a safe place to leave the car, but all the garages were too far from the pier.  Finally we found one, but when we rushed back to the pier, the boat to Capri had just left the pier.  We waved and shouted for the boat to stop - and they really did.  A fisherman in a rowboat brought us there and we climbed the rope ladder.  That trip was SOME adventure!  But we three were young (22 years old) and enjoyed it.  On the way back to Czechoslovakia we heard that a famous German-Jewish refugee, who had found asylum in Marienbad, had been murdered there.  We arrived on the German side of the German/Czech border in the morning (after having been driving all night - we had no more money!) and we were arrested by the SS Border Guards, bodily searched and the car was practically taken apart and thoroughly searched;  of course, they did not find anything and after few hours they let us continue.  Later we learned that the murderer probably had escaped from Marienbad to Germany and must have crossed the border at the same crossing point; we were suspected of having searched for him!

I. 1933-1935 CZECH ARMY SERVICE.

 1. General.
       September 1933 to September 1935.  At that time the Czech Army was part professional officers and non commissioned "officers", and then were the draftees who, depending on the need of the Military Services, had to serve one to three years.  All young males had to appear for a military medical examination board for the first time in spring upon reaching the age of 19.  Either they were accepted for military service at that time or they had to present themselves the following 2 years at the board.  They caught me the third time.  College student were temporarily exempt, but after graduation had to go to Officer Candidate School.

 2. Induction.
      I was drafted into the Czech Army in the spring of 1933, was inducted in September of 1933 and assigned to the 3. Automobilni Prapor (Transportation Regiment), Nahradni Rota (Replacement Platoon) in Trencin, Slovakia. I don't remember much about the details and what did happen there.  The unit was entirely an "office unit".  It was there to keep an up-to-date track of the reserve soldiers.  After the discharge of his initial 1-3 years active service, the soldier was transferred into reserve status for the next 20 years .  He was to be called about every 5-8 years for 3-4 weeks of active service.  In the case of a mobilization the office in which I worked would send prepared forms to all the reserve personnel of the regiment notifying them of where and when they would have to report for active duty.  The form was at the same time his railroad ticket.  Originally my time of service was to be 13 months, but because of political activities in neighboring Austria (the president was assassinated) it was extended to 2 years.  During the first year, while the "old crew" was still there, the recruits had to perform a lot of "housekeeping" duties:  cleaning the offices, heating the stoves, getting the food from the kitchen, etc.  After the old-timers were discharged, the new recruits arrived and the old recruits became old-timers, were promoted and were in charge of the new recruits.  The service in the Czech army was rather primitive.  We slept about 20 in a room, on straw filled mattresses (burlap bags).   Once a week we received one loaf of bread, which had to last.  Morning black coffee, for lunch a piece of meat and potatoes, and the same for dinner.  We did not starve, but packages from home were very welcome. 

Prior to induction, I had a wooden box made with a reversible top: one side had my army address, the other side our home address.  This box was mailed about every two weeks: one way with my personal (not the army) underwear, return came the washed and ironed underwear and home baked goodies.  It was not a bad period and my personal belief is that it did not do any harm to young people to live with others and gain some discipline.  I was discharged from active service and transferred into the reserve in September 1935.  Before entering my military service I had returned the car to a sales representative of the Aero factory with the provision that I will pick up a new car at the end of my military service.  That spring, while still in the military service I had picked up a new car at the factory and on Sundays I always took a friend and we drove sight-seeing in the area, often to afternoon dances in a nearby spa (Trencin-Teplitz).
  A short time before my discharge I had an experience which I could not forget.  I had a favorite second cousin, Edith, a beautiful girl a couple of years younger than I.  Her father had died when she was very young and many years after her husband's death her mother took care of a very rich bachelor (she had to live on a very small pension).  Edith had a boy friend and once I had taken them both to Galtür for skiing.  The story goes that in the summer of 1935 she had some arguments with her boyfriend and when she wanted to discuss it with her mother, she was not home, neither could she find any of her friends.  She must have been very desperate, committing suicide by jumping out of a 5th floor window.  Later her mother married that bachelor, a rather famous architect.  He had built several large buildings in Prague and in one of them, located in the heart of Prague, he rented a very nice penthouse apartment.  He had kept a lot of his money in Switzerland and when the situation got serious in the middle of 1938 he left Czechoslovakia.  His wife followed in November of 1938 and she asked me to stay in the apartment, which I did until my escape from Czechoslovakia.  Later I learned that she had committed suicide in 1941 in Bordeaux, France.

J. 1935-1937.

 1. At home.
      Back at home, I started to take over more and more of the management of the Königsvilla as well as helped my father with the bookkeeping and the running of the store.  In-between I drove to Prague and in winter I did a lot of skiing.

 2. Galtür.
      On March 1, 1936 I took two friends with me and we drove for 3 weeks to Galtür in the Austrian Alps to do some skiing.  Once we hired a mountain guide and walked (there were no ski lifts then) uphill all day long (8 hours!) way up the Alps, stayed overnight in one of the famous mountain "huts" and the next day we skied down the Sylvretta glacier to Davos in Switzerland, but we took the train to get back to Galtür.  It was a wonderful experience - but we were young then!

 3. Germany.
      The summer seasons in Marienbad were not very good.  All Germans had been very restricted in the possibility of taking their money to foreign countries and if and when they came to Marienbad, they stayed only a shorter period.  In 1936 there were the Olympic games in Berlin and on August 10 I took the opportunity to drive to Germany for 4 weeks, visiting some of our guest there;  me, being a foreigner and "attending" the Olympic games, I took the chance and the guest I visited trusted me and gave me some money which they would use the next summer when they came to Marienbad.  As we had a great number of guests living in Berlin, I also drove to Berlin, but did not attend the Olympic games.

