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Dr. Pauline Reinkrant: There are very few left. Two brothers of this
painter died. One died in Switzerland, and one died in Europe. From my
father's side.
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Reinkrant: His relatives are mostly--
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Reinkrant: Settled in Moravia where the family came from. And most of
them--. I have only two cousins twice removed. I met one in 1971. But he
passed away meanwhile. And the other one lives in Brno, Moravia. I don't
know what-- correspondance with him.
_____________________________________________ [unintelligible]
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Beth Strasser: How did you manage to emigrate?
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Reinkrant: It was more a less a miracle. In order to meet an estimate for
the United States. He's gone on [??], it's a guarantee for the goverment
and you cannot be any burden to anyone or any institution for five years.
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Reinkrant: When you acquire-- when you acquire citizenship and when you
were citizens of the other one. But it was difficult.
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Reinkrant: Because [??] for France and for England. It was also very
difficult to get the tickets to come. Because of connections. Former
acquaintances. Historians. Journalists. But we didn't think that we would
ever be able to leave Vienna. Just imaging to leave the area.
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Reinkrant: Your native city, for you. Where you were well rooted in
society. And it was all after the war. He applied for an Immigration to the
United States.
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Reinkrant: But my husband carried along with his application and never
dropped it in the American embassy. And one day he said, Well, I dropped it
today. It's no use anyway. You're going to stay. You remember this? And
when we were really at the height of distress because of the warbonds--
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Reinkrant: A friend of his wrote to Vienna, and tell them, do you need an
affidavit for the United States. And of course, we made sure we are ready
for. And it was so that our Immigration, France and England as transition
point. My proof from the French and English government. Now, we had this
place, this ancient apartment, which we had rebuilt. But the German right
away said, It's my apartment.
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Reinkrant: [unintelligible] And we [??] everything. Everything about it.
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Reinkrant: When he came once and said, you get out here. I said, what it's
my apartment. Strasser: What Germans? Reinkrant: The Germans. Strasser:
Just the Germans. Reinkrant: Just the Germans. Professional [??]. And it,
um. He had been living in Vienna already for two years and getting married.
This was one of the sells. Oh, this is all so different from what happens
here. He had lived, as a matter of fact, in the same house, and he knew
more about our whereabouts.
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Reinkrant: Where we are ourselves. And he told us when he said we didn't
have any--
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Reinkrant: Place to go. Immigration certificate. The papers to emigrate.
He says that I'm going to get you this within three days. And he was our
guardian and he was Prussian Nationalist of National Socialists because all
the other people who wanted to emigrate to stand in line for hours in heat
and rain.
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Reinkrant: I can't imagine the cruelty of National Socialists under that.
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Reinkrant: He got us all papers within three days and then we had to move
out the apartment. We had moved in with his mother. Eventually, you know,
we left Oscar Jones, the second man, and said [??] Emigrate as well. What's
a useless state? That was just annoying.
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Reinkrant: But we went to France. We had money in France. And housing
before we were there
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Reinkrant: We were allowed to take along with two children our two small
children. Not quite three English parts. We are not allowed to take on any
value unless.
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Reinkrant: We stayed in Switzerland. 5 or 6 days. Then of course, the
authorities have to get out as fast as you can. And I went to France with
[??] and I went to university right away.
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Reinkrant: Because I thought the America just waiting for a while, trying
to learn some French. And did my summer studies and [??]
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Reinkrant: And then this was about the beginning or the beginning of
September, 1939.
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Reinkrant: And up to September, 15th, you could go into England, you
could emigrate to England. But we hesitate because my husband is a
wonderful musician. So it was--
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Reinkrant: Had established himself a little bit as a musician. [??] people
are very lucky. But then he was the one who said, let's go to England. It's
safer. So we entered the last day it was possible. And if we had stayed in
France, the war broke out Semptember 1st or 2nd, 1939.
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Reinkrant: All these refugees were packed into concentration camps.
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Reinkrant: Not because France was so antisemetic. Just does not exist in
France. France is a nation. But because they were afraid of the first [??].
And traitors like Quisling in Norway. And-- we went to England. Strasser:
How long did you stay in England? Reinkrant: We have to stay very long
there, because we were-- yeah. That's what. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. I
want to say, you know, the French pack everybody into concentration camps
and many people died.
