Mary Wilder – Berlin Olympics
VIEW TRANSCRIPT OF LETTER
An international dance festival was organized to coincide with the Olympics and in attendance was a small group of dancers from Toronto. They were led by Boris Volkoff who had come to Canada seven years earlier to work as the ballet master and choreographer at the Uptown Theatre. In 1931, as Vaudeville work waned in the shadow of the Great Depression, Volkoff opened his own school and began training dancers. His most senior students formed the fledgling company that represented Canada. Teenager Mary Wilder was among them and wrote home to her parents. Here, Mary describes commonplace things in her new setting such as the streets and the furniture, but nestled in among these comments, Mary reveals the anti-Semitism that existed in Canada as well as Germany. It was a time when Canada, as Irving Abella and Harold Troper write in their book None is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe, 1933-1948, was “awash in homegrown racism and anti-Semitism.” (Letter from Mary Wilder Bosley Collection)
transcript
CONTENT WARNING: This letter contains anti-Semitic comments.
℅ Mr. A. W. Treadway
Canadian Pacific Railway
Unter den Linden
Berlin W. 8.
Sunday, July 19 [1936] and Monday
Dearest Mum:
Here we are safely installed in our boarding house. I’ll have to tell you about it but first of all might I say that you can get very lonely around here (not that I do, of course) and that it’s good to be among your own friends. However, the boarding house.
It really isn’t what you would call a boarding house. This man and wife have the third floor of this building. The man speaks French and German and the woman a little English and German. So with the two of them we can make ourselves fairly well understood. They are very kind people and do anything for us – but for the comforts of home! They gave us a dictionary, German-English, so that if we’re really stuck we can use that.
Our room is very large here and you’d be surprised how modern is the furniture for a house of this type. In fact all the houses have more modern furniture than our own houses.
The furniture is green and wooden. We have much cupboard space and a large double bed that can be made into 2 single beds. The lighting is also very modern and they have given us full run of the whole flat so that we can listen to their radio and everything. It’s rather hard, though, when everything you hear is German – that’s what makes you so lonely.
You can’t carry on any conversation with the landlady. That would be rather tough on Holmsie. On the beds there is a feather eider which is joined to a sheet. This is thrown back in the daytime leaving the bed open. That means that you don’t have to make your bed.
The windows open out onto the street and there is a balcony out there also. When you come in you have a great time trying to unlock the door. Also in the hall there is a button that makes the lights stay on for three minutes. Then if the light goes out you press it for another three minutes.
A hot bath costs one mark and a cold one is free. So far we have had cold baths.
The streets are nice and wide and part of them are cobblestone. But the thing I noticed is that even on the main streets and busiest corners there is no heavy traffic at all.
The street cars here run in the centre of the street and their runway has a hedge at each side to protect it from the street. A great many of the streets are like boulevards and have a large block down the centre.
One nice thing about the place is that there are no Jews and all the people are so nice to each other. There is a great deal of discipline here.
It’s fun taking the underground trains. The people here seem to be a lot more air-minded because we hear an aeroplane cross the city at least three times every day.
The money is all in marks = 40¢ and pfennigs = 1/100 of a mark. Everything is very cheap here. They have all kinds of things with Olympic crests on them. I’m going to buy a cigarette lighter and a purse with it on.
All the Germans seem to have awfully big feet. They never wear any make up or coloured nail polish.
Unter den Linden is the main street. It’s very wide with land in the middle and all the way down the flags and banners of the different countries are flying. It’s very pretty.
Well so much for that.
Friday the tender came to meet the Empress [ship that took the dancers to Europe] at about two o’clock. There was much excitement between eleven and two.
Cherbourg was very nice, what we saw of it. The train left Cherbourg at 4 o’clock. These trains are terribly dirty because there are no screens on them.
The trip was very pretty. The grass and trees are much greener than at home.
When we came into Paris we saw the Eiffel Tower.
After we had our dinner, which was about 10:30 P.M., we toured Paris in a taxi. We didn’t see much because we only had half an hour. We saw Champs Elysees, Rue de Rivelée, Opera House, Arc de Triomphe.
The train for Berlin left at 11:45 and we didn’t get a berth. You can imagine what a hectic night we had. Six in one compartment and nothing to sleep on. I’ve never spent such a hectic night. I had about two hours sleep. This train was very dirty too. During the night I’d watch the scenery and count the number of rivers we crossed.
We don’t drink any water unless we’re sure it’s good. At five we woke up and bought some chocolate at one of the stops.
At Aachen, about eight o’clock, we got our French money changed into German. That’s the border.
We saw the iron and steel works at Essen.
We stopped for twenty minutes at Cologne. This was 9 A.M. Here we saw the Cathedral from the station and took some pictures of it. We also cashed some cheques.
The rest of the way we were so sleepy and drowsy that we couldn’t even stay awake while we were sitting up. They put a diner on the car so we were all set.
Before we reached Berlin the car had run out of water. We couldn’t even wash our hands and faces and you’ve no idea how dirty they were.
We got into Berlin about 5:30. There we were royally met and welcomed. There was a huge Canadian flag draped over the stairs. The soldiers saluted us. Then our pictures were taken and we drove away in a private bus. On the way we saw most of the city. Everywhere the people would stare at us. Even when we stand on a corner a large crowd soon gathers around us because we speak a funny language.
Saturday night we went to the theatre to see some of the German dancing.
Sunday morning we got up at night, had breakfast and unpacked. After that we had lunch and rehearsed for a few hours. Then we had supper, what a huge meal! Then we went to the theatre again and saw more German dancing.
This morning we slept in, had lunch. Rehearsed this afternoon and tried to buy some stamps. I’m only sending this air mail because it doesn’t take as long. We’ll be in London on the 2nd or 3rd for sure.
Aban Court Hotel
25 Harrington Gdns.
Kensington
We have passes on all the street cars and our tickets are given to us for all performances.
What I miss here is ice-cream and chiclets and Mrs. Wilder and family.
So far I’ve spent $6.54, 14 francs 95 centimes, 15 marks 60 pfennigs making $11.49. Pretty good, eh?
You’d be surprised to know that I’m writing this letter in a restaurant. Just after my dinner. We eat all our meals out except breakfast.
Well Mum I’m finished. My love to everyone and am thinking of you all.
Lots of Love,
Mary
P.S. Tommy Watson will be right outside of London when we are so I’m looking forward to a good tim there.
We dance on the 24th.
Love,
Mary