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This Day in History

On Coming to America [by Anne Lehman]

DLandAnne
David and Anne Lehman


In observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day, here is an excerpt from Anne Lehman's essay about escaping the Nazis and coming to America aboard the President Harding:

It was a nightmare to live in Vienna at that time. Every time the doorbell rang, we were afraid--they're coming for us!
...

 A friend of mine got me a permit to go to England as a mother's helper. This way I got out of Nazi Germany. These people, Wright was their name, lived in Southsea. He was a shipbuilder and she was a dentist. They treated me very well and he gave me English lessons every day. But I was lonely there, so after a few months I went to London, where I have some friends from Vienna. My friend Trude and I found work in the home of an English theatre producer by the name of French. Trude was supposed to be the cook and I was the parlor maid. Once Rex Harrison came to dinner. He was very friendly, a real gentleman. 
. . . 

But the American consulate finally opened its door again [having closed it in 1938] and I received my visa to go to America. How happy I was. Naturally I was worried to travel on an English ship, so my cousin from America sent me additional money and I changed my ticket to an American ship, the President Harding. I think it was the last Atlantic crossing it ever made. It took us ten days of the most terrible shaking. Everyone on board was sick and wanted to die. We were so sick that we weren't even afraid of hidden mines, and as in a dream we did all the safe drillings, etc. The last day was Thanksgiving. We had, and for me it was the first time, a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with turkey and all the trimmings, they played 'Oh, say, can you see,' and when I finally saw the Statue of Liberty, I was really grateful to God, that he let me live and see America. 

Find the complete essay in Yeshiva Boys, by David Lehman

President Harding
A group of German and Austrian Jewish refugees  in New York on board the SS President Harding. New York, United States, June 3, 1939. (source: Holocaust Encyclopedia


(Ed note: Anne tried hard to get her parents to England from Vienna but "everything took so long," and by the time she had assembled the necessary documents, England was at war and she had no way of getting in touch with them to bring them to safety. She later learned that they were murdered by the Nazis in Riga, Latvia.)

-- sdl 

 


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Radio

I left it
on when I
left the house
for the pleasure
of coming back
ten hours later
to the greatness
of Teddy Wilson
"After You've Gone"
on the piano
in the corner
of the bedroom
as I enter
in the dark


from New and Selected Poems by David Lehman

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