 4. Casablanca.
      My cousin Kurt had become co-owner of his father's travel agency in Marienbad.  We decided to drive to Casablanca, Morocco, to visit my brother.  Kurt had contacts with hotels and shipping companies and was able to arrange special rates for both of us.  It turned out a wonderful trip.  We left on January 27, 1937 travelled through Austria, the Brenner to Genoa, Italy, and along the Italian and French Rivieras to Marseille, where we loaded the car on the boat to Oudja in Morocco, and drove through the Atlas mountains to Casablanca.  My brother was not yet married.  I stayed with him and Kurt slept on a couch in my brother's office.  From Casablanca we made trips to Marrakesh and all through Morocco.  For the return trip, we boarded a ship in Cacablanca for Bordeaux, France, and from there we drove along the Loire river, enjoying the "Castles of the Loire", which were built by the French kings for their wives and mistresses.  After a few days in Paris, we drove through Germany and returned home on March 18.

 5. Exchange arrangements ("Au Par").
  a. Holland.
           In the summer of 1937 we had a Dutch couple with their 2 children staying in the Königsvilla.  As the Czech government did not allow the export of money to other countries (currency control), we made arrangements with that Dutch family to send one of their children for 4 months to stay free of charge with us (room and board) and I would stay the following year 4 months with them in Holland.  They agreed and after Christmas of 1937 sent their daughter to live with us.  When Hitler invaded Austria in March of 1938, war seemed imminent and she rushed back to Holland.

  b. England.
       One nice day in the fall of 1937 one of the salesgirls in our stationery shop came to the office and asked me to come to the store as there were two ladies there asking questions and the girls could not understand them.  The two ladies spoke English and had just bought some picture postcards.  They inquired where there would be some nice walks in the woods.  I told them and they left.  The following day they came back, asked for me, thanked me, told me how wonderful their walk was the previous day and asked where they should go that day.  We started to talk more and that way our friendship started.  It turned out that the mother as well as the daughter were teachers in London, as was another daughter, who had not come to the continent with them.  Amongst others I told them about arrangements I had made with the Dutch family and they mentioned that they would be very anxious to do the same the following year.  However due to the political situation and the German invasion of Austria it never realized.

 6. Trip to Italy.
      I must have made another trip, probably with my father for 2 weeks to Meran (according to entries in my passport Sep 25 - Oct 7, 1937); but I don't remember it.

K.1938 THE GERMANS MOVED!

1. Austria.
      In March of 1938 the German armies moved into Austria without
encountering any resistance and annexed that country into the  "Greater German Reich".

 2. To Czech Border.
      In May Hitler had moved his German troops along the Czech border and on the night of May 20/21 - without calling a mobilization - the Czech Command moved its troops to their side of the border.  All night long Czech busses and trucks rumbled on the highways from the inner of Bohemia to the Western border, but Hitler avoided a confrontation at that time.

 3. What should we do?
          At the end of May 1938 my mother and I drove to meet her old brother David Hahn in Prague.  Every Tuesday he had come from his hometown of Budweis to Prague to buy the products needed by the large Budweis Beer Brewery at the Commodity Exchange in Prague .  My uncle David Hahn was a very wise and knowledgeable man and we asked him for advice regarding what to do.  He gave it to us:  There is not much the old people can do, but the young ones should go as far away from Europe as possible, there take the religion of the majority of the people in that country.  It would not help the persons because they themselves would be accepted neither by the Jews of that country, nor by these people, whose religion they accepted, but their children would have it "easier" and the following generations would be accepted in the new country as equals (assimilation).

 4. Hitler prepares for Annexation of the Sudeten area.
      There was high tension that summer in the entire of Europe, but especially in Czechoslovakia.  Hitler in his speeches always considered the Sudeten Germans as ethnic Germans and expressed his belief that they should be included in the "Great German Reich".  The British Government sent a member of their parliament, Lord Runciman, to Czechoslovakia, but especially to the Sudeten area to investigate and hold conferences with their Sudeten leaders (Henlein).  My father, who was born there, went to all the schools, and had lived all his life in Marienbad, had, as a business man joined many local clubs and associations.  He was contacted by members of these groups to withdraw his membership, as they wanted their clubs, etc., to be "Aryan" (and get rid of the Jews).  My father was an ardent stamp collector (and also stamp dealer) and had founded and been elected as chairman of the stamp club.  Even there the members came and asked him to resign - it broke his heart!  Jewish shops and businesses were boycotted (non-Jews just did not buy there anymore) and there were hardly any guest that summer.  We had kept only a skeleton staff and had opened only 2 floors for guests;  some of our employees went to Germany to join the "Sudeten German Legion" (paramilitary units), preparing for the invasion of Czechoslovakia.

