The Only Woman in the Room

by Marie Benedict

two months ago in March, Chancellor Dollfuss took advantage of an irregularity in parliamentary voting procedures to seize the Austrian government and dissolve Parliament.”

1933

Dollfuss’s conservative Christian Social Party, which appeals to rural and upper-class folk for different reasons, and the opposing Social Democrat Party.

“You might not read the word ‘dictator’ in the newspapers, but indeed, that is what Chancellor Dollfuss has become, with the Heimwehr, which, as you know, is a paramilitary organization, effectively serving as his personal army, since the treaty ending the Great War limits Austria’s ability to amass troops. The ostensible head of the Heimwehr is Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg, but behind Starhemberg is his close friend and business colleague Mr. Friedrich Mandl.

citizenship rights—rights that Austrian Jews have counted upon since the 1840s.”

We weren’t really Jewish, not like the émigrés who’d flooded into Austria during the Great War and again in the bleak, impoverished days that followed our defeat. Those Eastern Jews, the Ostjuden, lived apart from the rest of Austrian society, holding fast to their orthodox beliefs and practices. I didn’t even know any like that, who dressed in the traditional garb. The few religious Jews I knew in our neighborhood, those who kept Sabbath or displayed menorahs or mezuzahs in their homes, did so quietly, not with the bold insouciance of the Ostjuden, and they looked like everyone else. And my family, well, we really didn’t consider ourselves Jewish, except in a vague, cultural sense. We were fully assimilated into the vibrant cultural life of the capital city. We were Viennese above all else.

We live in Döbling, for God’s sake, a town with its own synagogue, where nearly all four thousand of the inhabitants are Jewish.

The Hotel Excelsior was vast, with over seven hundred bedrooms, three restaurants, multiple terraces, two nightclubs, ten tennis courts, a private boat dock, and, of course, its very own beach. Even the walk from our suite to the beach took nearly thirty minutes.

Venice. The Lido islad Wikipedia and google image

the Schutzbund was the military arm of the Social Democratic party, run by the Jewish leader Otto Bauer. Chancellor Dollfuss, leader of the opposing faction and a close cohort of Fritz, had banned the Schutzbund last February, leaving his own military group, the Heimwehr—led by Prince von Starhemberg and supplied by my husband—in sole charge.

“I’ve heard Fritz’s colleagues say terrible things that have led me to believe an awful truth. The Christian Social Party—Fritz’s people—are anti-Semites too.”

The writing is really poor sometimes. Hisyotical explanations re dumbed down and Heddy is ocerly naive so she can explain shit to us

in May, the conservative Christian Social Party suspended the democratic constitution. Defying the Austrian Nazi Party’s strident opposition, the Christian Social Party and the Heimwehr merged into the sole legal political party, the devoutly Catholic Patriotic Front, and took control of the government. Austria became a fascist state not only in practice but in name.

1934

“The Nazis have attempted a coup. A small group of German SS officers camouflaged themselves as soldiers in the Austrian Armed Forces and took over the national public radio building so they could broadcast a bunch of lies about that Nazi Anton Rintelen taking over power from Dollfuss. Simultaneously, a hundred or so disguised German SS stormed the Federal Chancellery. Most of the government escaped unharmed, but not before they shot Dollfuss twice.” My eyes widened in horror. No, no, no. Hitler was one step closer, one of my nightmares. I had known that the civil war in February and its aftermath had agitated the Austrian Nazi Party, leading them to clamor for unification of Austria and Germany,

1934 july

German troops have assembled on the Austrian border. We’ve sent word to Mussolini, who made a public announcement supporting Austrian independence and has agreed to rush military troops to the Brenner Pass at the Austrian-Italian border as he promised he would. The presence of the Italian army should deter Hitler from advancing beyond the border.”

Shortly after the failed putsch, Schuschnigg was appointed Austrian chancellor, and Starhemberg returned to his role as vice-chancellor. While Schuschnigg shared most of Dollfuss’s policies, in particular his top priority of keeping Austria independent, the new chancellor took a very different tack. He adopted a policy of appeasement toward Germany and Hitler, which Fritz found far too soft. So Fritz focused his energies on strengthening ties with Italy, believing that Schuschnigg’s actions needed bolstering.

