1
Dear
Gilbert, I am sure you have been reminded of me several times in these
last days reading the papers about Austria.
As you can imagine I have been, & am, greatly troubled by the
events.
My relatives so far as I can judge are in no sort of danger as they || almost all of them are retiring & very respected
people.
I &
My brother & sisters are, under the new laws, Jews (not
however their children, (as they had no Jewish grandparents
& baptized great-grandparents).
Nevertheless, of course, the new regime is || must be
hateful to
them.
⍈
It is however mainly || Now it is about myself that I really want to write.
I have 29 not yet heard from home at all
since the invasion, but there hasn't yet been time, & my people would always
try to give me news in the mildest possible form so as not to worry
me.
I have written home saying that I would come any time if they
needed me, but I almost assume that they have no need for me (not that they
wouldn't like to see me).
¥
I am placed in a queer position.
As you know I am automatically becoming a
German citizen, i.e. a German 30 get any job there & that || but even if it were possible I could hardly face such a possibility || this idea.
You may call this weakness but such it is¤.
My people are wealthyish &
will probably even after all the changes have
money enough to keep me.
But I needn't say what that would mean to || for me.
So I am now || Therefore now I have been
considering seriously || seriously considering the idea of acquiring British
citizenship.
You know that I had just
thought of this possibility before though never
giving it any serious consideration31
the respectability etc.
etc. which (though it does not repel
me) is not what I seek.
But this can't be helped.
There is one enormously strong reason
which would for me speak against acquiring a
new nationality & it is this, that in all
likelihood as a
British citizen I shall be barred by
the Germans
from re-entering Austria &
therefore from seeing my family, except by meeting them, say, in Switzerland.
But I don't see at present that this would be worse
for me or them than
my rotting always yours
bloodily L. |
1) Gesamtbriefwechsel, Letter to G. Pattison [15.3.1938].
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