 5. Preparing for my possible emigration.
  a. Getting valuables out of Czechoslovakia.
   (1) By Mail.
                We followed the advice of Uncle David.  My father took the most valuable stamps out of his albums and put them with hinges on thin (toilet!) paper in preparation for mailing them to Western countries.  I purchased all kind of different envelopes, used different handwritings and addressed them to my brother in Casablanca and friends in America, Holland, Belgium, and England without a sender's address.  In case the envelopes were opened by postal authorities, we enclosed a short note stating that we were not interested in the purchase of these stamps at the time and were returning them to the sender;  but we had - and still have - no idea, how many of these envelopes ever reached their destinations.
    (2) By Train.
     There was also another way:  One of my cousins was already in Paris.  Together with another cousin, who still was in Prague, they had arranged a code of communication:  There was a daily direct train going from Prague through Marienbad to Paris.  Whoever of our relatives who wanted to send something was instructed to make a small package about 4"x3", wrap the items in black paper and close it tight.  The cousin in Prague would take the packages, buy a train ticket to Marienbad and during the three hour train ride he would find the opportunity while not being observed to place the packages in a small compartment under a window.  When the railroad cars were built it had been found necessary for this arrangement because people sometime inadvertently dropped some small item between the window and the frame;  the conductor could then open that compartment with a special key (the two cousins had a duplicate of that key made) and could retrieve the item.  Once in Marienbad, after having deposited the packages in that compartment, the cousin left the train, went to the nearest post office and sent a telegram to his cousin in Paris in a prearranged code (pretending to order some goods) to indicate in what railroad car and under which window the packages were hidden.  The cousin in Paris would then take the next train to Strassbourg (France) and at an opportune moment during the train ride from Strassbourg back to Paris would take the packages out from the space under the window.
  b. Trip to England.
           In August the political situation got worse and my parents decided I should travel to France, Belgium, Holland and collect whatever we had sent out of Czechoslovakia and take it to friends in England.  On August 11, 1938 I went by air to Paris to pick up the packages from my cousin, then to Holland to the Dutch family and other friends, to Belgium (to a stamps dealer, a good friend of my father's who had moved from Vienna to Bruxelles) and to England to deposit all with the 3 teachers, whom I considered very reliable.  On August 26, 1938 I returned home.  (I should have stayed in England then and there!)
  c. Job hunting.
           There was nothing for me to do in Marienbad.  During the summer we had a very nice Jewish couple staying at the Königsvilla.  The husband was very sick and my mother cooked a very special diet for him.  We became friends and as the future in Marienbad looked very dim for me, he offered me a job as his private secretary at his factory in the center of Bohemia.  The couple had left for home and at at the beginning of September I wanted to visit them, look at the factory and see how seriously he had meant his offer of giving me a job.  I also wanted to visit a good friend from my time in the Czech army, who worked in that area.

L.  MUNICH AGREEMENT.

 1. Hitler's Demands.
      I believe it was September 11, 1938, when Hitler made a speech
at the Nazi party rally in Nürnberg, demanding the annexation of the Sudeten area (3 million people), which was that part of Czechoslo- vakia bordering Germany, calling for an international conference with Italy, France and England.

 2. Escape from Marienbad.
      After Hitler's speech at the Party Rally most of the Jews in the Sudeten took only their personal belongings and left for the inner of Bohemia, some to Pilsen, others to Prague.  Many years later I learned that my father, in the train leaving Marienbad, had suffered a nervous breakdown.

 3. Sudeten Germans' Coup.
      After Hitler's speech the Sudeten Germans attempted a "coup", believing the time had come, and occupied the police headquarters, the post office, the city hall and other public offices in many towns in the Sudeten area;  they rounded up the Jews who had remained (my uncle and grandmother) for "protective custody" and hid them in the forest.  They were all prepared for this action.  But the Czechs were not asleep!  They put soldiers in police uniforms, reoccupied the public building, searched for and rescued the Jews in the forest.

 4. Prague.
      I had left home at the beginning of September, travelling in the inner of Bohemia, visiting friends and was not fully aware of what had happened.  I did not know that my parents had fled Marienbad and had arrived in Prague. On of my cousins had frantically attempted to get in touch with me.  When he finally did he told me what happened and that I should not return to Marienbad, but come immediately to Prague.  I drove to Prague to be with my parents.

 5. Operation Rescue.
      My parents had left everything in Marienbad and not taken along any money, valuables, or documents.  In the meantime quasi normal conditions were reestablished in Marienbad and by the middle of September I drove back to get what I could load into my small car.  I asked the salesgirl in the store, who had worked for us and lived with us for over 20 years to help me, but she refused and told me, that she could not do it - she also had become one of the "good" Sudeten Germans!  I took the cash, bank books, documents and as many of the stamps from my father's stamp collection, loaded them in my car and at 3 o'clock at night I drove back to Prague.  Three hours later I arrived in Prague without encountering any problems.

 6. Czech Mobilization.
      In the middle of September of 1938 the Czech Government declared a general mobilization and all military reserve personnel had to report to their units.  I immediately drove to Trencin and reported for duty.

 7. Munich Conference.
     The conference which Hitler had demanded was held in Munich towards the end of September of 1938.  At this conference, the "Munich Agreement", Germany, Italy, France and England, the Great Powers, decided that the Sudeten area should be incorporated into and become part of Germany on October 1, 1938.  The Czech president was informed of their decision and had no choice.

8. Agreement.
    Three points of the agreement concerned me and my family:
     1. Hitler guaranteed the independence of the remaining part of Bohemia and Moravia.
     2.  All the military personnel, whose domiciles had been in the Sudeten area, were to be immediately discharged from the military service.
     3. Those persons, who had fled their homes in the Sudeten area (not only the Jews, but also Czechs, who lived and worked there, as well as a few Sudeten German Social Democrats) could choose to pick up their personal  property (clothing, furniture).
    As I still was in the military service, and my "legal domicile" was still Marienbad, I was discharged from the army.
    None of my family dared to return, as they were afraid for their personal safety; but my cousin (an established lawyer in Prague), through his connection and for an outrageous amount of money could get two moving vans and a reliable Czech person to drive to Marienbad to pick up at least our good family furniture.  But all they could get was old junk furniture which had been stored in the attic.  We never learned who was "in charge" of the building.  The two large moving vans returned practically empty and the broken down furniture was junked.

