Two more letters to Regina

Today's post brings two more letters to Regina, one from Lily, dated December 24, 1945, and the second from Lily's husband Isidor, dated January 27, 1946.

Again, we have Chuck to thank for the translations.

From Lily:

24 December 1945

My very dear Ryfka!

Many heartfelt thanks for your dear detailed writing of 2 December, for the enclosed little picture, stamps, etc., which we have received in order. I have sent it all on to Heinele, who is still in Prague and who cannot separate himself from his uncle and the beautiful city of Prague. My brother (he is 60 years old) is alone there, since his children were removed, he cooks only for the child, Russian food as he learned it in Siberia, he goes walking with the child and feels wonderful.

 I have, however, already sent for the child, and he should be with me again in a few days. Meanwhile, I have put together an entire wardrobe for him, a fine overcoat, two pairs of socks, a wool vest and shirts, all very good quality, he will certainly be very happy with the things. I ask you and your dear brothers to send us no more small packets of clothing, we have also gotten various things for us, so that we are no longer in need. Also, no package arrives and many get lost, so that it truly is a shame for every last cent. We need food [Lebensmittel] but we also ask you not to send, first until I authorize something, in the end it simply makes no sense in the world to send, it is a shame for the great efforts and the money. I have written the same to Gusta and begged her for now not to send.

I hope that you, dear Ryfka, have received my last letter and also the letter from my husband. Now your pretty little picture has come, so that my husband can have an image of how you really appear. You write as sweetly and fondly as our Gusta, and when we read your letters it is as if they were written by a sister.

 I have thought of you the whole long year, but I didn’t know where I should look for you, but I cannot forget one thing, as Mori [Morris Funk] our brother-in-law (Gusta’s husband) was in need, that is, in Dachau, you helped immediately in Palestine, even if it was to no avail. Can you remember? It was long ago, but I will never forget it, just as I will not forget the entire time I spent with you. Now I also know how you have arranged your life in America and certainly the work you are engaged in brings you joy.

I am busy all day, and today on December 24, which we have somewhat free, I have for the first time in my marriage cooked lunch for us, it was much better than in the soup kitchen [Volksküche], and I will so arrange things when Heinele comes home that that we will not be embarrassed by it.

 My husband is frightfully decent [anständig] and helps me even there. The clothes for Heinele, for us, he takes care of everything, he is loved very much, and people bring him this, and he is happy if he comes home in the evening with some object, and almost every day he brings something. Heinele is also very capable, and if he heard that something is received he was immediately there. I can hardly leave the bureau for a minute, it is very difficult, since I sit by the card index [Kartothek] where the assistances are paid out and if I am not there it stops. Now we are fewer in the bureau, the repatriated unfortunately no longer come, so that 70% of the employees were discharged. We have two rooms, very neatly arranged, a second colleague has the other part of the dwelling.

I have written to Heinele in Prague, that he should interest himself [follow up] with the USA consulate whether he is already registered, since we hear that a new quota was fixed. Meanwhile, I await my niece Anny and her husband from England and will together with them try whatever happens to send the child to England, from there it is certainly quicker to go.

For this time I close my writing with many fond greetings and kisses

Leonie

Dear Rifka!

I will add only a few words. Many heartfelt thans for your dear letters, which we always enjoy. All good things and fond greetings.

And from Isidor:

            Dearest Regina!

I gladly take the opportunity to write to you.

 First of all, I inform you that Heinele’s health is good. I am with him almost daily. I bring him mystery novels, which he likes very much, and I have enough of a selection. I have predominantly Jewish and secular books by all Jews of Slovakia. In the year 1942, the books from all deported Jews (74,000) were collected in Bratislava in town halls [Rathauser]. Today they have been, through me, divided among the surviving Jews. I am secretary of the central association [Zentralverband] of all Jewish communities in Slovakia, not from [only] today but already for 13 years. My brother, who unfortunately is dead (he died from blows [durch Schläge]) was head [Präses] of the country and, I say without boasting, he belonged among the first citizens of Jewry. This only in all brevity, although I could write much about it. My other brothers, who were also killed, were doctors and school professors. My sisters, all teachers, are one and all also dead, unfortunately. But enough of that.

            You ask how dear Lily’s cooking tastes? Unfortunately, it is only of short duration. First, for days there is no gas, and besides we had so many concerns about Heinele that we renounced cooking, since Lily was with the child every free minute. I and Heinele get on very well and are often two against one, that is, against Aunt Lily, if she is too given to exaggeration [or overbearing, übertrieben], but she always means only well.