“Buy up every copy of that film from every filmmaker, movie studio, and owner in the world. I don’t care what it costs. And burn them.”

He really troed to do this. See filmswikipedia

“From this point forward, you will be locked safely within our homes behind seven locks. You will remain inside until I arrive home to escort you to our evenings’ activities. If you need to leave the house during the day for a salon appointment, a dress fitting, or a visit to your parents, you will ask my permission first.

Schuschnigg thinks he can protect Austria from German invasion by not angering Hitler. You can’t appease a madman.” Starhemberg snorted back. “All this cooperation that he’s planning with Hitler will backfire. It just gives Hitler time to prepare for an Austrian invasion while we sit idly by, politely abiding with the Treaty of Saint-Germain by keeping our troops to an emasculated thirty thousand.” “Why can’t Schuschnigg see that the only thing that stopped Hitler in the putsch was Italian troops?

Emboldened by the inaction of the League of Nations upon Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia, Hitler marched troops into the Rhineland,

Hotlers approval of italys invsion drew countries closer tpgether

Schuschnigg had begun to negotiate an agreement with Germany in which, in exchange for Hitler’s pledge to keep Austria independent, Austria would make its foreign policy consistent with Germany’s and allow Nazis to hold official posts. Fritz and Starhemberg lamented that the agreement would isolate Austria diplomatically and encourage other European countries to view Austrian-German relations as a purely internal affair of the German people. More than anything, they believed it was a ploy to weaken Austria for Hitler’s invasion. Hitler would have men on the inside of the Austrian government after all. “What political or economic capital do we have left to pressure Schuschnigg now that Hitler and Mussolini have reached some sort of understanding? I hear they’re about to formalize their friendship into something they’re calling the Rome-Berlin Axis.

they were considering switching sides and becoming advocates of a unified Austria and Germany to retain their power base. “It might work, but only if you’re allowed to sell arms …” Starhemberg said, then trailed off. Both Fritz and I knew he was referring obliquely to Fritz’s Jewish heritage. Starhemberg knew Fritz’s secret—that he was half-Jewish—

His father converted to catholic for his mother

“Under the Nuremberg Laws, I could be granted the status of ‘Honorary Aryan,’” Fritz announced, addressing Starhemberg’s concern without ever saying the word Jew aloud. “What the hell is that?” “It is a special designation created by General Goebbels for Jewish people who serve the Nazi cause directly.”

Fritz had secretly armed both sides of the Spanish Civil War earlier that year.

From my old acting grapevine, I’d been hearing rumors about the quiet exodus of Jewish theater folk to America for nearly a year.

He stared at me long and hard, then added, “And no Jews. Americans won’t tolerate Jews on screen.” America was a more lenient land, I’d thought. Through my contacts, I’d been told that Mr. Mayer himself was a Russian Jew who was in London, in part, to scoop up Jewish émigré artists to bring back to Hollywood. Not as a savior but because Jewish talent—banned from performing due to the Nuremberg Laws—could be bought for a song.

These gatherings primarily functioned as a means for every filmmaker, director, writer, and studio executive in Hollywood to watch the parade of young women vying for roles and to make a selection for themselves. We were like carousel horses on a merry-go-round,

“The sight of cheering Austrians waving Nazi flags—and no military resistance. None at all. Incredibly, the Austrian government had ordered the army not to fight back. Hitler just drove in.” “What?” I was shocked. Sitting down at my dressing table chair, my legs shaking, I asked, “No opposition? Nothing?” “No. It seems that in the days before the actual takeover, the SS had secretly rounded up all potential dissenters. Even still, Hitler was surprised at the welcoming reception he got. He had intended to demolish the Austrian military, leaving it as a puppet state with Seyss-Inquart as head of a pro-Nazi government, but he didn’t need to take those measures. The Austrians were so supportive, he just absorbed Austria into the Reich.”