M. LIFE IN PRAGUE.

 1. Where and how we lived.
      After my discharge from the Czech army I stayed with a cousin in a beautiful apartment.  Her husband had fled at the first sign of danger and she soon followed and I stayed alone in the apartment with their maid.  My parents rented a room in a "pension" (rooming house) and went to restaurants to eat.  My father did not speak a word of Czech.  The Czechs always disliked the Germans but after the Munich Agreement hated any German speaking person.  My father could not open his mouth in public and was very depressed.

 2. Attempts to emigrate.
      Prague was crowded with "refugees" not only from the Sudeten, but also from Germany.  Everybody was looking where to emigrate from Czechoslovakia.  People went to embassies and consulates to find out what living conditions and requirements were in the various countries. People got together in groups at coffee houses to discuss the possibilities;  but if and when somebody found out anything positive, they did not talk about it - and one day they were gone.  They were very much afraid that, if they told somebody else, it might ruin their own chances.

 3. Aborted attempts to enter England.
      In November I bought a round-trip ticket to fly to England.  No visas were needed at that time to enter England and I left by air on November 23 without even saying good bye to my father.  I had notified my teacher friends and they waited for me at the London airport - BUT the immigration officer refused to let me land.  The friends even requested help from a member of parliament;  he actually came in the middle of the night, but did not succeed.  There was another man, who was also refused entry and when we boarded the plane in November 27 for our return flight, a newspaperman travelled with us, interviewed us while travelling and a long article about our plight appeared in one of the leading British newspapers - but it did not help us!  I assume that according to the Munich Agreement a plebiscite was supposed to be held in the Sudeten for people to decide whether they wanted to be annexed to Germany or stay with Czechoslovakia;  but that never realized.  The British authorities just did not want to be responsible for a great number of stateless people.

 4. Back in Prague.
  a. Father.
           After my unsuccessful attempt to get out of Czechoslovakia and return to Prague I found my father sick.  In order not to upset him in his depressed condition, I had not said good bye before leaving for England and when he was told, he must have taken it very hard.  (Maybe I should have told him!)  He just did not want to live anymore.  He eventually came down with pneumonia and emphysema and on February 19 he died in a hospital and was cremated 3 days later.  His ashes were deposited in the Jewish cemetery in Prague.
  b. Continued search for countries to emigrate.
           Some people were successful;  my father's older brother bought a visa to Uruguay and left with his family.  Others left for India, African States (Rhodesia, South Africa), South America (Chile, Argentine, Venezuela);  some with farming experience got visas to emigrate to Canada.

N. OCCUPATION OF BOHEMIA AND MORAVIA.

 1. Arrival of German Troops.
      Even though Hitler had guaranteed the independence of the remaining Czechoslovakia at the time of the Munich Agreement, on March 16, 1939, the German army occupied what was left of Czechoslo- vakia and declared it as "Protectorate".  The Czechs did not have any defenses (their "Maginot Line" had been in the Sudeten area and was destroyed by the Germans after they had occupied that area) and their army was practically non existent.  I could not believe my eyes in the morning when I saw German trucks and tanks in the streets of Prague.  I looked from the balcony and I saw a person jumping from the 7th floor of the building across the street.

 2. Exit Permit.
      There were thousands of people who just wanted to get OUT.  By now everybody knew what happened to the Jews in Germany and also what happened in Austria after the Germans took over.  I tried to find out where to get an exit permit and went to the German army headquarters  There were many hundreds of people lined up trying to get it. Soon the Germans established a curfew for all civilians from 10:00 P.M. to 6:00 a.m. The Gestapo opened an office for the issue of exit permits.

 3. How I got my Exit Permit.
      As soon as I found out about that office, I went there, but many hundreds of persons were lined up in front of the building and when the time came that the office closed, only a few had gained entrance. The following morning I got up very early, waited inside the entrance door of the building where I lived for 6:00 o'clock (end
of the curfew) and rushed to the Gestapo office.  But hundreds were already lined up and waiting for the office to open.  I asked the people in front at which time they had come.  They told me that they came prior to the curfew and had waited all night, but as they stood in front of the Gestapo building, they had no problem.  The same evening I went to a movie and after the movie but before 10 o'clock I stood in line at the Gestappo office;  only about 20 people were already there and I waited all night (early spring, but still very cold!), and all day but finally at about 3 o'clock I got through the door and to the end of the line all the way up the stairwell.  Finally my turn came.  I heard the man in front of me asking the SS officer, when he could pick up his permit;  he was told "in 5 days".  Then the man told the officer, that his airplane leaves in 3 days; he was told to try then, that maybe it would be ready.  Then my turn came:  I completed the necessary form and without asking when I could pick up the permit, the officer told me to come back in 5 days.  When I walked out of the office another SS man told the crowd waiting that there would be no more exit permits issued and that they all had to go home.  After only three days I went back to the building and told the guard that I had been instructed to come back that day.  I believed that the issuing officer would not remember whom he told to try to pick up the permit in 3 days.  I went to the issuing officer's desk and asked for the permit, giving my name.  He checked the completed permits but could not find mine.  He sent an office boy to another office and told him to check, whether my permit was ready.  The boy brought it and I received the permit.

