21 June 1940
Dear Heidelberger
Helga Hollering, who was collaborating with me here in 1938, with her husband Peter Hanas[?] and baby, were until recently in Lyons, which is now in German hands.  I hope that they have got away from there.  Both are refugees from Vienna.  If they are caught by the Gestapo, they will be packed into trucks and sent off to die in Poland.
She is a very capable and conscientious worker; he is a physicist and was working with Thebaut[?], from who I understand that he is brilliant, both are devoted to science.
I have tried to get them to England, so far without success.  They have applied to go the
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United States.  It is just possible that it may not be too late for them to get away.
I beg you, if you know of any one who can offer them any position in the U.S.A., if you can use any influence to get them over, to do so at once.  They are the best in the world, and it is terrible to think of them being herded off to Poland to starve.
With best wishes--and may this never come to you
John Marrack
I am also writing to Landsheimer[?]