January 16, issued an Affidavit of Travel from the American consul in Milan, which will enable him to pass through New York on his way to the Dominican Republic.
Affidavit of travel from the US Consulate in Milan, January 16, 1941, enabling Steinberg to pass through the United States in transit to Santo Domingo with his expired Romanian passport. Saul Steinberg Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
April, arrested by the police and sent to San Vittore prison in Milan. Four days later is sent by train to the Villa Tonelli in Tortoreto (Teramo) on the Adriatic Sea, now repurposed as an internment camp; one of many “campi di concentramento” set up by Mussolini to hold illegals and undesirables. Arrives there on May 2.
Sketch of the San Vittore prison in Milan, April 1941, from a 1940-43 journal. Saul Steinberg Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.Sketch of the prisoners’ dormitory in the internment camp at Tortoreto, May 1941, from a 1940-43 journal. Saul Steinberg Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Spends his time drawing, painting, writing and receiving letters, and handling the paperwork to obtain new visas for Spain and Portugal and revalidate his American transit visa. A reservation has been made for him on a ship leaving Lisbon on June 20.
Sketch of the entrance to the Villa Tonelli, the internment camp at Tortoreto, May 1941, from a 1940-43 journal. Saul Steinberg Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.Sketch of Steinberg’s space in the prisoners’ dormitory at the Villa Tonelli, May 1941, from a 1940-43 journal. Saul Steinberg Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
June 8, released from Tortoreto; his fellow prisoners arrange a departure party.
Farewell souvenir to Steinberg from his fellow prisoners at Tortoreto, June 6, 1941. Drawing of the Villa Tonelli by Walter Frankl. Saul Steinberg Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
June 12-16, in Rome and Milan to secure the missing visas.
Steinberg’s room at the Albergo Pomezia, Rome, June 12-16, 1941, from a 1940-43 journal. Saul Steinberg Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
June 16, flies to Lisbon via Barcelona and Madrid; June 20, boards the SS Excalibur for New York.
Steinberg’s room at the Hotel Tivoli, Lisbon, June 16-20, 1941, from a 1940-43 journal. Saul Steinberg Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
June 30, the Excalibur docks in New York, but ST, holding only a transit visa, must stay on Ellis Island; is visited there by his New York family.
Manifest of alien passengers for the SS Excalibur, June 21, 1941. Left half (top), right half (bottom). Steinberg is entered at line 7.
July 5, leaves by ship for Ciudad Trujillo; arrives on July 13 after a stopover in San Juan.
From Ciudad Trujillo, sends regular packets of drawings to his agent, Cesar Civita, in New York. First drawing in The New Yorker published October 25, 1941. Other drawings published in American journals, especially Mademoiselle, the newspaper PM, as well as in the Dominican Republic newspaper La Nación and other Dominican venues.
“But it is half man and half horse,” The New Yorker, October 25, 1941, Steinberg’s first drawing in the magazine.“Mademoiselle’s Christmas Sleighride,” Mademoiselle (December 1941).El pianista, 1941. Ink and gouache on paper, 12 ¾ x 9 ½ in. Fundación Granell, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.Drawing for theater board, Teatro Julia, Santo Domingo, 1941. Watercolor and ink on paper, 23 ½ x 17 7/8 in. Fundación Granell, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Regular correspondence with his parents in Romania, Aldo Buzzi and Ada Ongari in Milan, and his cousins in New York, Henrietta and Harold Danson. The latter send him clothing, shoes, and other necessities.
Steinberg’s letter to his New York cousin, Henrietta Danson, August 25, 1941. Collection of Lawrence Danson.
His family, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr., and Civita begin the process of obtaining a US visa for him. Ik Shuman, executive editor of The New Yorker, writes a testimonial letter on his behalf. By this time, Cesar Civita has emigrated to Buenos Aires, leaving the day-to-day business of the agency in the hands of his brother Victor and the office manager, Gertrude Einstein. It is Einstein who becomes ST’s lifeline during his time in Ciudad Trujillo.