O. EXODUS FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA.

 1. The British Permit.
      Now the attempts especially by the Jewish people to leave Czechoslovkia were considerably increased - never mind to WHERE.  I received frantic telegrams from my teacher friends in London, who in the meantime had succeeded in obtaining permission for me to enter England, advising that I should report to the British embassy or consulate and that my permit was waiting for me there.  Of course I tried, but there were many hundreds of persons in the yards of all the Western consulates and nobody could even reach the guards at the gates. (I found out later that a letter from the British imbecile had arrived at my home one day after I had left, notifying me that the permit to enter England had arrived.)

 2. Mother.
      While my father was still alive, my parents did not want to move to Casablanca because they did not want to be a burden to my brother and his family.  They figured that they had enough money to live modestly to the end of their lives.  They wanted for me to get out and use the sale of my father's stamps as a base to start a new life.  Now that he had died, my mother, even though she had enough money left to ensure her modest way of life for a number of years, depended on her sisters and as I learned much later, she actually moved into an apartment together with one of them.

 3. Gestapo searched for me.
      On April 12, 1939, Walter Stingl, a cousin of mine who also had fled from Marienbad and had with his parents moved to Prague, phoned
me and told me that he was met on the street by a former schoolmate from Marienbad (now in an SS uniform), who had recognized my cousin and asked him about my whereabouts.  My cousin told him that he did not know.  I never learned why the SS was looking for me, but I believe the reason was that they had found some books in our guest library.  German Jews who had come to Marienbad to take the treatments  used the opportunity to buy and read books and magazines, which were strictly forbidden in Germany (containing articles about concentration camps, and in general the treatments of Jews in Germany).  Before they returned to Germany, they left the books and we incorporated them in our guest library.

 4. My escape.
      But I did not want to wait for the Germans to find me.  Italy was one of the few countries where no visa was necessary.  Previously I had already bought a new Leica camera, a portable typewriter, but at the Czech customs control at the Prague railroad station they were confiscated ("you don't need these for a short vacation in Italy").  On April 13, 1939 I left on the basis of my SS exit permit and had no further problems even travelling through Germany to Italy.  I was only allowed to take along 1,000.00 Czech crowns, an equivalent of 40 US dollars, and I would not dare to risk an arrest by taking along anything not permitted.

 5. Italy.
      I went to Genoa (I don't remember why I picked Genoa) and looked for a cheap hotel, which I found in Pegli, a suburb of Genoa.  I went to the British consulate in Genoa and told them, that my entry permit was at the Prague consulate, but I was not able to communicate with the officials there.  They promised that they would have the permit transferred to Genoa and notify me.

 6. No more Money.
      But when I finally got the British Permit on May 3, 1939, I had run out of funds and could neither pay the hotel nor purchase the tickets for transportation to London.  With the last money I sent a telegram to my brother in Casablanca as well as to my cousin in Paris.  My brother phoned me and told me that he requested his bank to transfer the money to Genoa;  but my cousin in Paris sent me some money by telegram and I received it the following day.  I never received the money from my brother.

 7. No Transit Visa.
      I also had other problems: I could not get a visa to cross France, even for using an airplane which had to stopover in Paris.  Finally on May 10 the Swiss gave me a 12 hour permit to use a plane flying from Switzerland nonstop to England.  (Trains from Italy to England would have to cross France and without a French visa, I could not use trains.  And to travel from Italy to England on a ship would have cost more than by air.)  Once I paid the hotel bill and the airplane ticket from Switzerland to London, I had just enough money left to buy a ticket for a slow night train from Genoa to Zurich.  On May 11, 1939 I left Genoa.  I arrived in Zurich the next morning and the plane to London left at noon.  I walked in the street and could not even buy a roll in a bakery!  On the airplanes there were no meals included at that time.  The stewardess offered some sandwiches to the passengers, but when I told her that I did not have any money,
she brought me one free (left over from what she could not sell!).

P.1939-1941, ENGLAND.

 1. The Teachers.
      At my arrival at the Croydon airport my friends were waiting for me and invited me to stay with them.  The family (the father had died) owned a typical small English home in Croydon, a suburb of London.  The mother as well as both daughters were teachers.  I kept house, worked in their garden, hand-washed their laundry, and prepared "high tea" for them.  I even started to paint some of the inside of the house.

 2. Looking for work.
  a. Hotel in the Country.
           After a few weeks I did not want to become a burden to my friends and realized that living with them was no solution.  I also got restless and looked for work.  Even though I was not allowed to work, I looked at ads in the papers.  One day I found an ad that a hotel in the country was looking for a waiter.  I went there and started to work.  I liked it very much and everybody there was very nice to me.  Unfortunately the authorities found out and I had to stop, not having a work permit.
  b. Czech Refugee Hostel.
           Somehow I learned that the "Czech Refugees Fund" operated a hostel in Oxford and I moved there.  By then there was a shortage of farm laborers (the British had started to build an army and to draft soldiers) and refugees were allowed to work on farms.  Females were already previously allowed to work as maids in households.  Farmers from the area came to the hostel and picked up young men to work on their farms.

