7
Departure and Arrival
1923: the Ehrlichs obtain
their passport and prepare for the trip, selling their jewelry
to buy third-class passage for three. Parting from friends and
family is hard, but the Ehrlichs’s biggest problem is getting
their visa approved, since József was not born in Transylvania.
At the Consulate in Bucharest, when asked if
Győr
is “far from here,” József answers “Not so very far”—and
is astonished to see the visa approved. Following a grim voyage
on the broken-down S.S. Constantinople, the Ehrlichs (now
Joseph, Mathilda, and Martha) arrive in America and make it to
Chicago.
8
The First American Year
Mathilda quickly finds work
at a wholesale millinery and does well there, but Joseph
realizes he will never be able to teach in the United States.
Determined not to be a burden on Mathilda’s relatives, he takes
the first manual job offered. After a few months the Ehrlichs
are able to rent an apartment of their own:
When we look around … and see
how well we did in such a short time, your Mother and I, we are
kind of proud of ourselves and
say, "It was hard, but we could do it" … It is true we work
every day and work hard, but at least we can enjoy it because we
don’t have to be afraid of anyone, not even of the
policeman.
They are lonesome for their
family back in Cluj, who want to join them in Chicago; but by
now immigration has been effectively cut off.
Appendix E:
The
American Cousins
9
Gyurika
George Ehrlich is born in
1925. His father Joseph, unemployed for months after a series
of unpleasant odd jobs, admits to being terribly disappointed in
America. Kindergartener Martha overhears her parents worrying
about how to pay the rent:
I never intended for you to
know about it, and did not think you heard and understood what
we were talking of … I hope, my
dear, that whatever I can help to make easier for you I’ll
be able to do. And all that didn’t come true for me, I can help
to make
come true for you in life. Be a good girl and study hard my
dear … and never be ashamed that you are a Hungarian.
Though the family is nearly
destitute, Joseph can entertain his children by telling them
stories illustrated with shadows cast by streetlamp on the
bedroom wall.
10 Furriery
A cousin of Mathilda’s
teaches Joseph the fur business, and in 1927 he is able to open
his own shop. The fur trade is exceedingly seasonal: nothing
gets paid for till the coats are picked up from storage (around
Thanksgiving), by which time there are six months of bills to
deal with. Always settling debts promptly, Joseph urges Martha
to save her pocket money: “Don’t live just for today, think of
tomorrow also, because today is gone in no time, but our
tomorrows will stretch ahead of us in a long row.”
11 New Deal on Devon
Chicago is hit hard by the
Depression. The Ehrlichs, living frugally, survive by repairing
and restyling old fur coats rather than selling new ones. In
1932 Joseph establishes Ehrlich Furs at the Devon Avenue
location where it will remain for the next twenty years. This
done, he retreats into a protective shell of Family and Home: “I
want you to remember how nice it was to be at home together,” he
tells his children. “Think of your home as your church.”
12 Martha and George
Martha, given her Diary for
her fifteenth birthday in 1934, continues it herself: “Today I
just remembered that when I felt very dramatic, I always acted
as if my life story were being written.” For years Joseph has
intended to make a schoolteacher out of his firstborn; after
Martha graduates from high school in 1937, she heads for
Urbana and the University of Illinois to try achieving Joseph’s
dream.
