Biographer asserts that Litsa's hateful treatment of George in front of their young children led to resentment and dislike on Callas's part. According to both Callas's husband and her close friend Giulietta Simionato, Callas related to them that her mother, who did not work, pressed her to "go out with various men", mainly Italian and German soldiers, to bring home money and food during the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II. Simionato was convinced that Callas "managed to remain untouched", but Callas never forgave her mother for what she perceived as a kind of prostitution forced on her by her mother. Litsa herself, beginning in New York and continuing in Athens, had adopted a questionable lifestyle, that included not only pushing her daughters into degrading situations to support her financially but also entertaining Italian and German soldiers herself during the Axis occupation. In an attempt to patch things up with her mother, Callas took Litsa along on her first visit to Mexico in 1950, but this only reawakened the old frictions and resentments, and after leaving Mexico, the two never met again. After a series of angry and accusatory letters from Litsa lambasting Callas's father and husband, Callas ceased communication with her mother altogether.