In 1938, Shirley Ann Campbell was in junior high school. That year, her class was assigned to write a letter to someone in another part of the world and learn about a different culture. Shirley Ann connected with "Rudi," a young Austrian girl, and thus began a relationship that endured for nearly 50 years.

Now known as Ann Mullett, of Prairie Village, Shirley Ann has kept Rudi's letters all these years, sweet reminders of their youth, their coming of age, and the challenges of war.

Knowing her letters would be censored, Rudi was careful about sharing her political perspectives. However, amidst stories of school and family, there was a subtle undertone of political awareness.

Vienna, April 1938

Dear Shirley Ann,

I make a minde to write a letter. Excuse my having been taciturn.

The events of the last week were occupying myself much. I am sure you read in the newspapers that Austria has returned to Germany.

My name is: Rudi Neuwirth … I am tall girl, 16 years old.

It is very fine to correspond with an American girl. But it would be the finest thing, when I would have the opportunity of speaking … [but] the large, endless ocean lays among us….

Do you like to play with dolls? Or preferred you the sport? … In winter I practise on ski, in summer I swim and play many games. I like to ride on a bycicle….

Now I tell you something about the last events in Austria. All people are luckily that Austria has returned to his fatherland. And this is the work of: Adolf Hitler. The population likes him very much. All the streets of Vienna you may see his picture … they salute him "Heil Hitler."

The next Sunday … a fest takes place … of the 1 May. A great May-pole will be put up … [to] awake the wonderful month of May.

Your sincere, Rudi

Other letters spoke of the ordinary parts of life.

Vienna, June 1938

Dear Shirley Ann,

Thank you for your letter … You asked me about Girl Scouts in Austria. We have an institution in Germany which is called B.D.M. (Union of German Girls) … In this union we enjoy an education through sport and friendship … there we learn to lose with good grace and appreciate the better side. We learn to play of one's best ability….

I will spend my vacation in Styria … in the South of Austria. In this country you see high mountains. Green, clear rivers overflow white stones. In the pastures the cows and sheeps take their meal…

The following January 1939, she wrote:

Now I'll tell you how we celebrate Christmas. The evening of 24 December all peoples in Germany have a little fir-tree in their house. It is growing dusk, mother adorns the tree with candles and glittering things. The family is round the tree and in the shine of candles they sing a Christmas song. After this song the peoples exchange gifts. I cannot tell you how wonderful our Christmas is….

In March 1939, Rudi told more about what was happening in Europe.

… If you have listened in, you have heard that Germany has grown larger and greater; the Chancellor of Germany has reclaimed the oppressed Germans which lived in Czecho-Slovakia. The Germans returned to their fatherland in spite of peril of war … Hungarian, Rumanians and other Slavs have returned to Hungary … Czecho-Slovakia has ceased to be.

This Saturday a train takes school comrades and me into the Alps, where we will ski … In English we read pieces from Shakespeare and B. Shaw….

Your Rudi

That was her last letter until after the war.

June 1946

Dear Shirley Ann,

I hope you remember me … During the war I often thought of you and since the Americans are here in Vienna many of these well developed young men remind me of you….

Seven years ago you wrote about your ambition: you wanted to study journalism … Ambitions change. I cannot remember which aim I had before the war … I hope fortune at least smiles on me and I am Doctor of Philosophy in four or five weeks. Then I will enjoy many days without any book….

I am sure you can't imagine the war in the conditions in Europe. I have a slight imagination because I was in Vienna all the time….

Your Rudi

For the next two years, Rudi kept Ann up to date with stories about her daily life, family, and friends. Between memories of the war, of "bombes," airplanes, and destruction, Rudi wrote about reading Gone With the Wind and requested hairpins and cigarettes "if you don't waste too much money." She explained financial difficulties, rationing, life in the Russian zone of Vienna, her new job, and boyfriends.

Back in America, Ann Campbell wrote about school and her hometown of Eldon, Mo. She told of sailing with a friend at Bagnell Dam and going to her grandparents' house in Higginsville. Ann taught Rudi about American culture and the realities of wartime in the United States.

Through the years, Ann sent gifts to Rudi: cocoa, sugar, nylon stockings, and other luxuries. Rudi responded with photos, handkerchiefs, and simple handmade gifts.

In 1947, Rudi Neuwirth announced her marriage, and months later wrote that she was pregnant. She became too busy to write.

Ann, too, was busy. By the late 1940s she had her own apartment, worked for an insurance broker, and went to night school. In 1949 she fell in love, and the next year married Richard "Dick" Mullett. They started a family of their own.

It wasn't until July 1984 that Rudi and Ann wrote again. Rudi described her grown children, the death of parents and spouse. She spoke of new challenges.

That next year, Rudi wrote her last letter to her American friend.

May 1985

Dear Ann,

…Now I have more time for sorting out old things and I remember events which have sunk down in the deeps of my memory. I also found your letters and a sweet picture of you dated before 1940. My son Georg looked at it and immediately he wanted to know "who is she?"

We sometimes greet "alles Liebe." It means all love for you….

Your Rudi

They never corresponded again.

In 2008, Dr. Rudolfine "Rudi" Neuwirth Klais died in Vienna. She was 86. In spite of their longtime friendship, Rudi and Ann never met.

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