We have a very pleasant dwelling, and Heinele has a room for himself. It is for the moment very cold and there is little fuel, but one day even these times will be passed. At the next opportunity, we will send you pictures also, of Heinele. – We are truly moved by your dear lines and think of you in love and friendship.

            With very fond geetings to you and all you dear ones, I remain

Isidor

Bratislava, 27 January 1946

A letter from Isidor

Isidor, Lily's husband, wrote two letters to Regina.  Here is Chuck's translation of the first one.  From these letters, it seems that I have been spelling Lily wrong all this time.  I don't know whether I'll go back and correct everything, but I'll try to change it from here.

I've included the original of Isidor's letter here, so that you can see his beautiful handwriting.  

Very dear Regina!

            To be sure, I do not know you personally, but I perceive from the descriptions of l. [liebe? dear?] Lily and from your l. letters that you are a worthy and good person. We are lucky, after the fearful times that we have been through, still to find such people as you and your dear ones.  I must say the same about my other relatives in America, about Gusta and Morris [Lili’s sister and brother-in-law] in Seattle. I do not know if you believe me if I report that in our worst times our only shaft of light was to see you, who were there. For therein was embodied our sole wish, to breathe and live freely.

Not today, but already some years earlier Lily told me about you and your siblings, and it is entirely understandable that we count you all as our very nearest kin. We both rejoice that you are happily with your brothers and relatives, which indeed appears understandably from the goodness of your siblings.

As Lily already surely informed you, on 23 May we will have been married for two years. No fewer than four years before the wedding we were good friends and promised to each other. However, we could not decide on a marriage since we know that it could last hours or days, where one could rip us apart from each other, as was the case in a hundred thousand cases. Finally we have decided on a wedding for us—and indeed for us in the completely most evil time.

I must say, if it were not the case, we both probably would today no longer be alive. I believe that you know Lily well, her intelligence, prudence, her rock-solid belief in God and many miracles, which is impossible for me to write down, have helped us to the end that we are here.

 I am from six brothers - healthy, strong, young people - the lone survivor, and four sisters were also deported. Therefore I am missing 10 siblings and my old father, who were murdered in the most terrible way and these in the very last time. Two younger sisters are still here. And so you will find it understandable that we both, despite having our jobs, under no circumstances wish to or will live here.

 If you know Lily, you will also know  how she is.  We are very happy with each other; she is not only my wife, in her I see my parents, my siblings, my all that I possess in this world.

            Since your fate, l.[dear] Rifka, is now to be in America, you will certainly find your happiness there. Only be of good courage.

            Heinele is, as Lily has already informed you, with his uncle in Prague for a visit. It is still the holidays [Chanukah?], so we do not want to take the joy to travel to Prague to him. He is a splendid youth, not at all as if he had been in the camp for four years. We are very anxious about him.

In a few days he will be with us again and will then write to you directly. With the stamps and the other gift, which you sent along with the letter, he will be very happy.

            For now I close with many fond greetings to you and your dear siblings.

Your,

Isidor Schwarz

Bratislava, 12 December 1945

[The following in a different hand]

Please send the stamps on the envelope to Gusta, since you can collect stamps.

[?]

Didn't they speak Yiddish?

Mitch Brauner asked the following question:

One question that’s been nagging at me about language is, didn’t they speak Yiddish?  Then it occurred to me that I rarely ever heard Uncle Dave speak Yiddish, though I do remember some conversations with Sophie [his grandmother on his mother's side] briefly veering into Yiddish.  I suppose writing in Yiddish would have meant using the Hebrew alphabet, but the fact that Charlie didn’t use it I find interesting.  Then again, maybe it was too close to German.

Mitch

That generated the following email conversation.  I’ve cut and pasted the emails, so that they read in chronological order.

Mitch –

I don’t know the answer to this.  I’ll copy Alice and Chet and Esme and see if they can help.

My father definitely spoke Yiddish, and read it (he got the Yiddish Forward every weekend), but I don’t know if he wrote it.  German was the native language in Beuthen and the language of business, but I think my father spoke Yiddish at home and probably while doing business with non-German speakers.   I don’t know if my father spoke or read any Polish….I know Regina did (she went to public school in Chrzanow….my father just went to Cheder).  I have some letters written to her in Polish.  But even then,  most of the letters written to her from Israel/Palestine after she emigrated to the US were in German, sometimes with a sprinkling of Hebrew in them. 

Lena Barber Mandelbaum (a second cousin) was born in Beuthen a couple of years after Charlie.  Her family lived there until they were deported to Poland in 1938.  She told me they didn’t speak Yiddish – they learned it in the US.  So Charlie may not have known Yiddish at all while he was in Europe.  And I don’t know how much he used it here.  Alice – can you help?

