Thanks to Miroslav Kamenik for translating this letter from Milan Fabry to his godparents Pavel and Olga/Maminka Fabry, and for research assistance, narrowing down the date of this letter to “8-12/1948.” Milan is giving explicit instructions to Maminka to help “Sveto” escape Czechoslovakia, using the same route as General Frantisek Moravec – famous for his role in the assassination of Nazi architect Reinhard Heydrich in Prague. Another new discovery, with Miroslav’s help, is that “Sveto” is another name for Pavel – likely a code name!

Dear Godmother!

After a quarter of a week in bed – I had some kind of angina, which I treated with cibazol so badly that I ended up feeling sick from it – I return to my letter from Friday, to which I have not received an answer to today.

1/ On Sunday or Monday, a gentleman will arrive from Frankfurt to Switzerland, whom you will surely know at least from his story and by name. He is General Mirko Vesel. I will briefly describe his background, if you do not know him. He comes from the Vesel family in Zvolen. His father was a lawyer and chairman of the board of directors of the former Slovak National Bank /before Pauliny/. My mother used to stay with them, when she was still single, while she worked in the aforementioned bank in Zvolen. General Vesel is the one who, as a lieutenant colonel under the Slovak State, prepared the uprising and led it. Then he flew to London. From there he returned and for Czechoslovakia held the position of Chief of the General Staff of Artillery at the Ministry of National Defense in Prague. He has now been retired and fled here to Germany about four months ago. He is a 100 percent man, both in terms of his past and character, but also in terms of his performance and courage. A soldier-general in his place, who has his own organization and his own people. He has several urgent matters in Switzerland, but he promised me with certainty that he would get in touch with you to discuss the matter of the Sveto with you. I had to at least briefly describe to him what was going on and roughly make a deal with him. The matter would look something like this: The general’s agent would visit a trustworthy and close person to Sveto in Bratislava /I was thinking of Mária Vorlová – if you have someone better and more discreet, tell the general/. The agent would give this person a password from you /e.g. Sveto is referred to by Viera… or something else/ and ask that this intermediary person agree with Sveto when he would like to and could go /early evening/. Mária would give Sveto’s message to the agent, who would call Sveto at the appointed hour, put him in a car and drive him to a certain place near Morava (MK: river Morava). Near Morava, you have to walk about 150m on our side. There will be a person with a boat ready to take both of them to the other side. On the Austrian side, it is necessary to walk 1.5 km to a village and from there, by taxi with a fake kenkarta (MK: ID card), which the agent will have ready, he will get to Linz via Vienna. From Linz, it would then be very easy to go to the US zone in Germany and to Frankfurt, where he could wait with us until the necessary documents for Switzerland are processed. It would be necessary to instruct the godfather (MK: he talks about Sveto, but not sure about “krstný” as godfather of Milan) to take a passport with him, perhaps even an invalid one, or an old one from the former Czechoslovakia. The financial cost of the trip is 30,000 CZK to be paid in Bratislava to the agent for the maintenance of the organization, which otherwise has no funds, and 25,000 CZK to be paid to the ferryman across Moravia on the Austrian side.

2/ I do not consider the possibility that I described to you in Friday’s letter to be so certain – but still a good one. This would involve our Czechoslovak organization being affiliated with an American intelligence organization. The liaison between these organizations and the head of the Czechoslovakbranch is made by MP Dr. Michal Zibrín, a former Bratislava lawyer. This organization does not want to give a description of the route for reasons of its own security and revealing the route. They only guarantee that it is a route through Austria /Vienna/ to Linz and from there a transfer to Frankfurt. They further guarantee that they will take Sveto along the best route, which they reserve only for eminent persons. The following have so far traveled this route: General of the Intelligence Service Moravec and Zibrín’s wife with their children. This is a journey of about three hours on foot. They demand that a password be given to Sveto and that USD150 be paid in advance. The company is trustworthy and as far as payment is concerned, they agree that the money (one hundred and fifty dollars) should be deposited by Wednesday with Rudek in Switzerland, or Dr. Pal Glaser – also Rudek’s address with the indication that it is for Dr. Zibrin. By Friday morning (ten o’clock) there must be a telegram in Frankfurt to my address with the following text: I agree stop money deposited stop signature. Their people are leaving for Slovakia from Frankfurt on Friday and by then I would have to show them such a telegram.

Godmother, I did everything I could, it’s up to you to decide. It’s certainly hard to make a decision in such cases. You probably don’t have anyone there to consult with either, and I can understand how hard it must be for you to stifle everything inside yourself, unable to talk, when even the closest person is so far away. For my part, I advise you once again to seek out Rudek, who knows both people well, and to make a decision with him. However, I consider it my duty to warn you that if nothing is done, you can’t count on something coming by itself – you need to act. And decide – no matter how difficult it is.

Yesterday I received a package or voucher from you. Thank you very much for it, you don’t even know how good something better sometimes feels. Otherwise, life goes on as usual – we have enough work, if only there was as much bread! But we can’t complain because we still have a beautiful life as refugees.

Hand kisses Your Milan

P.S. I gave to general the phone number to Genéve 2-91-92. Please wait for his call.