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“I was the one keeping it together,” Trude says. “My mother
was too hysterical. The only time I saw her face relax was when
she died…she carried it with her.”
Still, it was vital that the Schonthal women followed Schimek’s
lead, and so, with the guidance her father had sent back, Trude
made moves toward an escape. They boarded the same train, but
when Trude found the same waiter, he cut her off.
“Don’t speak to me. I’m being watched,” he said.
With nowhere else to go, Trude and Rose were forced off
the train at the border, completely unprotected, in the middle of
winter. But they had heard of an hourly hotel that would hide
refugees under the eaves, and so they went there, paying a scout
to pick them up after dark and smuggle them across the border.
But time after time, for six weeks, they were caught and
sent back.
“We tried almost every night and were caught. We ended
up in ditches with a gun in my ribs, and were sent back each
time,” she says. At that time, she adds, “there were no camps for
women, and that’s why I’m still here.”
Soon, though, her father met a man whose brother agreed to
smuggle them out—for a price. After a three-hour walk, they
werepicked up in a car, and the Schonthal women made it to
Belgium, where they were reunited with Schimek.
For a year, every 30 days, Trude would re-negotiate their
visas. The family stayed on in Belgium, falling into a somewhat
“normal” lifestyle that included dancing and music. But
Belgium wasn’t their landing place, and so they continued to
try and find asylum elsewhere on the globe. The efforts were
made more difficult by the fact that because Rose and Trude
were born in Austria, and Schimek in Poland, the family could
not obtain visas together.
Eventually, after hearing that the Chilean ambassador was
out of town, and that his vice counsel was illegally selling visas,
Trude managed to obtain visas for her and her family. They
prepared to sail on the Simon Bolivar in November—one year
after Kristallnacht changed their lives in Vienna.
But the night before the ship was to leave, a knock came on
the door. The Chilean embassy had discovered the fake visas,
and was cancelling them.
The family was devastated. But the next morning, as the
ship pulled into the English Channel, it hit two mines, killing
hundreds and sinking the ship. One more miracle kept the
Schonthals safe yet again.
It took until the following March for Rose and Trude to gain visas
into the U.S., where they would start off in New York. Schimek made
plans to follow, and would leave Antwerp on May 11.
On the 10th of May, Hitler marched into Belgium.
Two Different Paths
Meanwhile, Max Heller had made his way to South Carolina,
in a twist of fate born from his love of dance.
After meeting Trude back in the summer of 1937, Max—
who loved to dance—asked an American girl to dance. They
June 19, 1922
Trude Schonthal is born in Vienna,
Austria, to Rose and Simon Schonthal
Summer, 1937
A 14-year-old Trude meets a 17-year-old
Max Heller while on vacation
March 12, 1938
Hitler invades Austria prior to the
planned plebiscite. Max immediately
writes to a friend, Mary Mills, in
Greenville, S.C. asking for a sponsor
May 9, 1938
Max hears back from Mary
Mills that Shepherd Saltzman, a
local businessman, will sponsor
him and any other family
November 9, 1938
On the morning of Kristallnacht, Trude’s
family goes into hiding at one of their
family-owned shops.
January 1939
Simon Schonthal (called Schimek) is
summoned to the Gestapo. He decides,
instead, to flee to Belgium. Rose and
Trude follow a few months later.
November 1939
With bought visas to Chile, the
Schonthal family plans their leave.
However, the night prior to their leave,
their visas are revoked. The ship sinks
in the Channel the next morning.
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Q4 2013 // // Business Black Box