The only written Yiddish (in Hebrew letters) I’ve seen in family documents was a postcard from Max Schorr.  But we know that he was actively involved in the Yiddishkeitmovement in Chrzanow, so he may have been an exception.

Fran

Alice replied:

Charlie knew and LOVED Yiddish.  I don't think he  picked it up here - I think his mother Martha spoke it.  He knew Yiddish songs - one of the most difficult ones for him to hear was Rozhinkes mit Mandlen (Raisins and Almonds).  We spoke the usual amount of Yiddish to each other, primarily so the kids wouldn't understand (sound familiar?), but neither he nor I had any idea just how fluent we were.  When my uncle came from Israel for Michele's Bat Mitzvah, we realized he spoke only Hebrew and Yiddish.  I was flummoxed;

Charlie, on the other hand, spent the hour and a quarter ride home from Kennedy jabbering away as though it were his native tongue. 

Little by little, I became more comfortable with the language, but Charlie was light years ahead of me.  I don't know if Lily knew Yiddish- maybe Jay [her son] could tell you, but if not, they spoke Czech because Charlie detested the German language.  Remember Mrs. Newhouse (spelling?), Regina's neighbor?  She only spoke German to Gina, and if we happened to be there when she dropped in, Charlie would grit his teeth at the sounds.  What amazed him more than anything, I think, was that Jews who had survived the holocaust spoke that language.  He didn't get it, and neither did I. He felt their common language should be Yiddish.  But apparently German Jews thought Yiddish beneath them and so refused to speak it.

Wow!  I think I am ranting.  Guess I still feel strongly about  German vs. Yiddish vis-à-vis Jews.

Alice

I've sent an email to Jay Schwarz, Lily's son, but so far I haven't heard from him and don't have a good answer to Mitch's question. 

A Letter to Chaskel (Uncle Henry)

Lili's letters are mostly to my father (Dago) or Regina (Ryfka), but there is at least one to my Uncle Henry (Chaskel).  What I find interesting is that Lili's writing changes depending on who her recipient is; she's pretty much all business to my father, whom she clearly respects.  She has a much warmer relationship with Regina (Chuck pointed out the "du" vs. "sie" difference in the pronouns she uses), and in this letter she obviously feels a good deal of affection for Uncle Henry.

This letter also tells us more about her experiences during the war than any of the previous letters have.  

The translation is, thanks again, to my cousin Chuck:

19 November 1945

Dear Chaskel

Many thanks for your truly detailed writing, about which I am extremely happy. However, I do not yet always know how busy you are, because I do not understand the expression, the same pertains also to Schulem [my Uncle Sam, the youngest brother].  Only with Dago am I in the picture.

Your house I can imagine precisely, and today, which is after the war and we no longer must fear for our lives, I can appreciate how very important this is. We, for example, have no house at all, and it will perhaps with great difficulty succeed that we will get a home where I have my office, two small little rooms, one for us and one for Heini. However, it can easily happen that we get a house and after days or weeks must leave it, since it is appointed for more important purposes and confiscated by the council. Therefore, and also on the grounds that we in no way want to remain here, we do not at all settle down and only take care of the most important things, and it will be a problem to take care of the covers that we need for blankets.

 It will perhaps sound comical to you if I inform you that I (for the good) have been married already for three years and I have still not been able to cook any lunch for my husband. All of us who have lived bunkered (hidden in the woods) we have in the hours-long delirium of hunger counted [anticipated?] what we will all eat when we are freed and I will cook everything. We were freed, praise God, but the beautiful and good things that we then counted up we have not yet eaten, only tasted. It doesn’t matter, but even these will come in time, it is important for us that we were not killed and burnt.  Everything else can somehow be borne.

Please send us pictures of you, these are important. I have gotten delightful little pictures of my sister’s children.

Chaskel I can remember exactly, since the last time we saw each other, it was on the tracks of the electric railway in Beuthen and you then said that I definitely will come after [follow  in emigrating to the US?]. It seems to me that meanwhile 100 years have passed, so much lies in between, and then I remember that on the ship you got to know a clothier, who offered you a position, this you wrote home [to Marta?], at that time I read the letter. If only our poor unhappy dear ones had traveled with you! How closely I feel this, and yet it didn’t happen, unfortunately.

Do you get together with my cousin Tina? What kind of person is she and my remaining relatives. Not one of these will give us an affidavit, but Gusti writes that she already has [contact with] a very rich man in Seattle who will give it. I also have an uncle in Omaha, Nebraska, Bernat Green, but I believe he wants to know nothing of us. Not important, it will also haappen without him, hopefully.