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Reinkrant: Also many children because of lack of food, of medical help.
Cosmo Fenwick lived for years in Paris, died. For instance, just to give an
example.
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Reinkrant: He had an ailment of the throat, not too serious.
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Reinkrant: But since he didn't get any more further treatment. So many
people died. I went to England, and it was September 14th or something. A
very few days before the day they closed. I think I have to stay very
long.
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Reinkrant: Because of the war. Our credentials came. Were transferred from
Zurich, Switzerland. And it was difficult to them in there.
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Reinkrant: And-- we lived on charity of course. On handouts.
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Reinkrant: And then the-- our man was given us [??]. At this time it was a
fellow student of Morgan College in Oxford. History. He knew my father as a
young man. Understand. Eventually turned into a professor in Oxford. We
lived in his house for a while. And then we took time and no invitation to
the American Embassy to get an invitation to get out. And we decided to
accept the position as domestic. Which was the only thing you could do. We
were not the faculty.
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Reinkrant: We were supposed to be visitors to England. Now, they could not
get the positions themselves for a long time because we have two small
children in the nursery and five years old.
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Reinkrant: But then. That was very funny. We had ration cards for food.
They introduced ration cards for food because food would get scarce. And it
was cut off. Countries that imported food to England. Cannot feed
themself.
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Reinkrant: And the children got the same amount of food as grown ups. So
we could get a position as domestics either way. Because we had four ration
cards. Of course, we had very little food as domestics.
_____________________ [unintelligible]. But as soon as we had got this
positions as domestics. Waiting for-- this was in the [??] it was called.
The Oxford in one of these gentlemen's houses. Mansions. Very impressive.
But I learned the English because nobody used German.
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Reinkrant: We-- scarcely we established there. Frederick is a handyman who
washed windows. Used to have to collect the eggs. Yeah. And we did a very
good job. [unintelligible] was a musician after who played instruments
[??]. Because it does distinguish between fresh eggs and eggs that are one
day old. The English are very special about their breakfast eggs. Strasser:
Yes. Reinkrant: So he had to do this, which is a very good job. But I had,
of course, tremendous amount of work to do as a cook. But as soon as we
were established, we got the news to support our immigration. So we were
domestics only for 7 or 8 weeks.
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Reinkrant: But that. Then because it was all about the cook. I was really
interested in that. Then you should drink tea five times a day. You know.
The early morning tea. Breakfast tea with morning tea. 4:00 tea. Night.
Right. So, for instance, just to prepare so many teas. To cook all the
food, go by the side of the house pulled out the vegetables of the, of the
soil, didn't wash them, threw it on the kitchen table and had to be
noticed. I was a cook and had to wash the black dishes. There was not an
electric stove. Not a gas stove. It was a very cold cause. So this was all
very hard work.
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Reinkrant: Then I had to take and wash the clothes. But anyway. I wasn't
unhappy. I was not unhappy then. Although we have, of course, very
interesting experiences. Our two little girls certainly didn't understand.
children are refugees nobody wanted, and they thought they could share
company with a grandchild of the house in the living room. Never was chased
out. Strasser: Oh, yes. Reinkrant: of course. You know all these things.
Anyway, we got our immigration. That's the thing. It must have been in the
middle of [unintelligible].
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Reinkrant: Professor.
______________________________________________________________
[unintelligible]
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Reinkrant: And arrived in the United States. In New York. Now we had a
friend who found one room for four of us.
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Reinkrant: And ever since-- there's an outcome's a strange thing. One does
everything right in the beginning, one doesn't think it's alright for
people who are not at home anymore. You have to start life on.
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Reinkrant: It's like you do more gestures then to be convinced this is
real. And this is a very interesting experience.
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Reinkrant: Because Thomas Mann is with. I think it's a great
[unintelligible]. Describes a great deal of this strange experience. So he
wrote a three volume work on Joseph. Joseph. And when he describes the
state of Joseph in the cave when his brothers had thrown him.
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Reinkrant: He also describes that the suffering of Joseph was probably not
as big as we imagine because your consciousness just lowers.
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Reinkrant: And there's no doubt about it. Not that because I knew Thomas
Mann. _____________________________________________________
[unintelligible].