 3. On the Farm.
  a. Milking cows.
           One day a farmer picked me and took me along to work for him: E. Richardson, Church Farm, Chilton, Didcot.  He really used me!  I had to sleep on a folding cot in his storage room and eat the leftovers from their family table in the kitchen.  In the morning at dawn (before breakfast) I had to go in the field to pick up the cows to be milked.  How should I have known which cows were to be milked and which not?  All looked alike to me.  I just collected all the (about 20?) cows and drove them to the barn.  But the cows were much more clever than I;  they knew exactly and the ones not to be milked turned round in front of the barn door and returned to the pasture.  The ones to be milked (6?) went to their stalls.  The farmer had shown me how to milk cows and I learned fast, but it took me a long time to milk them!
  b. Clothing.
           In Prague, before emigration, nobody wanted to take old clothing along and everybody bought good material and had good clothing tailored, also only good shoes, overcoats, etc.  All I had was my good clothing and with that I had to go out very early in the morning to the pasture.  Of course it rained often in England and I got wet; my shoes were always soaked.  With the little wages I got, I bought rubber boots and later a "Mackintosh" (whatever that is) rain jacket.

 4. Back to the Czech Refugee Hostel.
      But soon authorities came to check up on me and asked me questions. I told them how much a week I got paid (10 shillings!). They talked to the owner and he was told that if he did not pay me the minimum wages (one pound a week), I could not stay.  The farmer was not wrong, because how could I do the same work a British farm worker would do?  He even tried to teach me, who never even touched a cow before, to milk them! (And I did!)  But he refused to pay me the one pound he should have and I had to return to the hostel in Oxford.

 5. Another Farm.
      In the meantime harvest time had started and on August 30, a farmer's wife came whose old husband needed somebody to help.  I guess I was the last man at the hostel and as there was nobody else, I went with her:  Mrs. T. Arminson, Pangbourne.  It was a very nice couple, who had an older son.  I started to help with the harvest, learned how to drive the harvester, load the sheaves of ripe wheat on the horse drawn cart.

  a. Start of World War II.
           On September 3, 1939, the war started.  Hitler's army had invaded Poland and the British declared war against Germany.  The French soon followed.  When I told the farmer that I had learned how to milk cows, he bought some calves, which would eventually be turning to cows and would have to be milked!  When I also told him that I had a British driver's license (from the time I had come to England in 1932), he even bought a small old car, but none of the family could drive.  So I had not only to pick the potatoes in the field, but also to load the filled bags into the car and deliver them to customers.
  b. The Parson wanted to practice German.
           The farm was owned by an old parson (pastor) and when he heard about me from the farmer who was working for him, he wanted me to come to his home after work and have German conversation.  He was at least 90 years old. When I was at his home, usually about 2 hours, he never even offered me a cup of tea.  But I did not mind all this, I even enjoyed it.

 6. Savoy Hotel, London.
  a. I got a new job.
      Even though I liked it and did not mind the work, I figured that farming was not the solution for me.  Somehow I learned that now foreigners could get job permits for work for which Britons could not be found.  I got in touch with a former school student at the Swiss hotel school, who worked at the Hotel Ritz in London.  There was no job at that hotel but he phoned his father, who was manager of the Grill room at the Savoy hotel in London, and I was told to go there and talk to him.  There I was called to the general manager of the Savoy Hotel, who interviewed me.  I told him that I had worked at the Hotel Sroubek in Prague and it turned out that he knew "Pan" (Mr.) Sroubek well from meeting him at international Hotel conventions; and when I told him that I was a student at the famous Hotel Management School in Switzerland, it turned out that he himself had gone to that school.  After that interview there were no problems in getting the permit to work and I could start immediately.

b. Work as waiter.
       On January 8, 1940 I started as assistant waiter (Commis the Rang) at the Grill Room of the Savoy Hotel, The Strand, London.  That experience was extremely interesting.  Very famous people dined there and my coworkers were very nice.  The staff of the Grill Room and the Restaurant were a mixed group:  mostly foreigners, very few English.  The manager of the Grill Room was the father of my friend; there were two Maitre'ds (all three of Italian descent).  Each station in the Grill Room was composed of a Headwaiter, a Chef de Rang, and a Commis de Rang.  Each station had a sideboard and 4-5 tables.  My headwaiter was a very nice old Italian man.  He took the orders, also wrote the bill and cashed it, the Chef de Rang took the order to the kitchen, brought it to the dining room and served it, the Commis de Rang helped the waiter (cleared the tables, brought the dirty dishes to the pantry, etc.).
  c. Wages.
           When the headwaiters cashed the checks they wrapped the tips into a copy of the bill and inserted it into a large sealed box.  At the end of the meal one headwaiter, one Chef de Rang and one Commis de Rang, all of whom were trusted by their fellow workers, opened the "Trong" and kept a record of the tips.  At the end of the week the money was distributed according to a predetermined key for each employee.
  d. Promotion.
           A great number of the waiters were Cypriots, British subjects of Turkish and Greek ethnic origin.  A couple of months after I started work there, the Cypriot waiters went on strike for higher wages and I was promoted to become a "Chef de Rang" (a full fledged waiter).  I don't remember whether the strike was successful, but when they returned after a few days I stayed a Chef de Rang.  Later, when the German air raids had started, the Grill Room was combined with the restaurant; a dining room was built in the basement and service continued there.  I volunteered very frequently for "night duty":  there was only one to serve the foreign journalists (most of them Americans), who came and went all night long from their trips to observe and be able to report on the bombings of London.  Some bombs hit part of the hotel, but no great harm was done.  It was very interesting to watch the German planes over London, with the British searchlights and guns aiming at them.  Except for a few near hits, I personally never was in any direct danger.

