| When the family was ready to leave Italy,
they knew they couldn’t return to Yugoslavia because
it was communist. Marianne had her brother Richard
Hahn in Sacramento, California and a cousin, Fred Georgi,
in San Francisco. Richard and Fred had to provide
affidavits when the family applied for immigration; then
they had to wait for the quota to move. First they
registered on the Austrian quota because of Marianne
(Alex and Vera were both still minors and could register
with their mother). Then Alex turned 21, so he was
put on the Yugoslav quota and Vera was eligible for both.  The Yugoslavian
quota moved first. They traveled to the consulate
in Naples for their papers. Marianne was required
to go through the Refugee Organization. At that
time, people had to be processed through a German camp
under the Refugee Act. However, Alex and Vera had
connections and so they called a friend in Germany to
find out how they could bypass that country. It
turned out the man was coming to Capri for vacation and
would bring the stamp with him. The ship was set to sail
at noon and Marianne’s papers were not stamped until
10:00 that morning.
They traveled tourist class and befriended a
young American who had spent a year abroad
mountain-climbing. He always wore jeans and ratty
clothes, so of course Marianne didn’t like
him. When the ship docked in New York City, he
invited Alex and Vera to his house for dinner.
Marianne was horrified, but Alex and Vera had promised
and were looking forward to it. As it turned out,
the family lived on Fifth Avenue, the father was the CEO
of Shell, they had a butler, the works....it was unlike
anything they had ever seen! Alex and Vera returned
to their hotel and joked to mother that she had been
absolutely right in her estimation of him, to which she
replied in her inimitable way “I knew it....I knew
it....you shouldn’t have gone!” The
family didn’t go through Ellis Island. When
they arrived, the immigration authorities had never seen
refugees enter by way of Italy--Marianne was the
first. Nine months later the first
“official” refugees from Italy were coming
directly through.
They
stayed in New York a few weeks and then left for
California via train. During a stopover in Chicago,
they got off the train to look for a snack and went in
the wrong direction to skid row. They asked for
directions from a policeman, who looked at them knowing
full well that they didn’t belong there. They
were so out of place, yet they were acting very
nonchalant, thinking that skid row was the norm for
Chicago. The cop wisely pointed them in the
opposite direction.
|