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Reinkrant: There's something to it. See, nature takes care of this
difficult moment. It just-- something quite moving. And so for weeks and
weeks, really, a Jewish organization took care of us in New York. And
established us in Pittsburgh also under very hard circumstances. Strasser:
Which organization is this?
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Reinkrant: Just a federations. From these federations. Like it's
everywhere.
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Reinkrant: Yeah, but if you are interested in all the details, I can give
you all this. We were in Oxford, and there we met a visiting professor.
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Reinkrant: And he was a historian. So the connection was freely given. And
he interviewed at once he said, where do you want to go in the United
States? I said, I don't know anything abou thte United States. Do not stay
in New York. There's no place to bring up children in New York City. So we
came here. We came to New York City. We went to the Federation. Because
that's. You had-- what you had to do. And they said, What do you want to
do? Where do you want some of this? I didn't know anything.
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Reinkrant: Just know that we should not settle in the United States, but
in a small town. So they looked through the records and said, here is the
city of Toledo in Ohio. We are going to call up there whether they accept
any more applicants. They called up Toledo and the Toledo Federation said,
no.
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Reinkrant: They can't accept anymore because of the refugees. They have
taken care of are not economically established. So what are we going to do
with this? And then I remembered a cousin had emigrated to Pittsburgh. To
Pittsburgh.
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Reinkrant: I didn't know anything about Pittsburgh. And I said, well I
think a cousin of mine emigrated to Pittsburgh.
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Reinkrant: And they jumped at the idea of the Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is a
great city for you if your husband doesn't find work in Pittsburgh as a
civil engineer, as a structural engineer, he won't find work any place in
the United States. So they called up Pittsburgh, remember? They called up
Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh said. Well let them come. So we came to
Pittsburgh.
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Strasser: And how long was that after you had gotten here? After you
arrived?
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Reinkrant: We stayed in New York only for a week. For ten days. And then
we came to Pittsburgh.
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Reinkrant: They found us two furnished rooms. And-- in Homewood in Race
Street with use of a kitchen. Then we moved to Penn Avenue in Wilkinsburg.
Two furnished rooms and very miserable and all very miserable place.
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Strasser: How long did you stay in each?
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Reinkrant: Well we stayed on Race Streetfor probably 8 or 9 weeks. For the
only reason that the landlady had a young child and had been caught and she
hadn't told the federation that there was a child in the house. And so when
they found it out [unintelligible]
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Reinkrant: So the older girl who had very much resistance and overcame
after some injections. Very small. [unintelligible]
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Reinkrant: And I didn't want to move out from there as long as she was
contagious because it was a very great injustice to anybody else to expose
to her.
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Reinkrant: When she was over it, more or less, [??] We moved to Penn
Avenue to a furnishished apartment. Two furnished rooms. They didn't want
us because we have children and young lady.
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Reinkrant: And somebody else said quite hard to look for a house on Penn
Avenue. [unintelligible] very good house, former very beautiful house,
broken up in apartments. I said, How many? You'll see, one's large. And I
had to move someplace else. Not too far away from this, and this was an
awful place. Broken up furniture. And at this time I remember somebody-- if
you want any help, the Quakers, friends, extend help to you.
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Reinkrant: I decided after much hesitation to go there at one of their
meetings on Sunday. As a matter of fact, I never had to, especially, you
know. It was herself from Italy who was married to an American man some 30
years already. She said, we, we live in a house on Bryan Street. Beautiful
corner. And this house belongs to Kingsley House. This neighboring house.
And two employees of Kingsley House share this house.
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Reinkrant: There's a third floor, she says I know for a fact. So if you
want to live on the third floor?
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Reinkrant: Oh, we were so glad because it was a beautiful third floor.
First, we had only two rooms. Because there were two other [??] but then
they moved out eventually. And we got this four room, bathroom apartment
for practically nothing.
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Reinkrant: He got a few pieces of furniture from Goodwill. Established
ourselves and we were there for nine years. 41? For nine years. But then,
this house also got sold so he wanted us out.
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Reinkrant: But then this time, since we had very little rent, we had
accumulated some savings and I was working over the [unintelligible].
