Re: happy birthday from Grandma

Jeffrey,

I have been in the Czech republic dealing with a family matter I think you will find interesting. That's not an excuse for your grandma missing your birthday. But it's only a few hour miss, so...

This story is about my mother's father. He was Viennese but after divorcing my grandmother in the early 1930s he moved to Prague where he owned businesses and hotels. The Nazis took over Austria in the spring of 1938. My parents were married that summer but my grandfather, Nathan Kusznier, couldn't go because he would have been arrested by the Nazis. Then, in Nov 1938 my father was put in a concentration camp from which my mother got him released in late Feb 1939 by petitioning the Nazis and showing them the visa that had been approved for my parents to emigrate to the US. Minus all of their money and possessions, which was part of the kleptocracy strategy the Nazis let the Austrians Aryans carry out as a reward for welcoming in the Nazis with open arms, my parents arrived and then tried to get a visa for my grandfather. However, because they weren't citizens and couldn't find a sponsor, they failed to do so before the Nazi invasion and takeover of Czechoslovakia in June 1940.

Read the attached if you have time.

Ron

thx granma