WE WERE LUCKY
An autobiography by Hilde Gerrard neé Weissenberg, born 1907 WE MOVE TO ITALYIn April 1934 we packed up our home and moved to Milan into a two roomed flat - kitchen, bath, balcony on the sixth floor in the "citta degli studi". In spite of practising, the Italian language still eluded us, so that for the first weeks we had to be helped by signs.
We were about twenty-six years young and full of energy. Our partner was also a refugee and we soon found that the business did not prosper; no money came in and we had spent all our resources. Our only assets were youth and courage - but what could we do?
One day a friend visited us and on leaving, she said: "Can you lend me a German book, you have so many?" That sparked off the idea. We will lend German books to the ever-growing, new-arriving German refugee community. We had no money for a shop but as we were booksellers this was first in our line. We discovered that the telephone in Italy only costs the rent and that local calls were included in the rental payment. We operated from our flat - bought a secondhand bicycle, mounted a box on it and Gerhard visited the people who had set up home in Milan. The terms for joining our library were most attractive; it only needed a monthly subscription of a few lire and the books were delivered to the subscribers' homes by bicycle. If they wished to have them exchanged - all they needed to do was to phone us, no charge on the phone call, and the new books came either the same or the next day.
We hired a young Italian, who was called Salvi. An enormously tall person. He fitted a box on the bicycle and went to deliver the ordered books, and exchange them. He wore a large rainproof cape and was very efficient. He could not speak a word of German and the customers very little Italian. He came back very often amused and found new customers on his tours.
It was a small beginning but the demand grew as more and more people arrived. It became the "Circolo Librario" starting with a few hundred German books, a bicycle and a telephone. The customers had no money either and on exchanging books we were often given a loaf of German bread or Vienna sausages, just whatever their trade produced as payment, which we gladly accepted. It was a welcome service in an alien country and a foreign tongue - to have a book which could be understood - as it relieved the very anxious, worrying thoughts, which filled everybody's mind.
Citta degli Studi was on the outer boundary of Milan and the Circolo Librario grew and people wanted to come and choose their books and also to have a personal contact. We could no longer manage it from our sixth floor home and moved into larger premises. We rented a room in the absolute centre of Milan, one minute from the Cathedral, on the first floor in the Via Victor Hugo and were very busy. The main means of communication was by duplicated monthly leaflets to the German speaking members of the population, which included Italians from the Alto Adige, Trieste etc. and brought all types of people into the little centre.
The medical profession was well represented amongst the refugees. One could see many of their names advertised in our catalogue, which we distributed to our customers in order to show the new arrival of books, which could be ordered. The people publicised their trade, businesses and professions, which reflected the great variety and ingenuity of that community. There was one firm, which wanted to advertise the "destruction of (domestic vermin) bed bugs". At the last minute we discovered a printing error, as it said "distribution of bed bugs". There was dottoressa Stern who left Nuernberg for Persia as governess but after a few months, in which she was beaten by her aristocratic employer if he did not agree with the children's education, she fled to Italy. In Milan she started a surgery for sick children, which was her studied specialist subject.
Herbert Wolff came from Berlin; he was married to Rita, an American. That was lucky as she could go over first with their daughter Evchen and, as Americans, could secure an entry visa for Herbert to the States. There was only one snag - he had to produce a certain sum in dollars, which he did not posses. After obtaining the entry visa, it was unthinkable to have an obstacle in the way. We halted all expenses and paid no bills until the money was put together - and Herbert went. He hardly could have been off the boat when the whole amount came back immediately and all bills got paid. Herbert was the most reliable person I can imagine but more about that later.
Amongst the customers we had German ladies, who married Italians, and Signora Scopinick was one of them. She went with me to the fishmonger and explained to me the different kind of fish and how to prepare them, for example, octopus and the little "frutta del mare".
As nearly every customer was a refugee and could not help telling his own story and was heard sympathetically, the common interest created a community atmosphere and encouraged friendships. Customers became friends and conversations were carried on after business hours in trattorias or in the home.
The year was 1935. The Circolo Librario began to attract much greater interest so that even at weekends, when we began to look around and explore the Italian Lakes and the nearby mountains, we had a group of friends with us, until one day one of them suggested that we should hire a bus, which we did.
All the people had left their homes and some, or most, had had to part from their families, so that loneliness and strangeness of the surroundings formed part of the urge to be together at weekends. This was the beginning of a side line - Mystery Tours ("Fahrten ins Blaue"). The tours were well organised; the meals in lovely out-of-the way trattorias, there was time left for walks and in the evening we came back to the Piazza Duomo. These excursions were so popular that they were sold out as soon as they were announced. They took place about once a month. The demand was such that the day tours became weekend tours, Christmas and Easter holiday tours. At the beginning we could not afford to employ anyone and as thousands of leaflets had to go out - that meant writing addresses. When we intended doing this, we told a group of young people, who came and helped us. The nickname for the address and supper party was "Kilometerwurst Party" as this was what we served. Halfway through addressing we had supper on the business premises, eaten from paper and accompanied by wine. Between 11 and 12pm all was ready for posting and distribution.
In Italy the post had a competitor for the distribution of local mail. At that time it was Rinaldi and the charge was less than that of the official post, the service very good and delivered the next morning. So we were customers of Rinaldi.
We lived on the sixth floor of a flat house in the Via Beato Angelico and at the beginning, when things looked vary bleak we let one room to two young men, Lazarus and Eisenman, who tried as hard as everyone of us to get a foothold. They were pleasant young people, one of them very tall, fairhaired and both clean.
One day Hiter' s arrival was announced for a meeting with Mussolini, and the city was enveloped in the strictest security precautions. The two young men were in town and when the day of the meeting was over, neither of our tenants came home that night. It was nearly evening the next day when they came home, the fairhaired one hardly recognisable, as his face was so red and swollen from bug bites. The police had rounded up all foreigners, who were in the centre, as a security precaution during the visit and had put them into the jail and let them go the next day after Hitler had left.