After being freed from French internment, the author Fritz von Unruh, managed to flee France in the summer of 1940 together with his wife Friederike. With faked passports and a US visa in the name of Fred and Frederique Onof, the couple managed to flee to the USA via Spain. They arrived in New York aboard the “Nea Hellas” on 10 August. Upon arrival, they were interned at Ellis Island.

With this telegram, the American Guild for German Cultural Freedom told the author that an employee would visit him at Ellis Island to help him with the necessary paperwork. What ultimately helped free the von Unruhs was an affidavit from Albert Einstein. Fritz and Friederike von Unruh received a two-month guest visa for the USA. Their remaining savings were confiscated to ensure that they would leave the country. The Emergency Rescue Committee became involved at this point. The aid organisation feared that, without any legal opposition, the confiscation of the couple’s savings could create a precedent.

Following the issuing of several short-term guest visas, it was only in 1943 that von Unruh was successful in obtaining a standard immigration visa. After being questioned by the immigration authorities, he wrote a letter to Kurt Pinthus on 11 June 1943: “The last 10 years were too hard. And then 2 (times in) camps! Escape! And here – locked doors everywhere!”.

Further reading:
Schulz, Karola Schulz: Fast ein Revolutionär. Fritz von Unruh zwischen Exil und Remigration (1932-1962), München: Iudicium 1995.