I walked down red carpets for the premiers of Algiers, fans lining the streets and calling my name. Women everywhere adopted what the newspapers called the “Lamarr look”—dark hair, often dyed, with a center part and cascading waves; symmetrical, arched eyebrows; pale skin; and full, glistening lips. The look I’d thought was so American, one cultivated at Mr. Mayer’s insistence, now became associated with the “exoticism” of Hedy Lamarr, the irony of which gave Ilona and me a good chuckle.

He’d been ousted from Austria when his allegiance with the Nazis frayed, and he’d retreated to South America, where he’d begun squirreling away most of his assets during our marriage.

I began to understand that in fleeing Austria without forewarning anyone about the seriousness of Hitler’s plans, I owed the Austrian people—particularly the Jews—a tremendous debt. But I didn’t know how I could help anyone.

America doesn’t have a refugee policy, only an immigration policy. We have a strict quota system where only a certain number of people from each country are given permission to immigrate each year. As soon as the quota is met, applicants are rejected—

The applicant first registers with the American consulate and gets on the waiting list for an American visa. While they’re biding their time, they have to a collect a long list of documents to submit, things like identity papers, police certificates, exit and transit permissions, and a financial affidavit, because the applicant has to prove that they can support themselves. The trick of these papers is that they all have expiration dates, so you’ve got to obtain them and get off that waiting list to submit them before they expire. Or you’ve got to do it all over again. The timing of this paperwork is so complicated—nearly impossible—that they call it the ‘paper wall.’”

I liked to remind our group, when Hitler invaded Austria, the Nuremberg Laws were put into effect, and few newspapers reported on this. Our European network was our source of the stories that the homes and stores of Austrian Jews were plundered; that Jews could no longer attend schools and universities and were prohibited from practicing professions; that Jews were beaten on the streets whenever and wherever the Nazis pleased; and, terrible to some of my more vain friends, that Jewish actresses were forced to clean toilets. Only the overt violence in November 1938 of Kristallnacht seemed to merit the attention of reporters.

Little reported on papers

We’d been heartened by the worldwide outrage that Kristallnacht sparked and thought it would stomp out Hitler’s anti-Semitic rage, but the reports soon faded from view. And we were once again left to our own network, particularly when it came to news of the Jewish citizens of Europe.

The gravity of my crime had become clear. Could I have helped the European Jews if I’d made known that the Nuremberg Laws were not the limit of Hitler’s plans? I bore blame for keeping this secret.

Yes

Nearly three months ago, in May, the St. Louis sailed from Germany with almost a thousand people on board desperate to flee the Nazis, eventually landing in Cuba, where the passengers begged for admission into the United States. The Cuban and American governments denied the refugees entry, forcing their return to the dangerous European shores.

“There are three women—Cecilia Razovsky and Frances Perkins in America and Kate Rosenheim in Nazi Germany—secretly working to get at-risk children out of the areas controlled by the Nazis and into this country. Mrs. Razovsky is the chair of the Advisory Committee to the Secretary of Labor, Mrs. Perkins, on the topic of immigration legislation reform. She keeps the secretary of labor apprised of the refugee situation around the world, and together, they attempt to effectuate flexibility in the administration’s policies. When they aren’t successful—which is the case more often than not—they turn their attention to individual cases. Mrs. Razovsky works with Mrs. Rosenheim, who is head of the Department of Children’s Emigration in Germany and undertakes this work at great personal risk, to identify children in danger, and then Mrs. Razovsky and Mrs. Perkins try to secure visas for the children and partner with private organizations to sponsor the children’s journeys to America.”

“We don’t know much about the child except that his parents were deported in the first wave. Please understand that this wouldn’t be official, of course, because the Americans don’t want to dirty their hands in the war. Not yet anyway, as some of you have pointed out. But we would find a way to legitimize the adoption.

The SS City of Benares sunk, claiming the lives of 134 passengers and 131 crew members—including 83 of the 90 children sent by their parents to Canada for safekeeping.” “No!” I cried out. How could this have happened? Surely even the Nazis wouldn’t target a ship full of children? Susie read aloud other details about the children on board the SS City of Benares. They came from British families bombarded by the Blitz as well as refugee families who feared for their Jewish children’s lives should Hitler successfully invade England, although I had to read between the lines to reach that understanding, as the paper only described the Jewish children’s situation euphemistically.