 7. Where I lived.
          The Czech Refugee Trust Fund had rented a college dormitory (Canterbury Hall, Cartright Gardens, London) from the British. Because of the war schools had been evacuated to the country and the building was empty.  The Czech refugees who lived there and worked had to contribute to the operation; others who had no employment lived there and had their meals free.  The building was very modern.  The majority of the people there were young.  There were always 2 persons to a room and there was a bathroom for two rooms.  As it turned out my room mate was a young lawyer also from Marienbad, whom I knew from my school days there; in the other room lived the son of a cousin.  When the air raids started, they made shelters in the basement and many residents took advantage of that opportunity and slept there (I never did).

 8. Scotland Yard.
      At the end of April of 1940 I received a summons to come to Scotland Yard.  I was interrogated and they wanted to know especially whether I held any money for persons living in countries occupied by the Germans.  I told them that I was holding in custody £ 214/9 which my cousin had given me in Prague at the time I escaped from there.  I was told I had to deposit that amount with the Bank of England as Enemy Property.  A few days later I received a letter, which had been opened by the censors.  This letter was written in German by a lawyer in Amsterdam, Holland.  It stated that my cousin was in Prague in prison and I should immediately send all the money I, as well as other persons, was holding for that cousin, to that lawyer.  I realized that my summons to Scotland Yard was based on that letter.  I returned to Scotland Yard and there we composed a letter to the lawyer in Holland asking him for some proof of the communication he had received from my cousin.  A few days later that letter was returned to me with the notation "No Service", as in the meantime Holland had been invaded by the Germans.  In 1971 proceedings were started to transfer the money from the Bank of England through the Czech Embassy to my cousin's widow in Prague.  (31 years later!)

 9. U.S.Imigration Visa.
  a. Affidavit of Support.
           During November of 1938 I had registered for the immigration quota visa at the American Consulate in Prague.  One of our former steady guests at the Königsvilla lived in the United States and I had written him in 1940 from London requesting he help me get an "affidavit of support" which was needed to obtain the US immigration visa.  He sent me the completed forms, but when I submitted them to the American Consulate I was told that, considering his age (85) and also that he had to support a number of his relatives, the affidavit was not "strong" enough.  He then submitted some additional evidence of support, but I had already given up all hope.
  b. Condition of Visa Issue.
           One day in November of 1940 I received the notification from the American Consulate that I would get the immigration visa, provided I had a confirmed means of transportation to the USA, as well as all the necessary papers, clearances and permits to leave England.  Now a new hassle began.  England was at war and there were no more regular British passenger ships crossing the Atlantic.  Somehow I had already on a previous occasion canvassed various travel agencies and asked for shipping information.  Now I started the same activities again, with very little success.  I don't know how, but at one agency the employee asked me for my name and checked a list. There was my name and he told me there was a ship leaving probably in February for Uruguay.  If I could get the Uruguay transit visa, I could book passage on that ship and they would also get a reservation on an American ship from Buenos Aires, Argentine, to New York.
  c. Czech exit permit.
           Being still a Czech citizen (recognized by the Exile government of Czechoslovakia in London), in order to obtain the British exit visa, I would first have to get the permission from the Czech government in exile.  But when I went there, having been in the Czech army and now being a reserve soldier, they rejected my application and told me I would have to serve in the Czech battalion being created in the near future.  I was desperate and very
depressed.  There was a young girl living at Canterbury Hall and her girlfriend's boyfriend was the son of the Czech army doctor.  That girl tried to help me and she convinced her friend to ask the doctor's son to talk to his father.  Soon thereafter I was called to the Czech embassy, had to go through a medical examination, was declared medically unfit for military service, and received the Czech exit permit.
  d. British Censorship.
           The next hurdle was "censorship";  but this was minor.  All written and printed material - even books - had to undergo strict censorship.  I just packed everything into a suitcase and within a few days I received the suitcase back all sealed. The stamps and other valuables had to be officially appraised and I was not allowed to take any money or other currency out of England.  The entire procedure was quite some experience!
  e. Issue of U.S.Immigration Visa.
           On January 27, 1941, I received the American immigration visa.

Q. TRAVEL FROM ENGLAND TO THE UNITED STATES.

 1. Crossing the Atlantic.
      On February 6 1941, I received the British Exit Permit and on February 15, 1941, I left the United Kingdom from Glasgow, with the mail steamer "Andalucia Star", of the Blue Star Line.  Most of the passengers on the ship were refugees like me, several of them originally from Czechoslovakia.  The trip was not eventful and sometimein March we arrived in Montevideo.

 2. Montevideo.
      My father's oldest brother Oscar Stingl with his wife and 3 sons and their families had succeeded in getting their Uruguay visa  at the end of 1938 in Prague and were pretty well established in Montevideo in 1941.  I stayed first with my uncle and aunt, and the rest of the days with the one married son.  When my uncle heard that I was not allowed to take any money out of England, he lent me $100 (which I repaid him 2 weeks after my arrival in New York).
 3. From Montevideo to New York.
           I left March 20 on a large ferry boat across the river "De La Plata" and arrived in Buenos Aires in the morning of March 21.  The Argentine police waited already on the pier and escorted us (there were many refugees on the entire trip) on a bus to the other end of town and the pier where a United States ship, the "SS Uruguay", Moore & McCormack Lines, was anchored.  We left the same day and arrived in New York on April 7. 1941.

 4. Arrival in New York.
      The Immigration processing was done prior to our debarkation on the ship and was no problem; neither was the US Customs.  On the pier a cousin of my father (John ) Hans Baruch and an old friend Oscar Finger were welcomed me to the USA. (They did not know each other.)

