what iittle could be salvaged from the dressmaker workshop, which, in its steady as-
cent had finally established itself in a beautiful Baroque Palace in the very centre of
Vienna.
Fritz went to join the queue of alarmed Jews who hoped to emigrate to England. The
interviews were searching. The applicants were grilled as to their financial Position,
their qualifications and abilities as well as possible guarantors for them. For the En-
glish, it was not a humanitarian rescue Operation but a Chance to bring new talent into
the country. Fritz took a few samples of Bimini glasses and photos of model dresses.
“Those are the sort of things we want in England,” said the interviewing lady. “Crafts-
men, not merchants, of which we have enough.” Visas were issued forthwith.
Suddenly, in Vienna, people stopped trusting anybody. The secret Nazi Organisation
had penetrated and poisoned the community like an infectious desease. Fritz decided
not to teil even Frl. Mitzi, his faithful assistant for many years, of his decision to leave.
She could have had a friend who was a secret Nazi.
And so he dispatched the basic furniture to England and, with Hilde, took the train to
the West.
What a shock it must have been for Frl. Mitzi when she opened the shop on Monday
morning and found herseif in Charge of a ghost business, a body without a soul. I now
know that she gave many Bimini glasses to the Museum of Applied Arts, whose curator
was a great admirer of them.
ORPLID
Orplid thou art my land
that far outshines
From sea and sunny sands arising
The clouds caress the cheeks of gods.
Wafers, age-old, arise,
rejuvenated round Thy hips
And Kings bow down to you
Who want to be your serfs.
E. Mörike
The Iittle flowerpot, the Bimini trade mark, was still protected and Fritz gladly had a
new one registered to comply with British requirements. A small empty house was
rented in Soho. Bettina Bauer-Ehrlich took the top floor to produce lithoqraphs. I took
one to make model furniture and Fritz took the other two floors to install Orplid. With
the danger of war increasing the economic prospects darkened. The playboy of Vienna
turned up and offered Capital and partnership, which were reluctantly accepted. Yet
the war brought unexpected prosperity for Orplid. The import of glass jewellery for the
fashion industry, which had come nearly entirely from Czechoslovakia, had been in-
terrupted. Orplid stepped in, to meet requirements which seemed as pressing as those
for ammunition.
Fritz acquired from the British Museum plastercopies of antique coins, cameos and Or
naments and began to use them for buttons, earrings, brooches etc. by pressing mol-
ten glass into the negatives, using gilding and coloured glass to bring them alive. This
work needed iittle skill and one found in his workshop unemployable literati melting
glass while discussing art and politics.
At this moment there arose from the gutter press a cry for the internment of all refu-
gees, as they did not want to countenance the disasters of the British and French ar-
mies as being due to the ineptitude of their generals. The fifth column was invented,
refugees from the Nazis, supporting their Nazi enemies from the rear of the British and
French armies. While Fritz was sent to the Isle of Man, his partner, following the advice
of his solicitor, disappeared from his address for a few months, and was not then
further molested by the police. He now attended to the business of Orplid.
70