Austria Returns Home / Österreich kehrt Heim 10th April 1938.

An original postcard sent from Vienna to Grimsby two days before the 1938 Austrian Anschluss referendum. German troops had already occupied Austria one month earlier and on the 10th April 1938 voters were asked if they supported Germany’s annexation of Austria into the Third Reich. 99.73% said that they did!

The postcard was sent from Vienna to Grimsby by E. Trettwer on 8th April 1938. The recipient was Master Nowell, 194 Farebrother Street, Grimsby.

“Dear Master Nowell, In this important days I am thinking on you and your good parents. Receive you with your parents my best love. Ever yours truely E. Trettwer. Merry Easter.”

Presumably, E. Trettwer had previously stayed in Grimsby as a penfriend. It looks like he was well looked after. I wonder if the political situation was really understood by the boys?

A William M. Nowell lived at 194 Farebrother Street in 1958, twenty years later. The house is still there.

A William M. C. Nowell married a Beatrice E. Molyneaux in 1920. They appear to have had three children; Geoffrey (1922), Vera (1923) and Arthur (1931). Was this the family?