E N D   O F   P A R T   O N E

T A B L E    O F    C O N T E N T S

A. GRANDFATHER: Gottlieb Stingl................................2
 1. Birth.......................................................2
 2. Youth.......................................................2
 3. Marriage....................................................2
 4. Move to Marienbad...........................................2
 5. Marienbad...................................................2
B. FATHER: Richard Stingl......................................3
 1. Birth.......................................................3
 2. Youth.......................................................3
 3. Marriage....................................................3
 4. Profession..................................................3
C. MARIENBAD...................................................3
 1. Discovery...................................................3
 2. Development.................................................3
 3. Climate.....................................................4
 4. The "Season"................................................4
D. KÖNIGSVILLA.................................................4
  1. Building...................................................4
 2. Location....................................................5
 3. Employees...................................................5
 4. Grandparents................................................5
 5. Activities..................................................6
  a. Spring Cleaning............................ ................6
  b. Arrival of Guest........................ ...................6
  c. End of the "Season".........................................6
  d. Liquidation of the Delicatessen Store.......... ............6
E. MY CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH......................................6
 1. Birth.......................................................6
 2. 1914-1917, Preschool........................................7
 3. 1917-1922, Elementary School................................7
  4. 1922-1924, Realgymnasium...................................7
 5. 1924-1927, Realschule.......................................7
 6. Buick automobile............................................8
 7. 1927-1928, Bergmanova Obchodni Skola........................8
  8. 1928-1929, Hotel Sroubek, Prague...........................8
  9. 1929, Juan les Pins - Nice.................................9
 10. 1929-1930, Hotel School....................................9
F. AERO AUTOMOBILE............................................10
 1. Purchase...................................................10
 2. The Car....................................................10
 3. My first long trip.........................................10
G. DREIHACKEN.................................................10
H. 1930-1933, TRAVELS.........................................11
 1. Galtür.....................................................11
  2. Nearby Towns..............................................12
  3. Dolomites.................................................12
 4. London.....................................................12
  a. Meeting Gerdi Brill. (August 1932)......... ...............12
  b. Parent's trip to Casablanca............... ................13
 5. Vienna-Venice-Rome-Naples..................................13
I. 1933-1935 CZECH ARMY SERVICE...............................14
 1. General....................................................14
 2. Induction..................................................14
J. 1935-1937..................................................15
 1. At home....................................................15
 2. Galtür.....................................................15
 3. Germany....................................................15
 4. Casablanca.................................................16
 5. Exchange arrangements ("Au Par")...........................16
  a. Holland.............................................. ... .16
  b. England............................................. .... .16
 6. Trip to Italy..............................................16
K.1938 THE GERMANS MOVED!.....................................16
 1. Austria....................................................16
 2. To Czech Border............................................17
 3. What should we do?.........................................17
 4. Hitler prepares Annexation of the Sudeten area.............17
 5. Preparing for my possible emigration.......................17
  a. Getting valuables out of Czechoslovakia....... ............17
  (1) By Mail..................................... .............17
  (2) By Train.................................................18
  b. Trip to England............................ ...............18
  c. Job hunting................................. ..............18
L.  MUNICH AGREEMENT..........................................18
 1. Hitler's Demands...........................................18
 2. Escape from Marienbad......................................19
 3. Sudeten Germans' Coup......................................19
 4. Prague.....................................................19
 5. Operation Rescue...........................................19
 6. Czech Mobilization.........................................19
 7. Munich Conference..........................................19
 8. Agreement..................................................20
M. LIFE IN PRAGUE.............................................20
 1. Where and how we lived.....................................20
 2. Attempts to emigrate.......................................20
 3. Aborted Attempts to enter England..........................20
 4. Back in Prague.............................................21
  a. Father............................................ ........21
  b. Continued search for countries to emigrate........ ........21
N. OCCUPATION OF BOHEMIA AND MORAVIA..........................21
 1. Arrival of German Troops...................................21
 2. Exit Permit................................................21
 3. How I got my Exit Permit...................................21
O. EXODUS FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA.................................22
 1. The British Permit.........................................22
 2. Mother.....................................................22
 3. Gestapo searched for me....................................22
 4. My escape..................................................23
 5. Italy......................................................23
 6. No more Money..............................................23
 7. No Transit Visa............................................23
P.1939-1941, ENGLAND..........................................24
 1. The Teachers...............................................24
 2. Looking for work...........................................24
  a. Hotel in the Country................................ ......24
  b. Czech Refugee Hostel................................ ......24
 3. On the Farm................................................24
  a. Milking cows.......................................... ....24
  b. Clothing......................................... .........24
 4. Back to the Czech Refugee Hostel...........................25
 5. Another Farm...............................................25
  a. Start of World War II....................... ..............25
  b. The Parson wanted to practice German...... ................25
 6. Savoy Hotel, London........................................25
  a. I got a new job................... ........................25
  b. Work as waiter.................... ........................26
  c. Wages............................ .........................26
  d. Promotion........................ .........................26
 7. Where I lived..............................................26
 8. Scotland Yard..............................................27
 9. U.S.Imigration Visa........................................27
  a. Affidavit of Support............... .......................27
  b. Condition of Visa Issue............ .......................27
  c. Czech exit permit.................. .......................27
  d. British Censorship................. .......................28
  e. Issue of U.S.Immigration Visa...... .......................28
Q. TRAVEL FROM ENGLAND TO UNITED STATES.......................28
 1. Crossing the Atlantic......................................28
 2. Montevideo.................................................28
 3. From Montevideo to New York................................28
 4. Arrival in New York........................................28