Crystal bowl that has travelled the world
My mother, Lucy Fowler née Smetana (1919-2003), was a Viennese Jew who fled to England in 1938 to escape Nazi persecution. I was born shortly after the Second World War, but knew little of my background, as my mother rarely spoke of it. In January 1995, I started to research my family history, and discovered she had family around the world, of whom I had never heard. It was only a matter of weeks before I traced the rest of the family: five living first cousins of my mother, three in Australia and two in America. A sixth cousin, an aunt and two uncles had died only fairly recently. Phone calls, letters, photos and gifts followed. And then in April 1995, a visit from my mother's cousin Helga from Australia, followed in May by a visit from cousin Gerda, also from Australia, bearing more photos and gifts. Helga was the daughter of my mother's aunt Gusti, sister of my grandfather Fritz Smetana (1889-1938). The two were apparently very close.
Helga brought with her an exquisite cut glass bowl. She gave this to my mother with the words "Your father gave this to my mother many years ago. She gave it to me when I was married, and it has been sitting on my dressing table for 53 years. And now I am giving it back to you."
The bowl, probably of Czech origin, was given to Aunt Gusti by my grandfather Fritz on the occasion of her marriage in 1918 to Jacques Steininger, a prominent Viennese lawyer. On 27 May 1938, Jacques was arrested, taken first to Dachau concentration camp, and then transferred to Buchenwald. Gusti, instrumental in securing her husband's release, was asked to pay 60,000 schillings and told that they must leave the country. Jacques was released on 1 February 1939, and the couple left Vienna, as instructed, five days after his return, while the children were sent to England.
Prior to their departure, Gusti, packed a large container (including the bowl) and bought tickets to Shanghai, with a view to emigrating to Australia. They eventually arrived in Melbourne on 23 October 1939. The container was dropped off in Borneo, but was eventually found and sent on to Melbourne. In June 1940, their three children travelled from England to join their parents on the SS Orcades, arriving on 10 August 1940, just a short time after the container had arrived. From then on, they were once again able to lead a relatively normal family life. Jacques taught at Wesley College, Melbourne, for 26 years from 1940 until 1966, when he and Gusti moved to Sydney to join some of their children and grandchildren.
So this bowl journeyed from Czechoslovakia to Vienna, Vienna to Shanghai, Shanghai to Borneo, Borneo to Melbourne, Australia, Melbourne to Nottingham, England, and is now with me in Cornwall, South West England. What an incredible journey, a journey which encapsulates the turbulent and traumatic history of those times.