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Reinkrant: And I started to work in 1946. We had enough money and enough
credit because of our positions to buy the house. We bought this house,
which was just being built. So, we have to wait for a little while to move
in.
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Reinkrant: But eventually we didn't have to move ever since because it
seems to have to pay two mortgages at the time. They gave us the basic
mortgage and then as the number of [??] acquired. So $4,500 was the ammount
of money. _________________________________ [unintelligible]. Music and
art, and was very unhappy in this position. Suffered badly from a very
unloved occupation. But that was the training he got.
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Reinkrant: It's all we had [??]. And I don't think of ever giving it up as
long as we can climb stairs to the second floor. Because there is no
bathroom on the first floor.
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Reinkrant: When one buys a house and is younger, one never thinks what
will happen if you get older. So for the first time I left, I fell down one
step and broke my leg. And this was in February. 1975.
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Reinkrant: But this can happen because many accidents happen in a house or
going up and down steps. That's a well-known fact. Strasser: Mmm. Have to
be careful.
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Reinkrant: I hang on to the railing if I go down. Of course, the fall was
caused already by an illness of which I have suffered-- but never really
suffered, not consciously. One can call it, old age. Parkinsons or
arthritis. So this was probably caused. [??]. Not too much, but enough.
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Reinkrant: So, we're here. My husband was an excellent [??] before it was
broken up years ago. ______________________________________
[unintelligible].
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Reinkrant: Understands basic things between him and myself. And it was a
sort of security.
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Reinkrant: We have, you know, pensions. He has [??]. I have $85 a month
after 25 years of work.
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Strasser: Really? $85 a month from Duquesne.
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Reinkrant: Duquesne University. Catholic Universities. This management,
they live in kind of-- a kind of being [??]. Unable to see the facts of
life. They are all very well protected in the community hall and all the
food they eat. All the [??]. All the something. And all the clothing. They
go to Kaufmann's and go to [??] and have credit. Well, it has limitations,
but they are very careful.
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Reinkrant: So they don't go terribly wrong. So even if people go to
confession and they witness that, they have no idea.
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Reinkrant: What are the ones who live among the people like Father Rice,
for instance, is his name, you know, father, you know, and have an idea of
how difficult it is. And thay are-- so very much against Social Security
because it's-- a university has to contribute half and half. Right? And
this is a matter of 15 or 20 years. You had a professor by the name of [??]
who is now [unintelligible]
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Reinkrant: Who fought for at least six months to get us social security.
We had arrived at a very small pension. Which was cut down even more when
we got social security. They think of us as great financial burdens because
they have no knowledge. I can see that. Without pay we were miserable. They
couldn't find any more faculty to pay for [??]. As you and I and your
parents and myself got. It's impractical. [unintelligible]
00:27:58.000 --> 00:28:06.000
That's the important thing. For all the demand and advancement. According
to famous [??].
00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:11.000
Reinkrant: Social Security, which is substantial. And the small pension.
00:28:11.000 --> 00:28:25.000
Reinkrant: He has started small pensions. Two and a half
________________________________[unintelligible]
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Reinkrant: And then we got really it's some quirks of fate. We got little
pensions from Austria.
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This was established to pay damage which was done to us. Injustice.
00:28:48.000 --> 00:29:08.000
Reinkrant: And we got tensions over by the base. What's your high school?
Not your-- university education? Your years of education. I don't think.
Anyway.
00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:33.000
Reinkrant: He has a larger Austrian pension and I have one too and no this
was not a big ammount, very much but added to the other two incomes was all
right. But then the dollar lost so much and you've got so many more
dollarsfor an Austrian shrinking pension if you are fairly willing to do
that. Strasser: That worked out well.
00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:39.000
Reinkrant: We cannot beat our income. We save money which we would never
have expected.
00:29:39.000 --> 00:29:40.000
Strasser: That's very good.
00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:46.000
Reinkrant: That's very good. So we can leave a little bit money for our
children.
00:29:46.000 --> 00:30:46.000
Reinkrant: And it's very odd. Some two weeks before we left cause, talk to
Vienna and friend of us called us and said he has to make us a very-- he
has to give us very sad news. So very much concern. What, what. Well, the
dollar is rising away. Smaller pensions. It was so funny. It was a really
funny. Sad, in a way. All I had to the dollar-- steady, after all.