Newspaper avoids word jewish

Having nearly lost my son to the child welfare system when Gene and I separated in July—the American judicial system seemed unable to fathom a single mother continuing to raise an adopted child alone—the possibility of loss was too fresh to bear.

She adopted a jewosh refugee

I’d followed a fixed regime.

Regimen!

Along with every eavesdropped phrase I’d heard about torpedoes, I’d written down every nugget of information I’d gleaned from my brief conversation with Nazi torpedo expert Hellmuth Walter in Fritz’s Hirtenberger factory just before I escaped. It seemed that my best chance of undermining the Third Reich—

I explained to him the flaws with wired torpedoes and my desire to craft a radio-guided torpedo system for the Allies that would be precise in its aim and that would use unjammable frequencies.

Excited tp find out how much of this os true

even now, most militaries favored wire guidance of torpedoes, in which the torpedo is attached to the submarine or ship with a thin, insulated wire that connects the torpedo electrically to the submariner or sailor who controls the aim of the torpedo.

“When you and I played our duet, we followed each other, hopping from tune to tune seamlessly. You started the tune, and I followed your lead. In some ways, you were operating like the transmitter of a signal—like a submariner or sailor—and I was operating like the receiver—like the torpedo. And I began thinking, what if the submariner or sailor and the torpedo constantly hopped from radio frequency to radio frequency just like you and I hopped from tune to tune? That would make the communication from submariner or sailor to the torpedo nearly unjammable by the enemy, wouldn’t it?

I knew the long days of filming the musical about three hopeful performers alongside Judy Garland, Lana Turner, Tony Martin, and Jimmy Stewart had probably exacted the additional price of bloodshot eyes and dark circles. Jimmy was a dear man, so kind, but the tension between me, Lana, and Judy had been thick, as the women constantly angled for more screen time and meatier lines.

Ziegfield girls

I’m thinking about the ribbon of a player piano. Couldn’t we make an actual ribbonlike device for the ship or submarine and the torpedo that has holes—like the roll of a player piano—with instructions about the frequency-hopping radio sequence? One would operate as the transmitter and the other as the receiver.” George jumped up. “Oh my god, yes. Why didn’t I think of it sooner? We could use matching rolls of paper for each, like the player piano ribbons, with slots to encode the changes in frequency.”

Shesworking with a composer who basinvenfed musica devi es as ell as composed an avabt garde piece wiyh 12 player pianos in sync

in the time George and I had been collaborating, I’d divorced Gene Markey and dated the actor John Howard, playboy Jock Whitney, and the business tycoon Howard Hughes, who’d lent me a pair of his chemists and a lab to assist in my nonmilitary invention ideas, like the bouillon-type cubes that could turn water into a soda pop similar to Coca-Cola.

How does she have time for all yhis? That doesnt suggest serious guilt or shedfocus all er efforts on war

Nothing appeared in the newspapers, however, about the escalating brutality against Jews and efforts to round them up into ghettos and concentration camps; those stories we learned from our European network.

the navy has decided to focus on getting their old-fashioned torpedoes to work, not in developing a completely new system with a complicated guidance system.” “Even though our system is superior?” I was incredulous. “Even though.” He paused, as if it pained him to explain further. “Of course, the navy is not openly admitting to their torpedo problems, so my sources tell me that they’re blaming their decision to reject our proposal on the grounds that our system is too heavy.” “What? That makes no sense, George.” “I know. They said that our invention was too large to be used with the average torpedo.” “What?” I couldn’t believe what George had just said. “Of all the bases for rejection, that’s the most ludicrous. Our mechanisms can fit inside a watch. We made that entirely clear in the papers we submitted

the truth: that they’d not given adequate funding to torpedo research for decades and, as result, the navy is saddled with an archaic, ineffective system that’s too expensive to overhaul entirely.”

These men were rejecting a system that would enable a plane or ship to steer a whole fleet of torpedoes against enemy vessels with perfect accuracy, without any capacity on the enemy’s part to jam the necessary radio signals. How could the military allow their soldiers and sailors to lose on the seas—to be killed in vast numbers—because they wouldn’t use a weapon system designed by a woman?