6/12/36

Dear mom!

Today I have to write to you in detail, because all sorts of things have happened here. I have already described the foreplay to you before, namely the terrible behavior of Rhona Salanit[1]. But what I am going to write to you now is not only not exaggerated, but only a feeble attempt to put into words what I have seen. The introduction was as follows: the rooms have been swapped again, namely Ulla has moved down to Dorothy and Margot and I to Rhona. The nurse showed us our drawers and we were just rearranging them when Rhona arrived.

She had practiced screaming for half an hour with Dorothy, who took no notice of her at all. So she came upstairs and threw all of Margot's things from the drawers that used to be hers in a wide arc into the room. Margot immediately ran out crying, I stayed in and, oddly enough, stayed calm through all of her insults. Then I went down to the head, who had specifically told us that we should come to him immediately if we had the “slightest trouble” with Rhona. All he said to me was "he'll see to it but soon afterwords Margot came down as well, without me knowing it. Then it happened in quick succession.

Olle went upstairs with Margot and a beast instead of Rhona S. was waiting for him at the top. Within minutes she was on him, screaming horribly. Schiller's saying "Women become hyenas" is as gentle as a lamb. The following happened quickly: I really can't swear to who hit who first: anyway, both of them got something out of it. Then she threw herself on the bed, thrashing, and throwing her down comforter over him.

She screaming, roaring like a bull, he very calm. I have never seen such a contrast. When the fighting and shouting got too bad I ran down crying.

I couldn't watch it anymore. Below the whole female part of the Failie Eliassoff was gathered and discussed the affair. The whole time you could hear the screaming. Margot and Ulla saw another part of the fight because they came up later: Rhona should put on her coat, he wanted to throw her out immediately. But she wanted to throw him out, so they fought again. Our headmaster!! Since she wasn't stronger than him, she tried to get him out of "her" room in another way: she took off her skirt, stood there in her petticoat and said "get out, Eliassoff, I am undressing". In front of him the ... (excuse the harsh expression) pig undressed himself. Then she crawled into the closet and changed her clothes there in front of the old man. We only know what happened after that from the screams from the Salant. What the old man wanted to achieve is a mystery to all of us. Anyway, we sat downstairs shaking and trembling while they struggled on the stairs leading up to the bedrooms.

They sat there for three hours. Among other things, the word police was mentioned. In the evening we went to the cinema and weren't allowed to go up to the room at first because the door to the stairs, on which the two of them were still sitting, was closed. But the old man let us through. He stood there, careful not to scratch himself. When we got out of the cinema at 11:11, what's going on???

Rhona lies in our room and sleeps! We had a row and all the teachers and nurses comforted us, but there was nothing we could do about it so late at night. But what about today??? Rhona comes into the lessons, lives on among us!!!!! I'll bite my tongue off rather than talk to her again, but today, when the three of us were the only girls to go to a Zionist lecture with the boys, Margot talked to her the whole [time], despite all the boys, apart from their so-called. "Fremid", who is just as cowardly as she turned away from her. Now she's offended with all of us. A nice treat awaits me afterwards in the dormitory. The head is also irresponsible, although he says he is only waiting for an answer from her parents. I've never experienced anything so horrible. Unfortunately I don't have the words to describe it to you drastically enough. I had to describe it in such detail, otherwise the whole story would have been incomprehensible. But that gives you a nice picture of the conditions here.

Now a brief word about everyday things. The film Saturday "The story of Louis Pasteur"[2] was extremely interesting and also instructive. Today's lecture, again held as a debate, was also very interesting, if not as good. The lecturer discussed the question arab-jewish question in Palestine from the Jewish, Arabic and British aspect. It wasn't the kind of enthusiastic Zionism I'm used to from Germany, but that's perhaps why it's even more interesting. The audience were also much older people than in Germany on such an occasion. Unfortunately, I don't have the time anymore so I can't go into any more detail. Perhaps it is worth noting that our Senior Mistress, Miss Shachter, has been in bed since Thursday due to overwork. This young thing (22) only slept from 3-6 every night. That's what happens. She's feeling better, G.s.D. I also felt sorry for her yesterday with the noise; she heard every word in her room.

Attached are some bad photos as a Hanukkah gift. #1 is the best, #2 works, #3 is weird: the head in the background is Scheyer. No. 4 is from left Ulla, Rhona S. and Miss Davison, a lady of considerable girth. As a comparison, R.S. is fatter than me. A lot even. #5 is a bad picture of Dorothy and #6, the boys' house as seen from us. That's all.

Warm regards and kisses

Happy Hanukkah

your loving ones

Jani

Greetings to Lila {3}