Yet I should ask you one thing, go to or visit my cousin Tina, I was in correspondence with her for a year, and my sister Gusti has helped her much, go to her and tell her everything that you know about us and what I have written to you. I feel myself connected to her, but I can’t write to her since I have forgotten the little English that I learned, and I cannot learn now, my head is not sufficiently rested. Therefore, please Chaskel, don’t forget, visit her in my name,  promise me this.

 Leoni, Isidor, Heini send many fond greetings.

Chuck also reviewed the translation I had gotten of the letter Lili wrote to my father and Ryka the same day (November 19, 1945), and provided translations of the sections that were missing or incorrect.   I am re-posting that letter here, because the changes are significant.  There are some changes throughout the letter but I have highlighted the paragraph that you should read if you don't have the time to read the whole thing.

                                                            November 19, 1945

Dear Dago–

Many thanks for your long letter.  First I want to tell you that Heinele is well.  As I told you he goes in the third grade in the elementary school, plus he learns Jewish and English in private and evening classes.  He picks up very quickly and the learning goes easy. 

On Saturdays once in a while he is called to the Torah, and we eat lunch in the Folkskitchen.  It often happens that he prays as the the third at Mesimen [?? Als dritter zu Mesimen benscht.]  He speaks German in a dialect that he learned at home in Beuthen, but he prefers Czech.  This he learned in 1939 after deportation to Prague, and he kept it as his mother tongue.  With me and my husband he speaks Slovak or Czech, but in a short time he will also learn English.  

As of December 1, we hope that we will all live together.  Up till now he lives with my brother-in-law, Bäcker, who is out of town. I myself have only a small room on the 7^th story far behind the city, but the child is in his free time mostly in my office, which is in the city center and very close to his apartment.  It is all very difficult because he was supposed to go to Gusti, but it is not working out.  Like I already told you I am trying to get Heinele to London. But this has to be done from the outside.  I have seen cases where it was successful, but in my case my hands are tied because I am here.

He writes his name “Jindra” or “Jindrich.”  We are using no German names because everything reminds us of Germany, and we are eradicating the language.  The child likes to go to the movies, normally on a Sunday afternoon.  We haven’t been in the movies in 6 years, and we do not miss it.  We are so tired and we have hardly lived. 

Chaskel [Henry] writes that you have a small jewelry manufacturer.  Here you see it in masses, these articles, there are such things, so it is not of value, apparently Gablonz [a costume jewelry manufacturer in northern Bohemia] is working intensely.  Perhaps I can in this regard give some suggestion.  One sees marvelous rhinestone pins and similar things in all forms and manners.

I am very happy about the letter from Chaskel, he writes in such detail that one can believe one is speaking to him.  My sister Gusti also writes that way, we are so happy if we receive a post from you all.

Did you ever get to know my sister Gusti?  She does not write well, but she is a beautiful person, of which there are few.  Even her husband is very decent and nice.  He wrote me that he has all the Saturdays and holidays free.  This has us very happy and it is my outspoken wish that our child is brought up in the Jewish sense, and so remains. We have seen the big businesses and the wealthiest firms collapsed like a house of cards overnight, by which I mean were robbed, [from] the owner who did not previously allow himself a free minute, since the business would suffer from it.

Ach. There is a lot to talk about, but we will keep it for ourselves, until we can speak in person.  I fear that our opinions may differ, but our views are still unchanging even after all we had to live through. 

Today I got news that a parcel that was sent by you from NY arrived here.  I do not have it yet, but in 1-3 days I will pick it up.  Many thanks for sending that.

Now I have another worry, Gusti [her sister] writes that they sent a package to the address of a nephew of mine, Capitan Bernat, Praha Karlin, Kralovska 59. Now, however, he was transferred and I do not know where he is. Actually my oldest brother who came from Russia was living with him, but it is possible that the son has taken the father, and both are no longer in Prague and the package has gotten into the wrong hands. This will make me very sick, because there are things that are very important for me:  winter coat, boots, and hats, which we need just as much as a bit of bread.

For now I close with many kind regards to all.

Send me please some pictures of yourself and especially of little Frances.  We sent you a picture of Heini and one of my husband and myself, which hopefully have come. 

Again warm regards,

                          Leonie

[she continues….]

Here are a few lines from Heini. He writes in Czech, because he does not like to write in German:

Translation [into German, provided by Lili]:

Dear uncle.  I am very glad about your news.  Whenever I go to aunt, the first thing I ask if there is news from you.  I’m in the third grade in school.  I am busy learning and I am healthy.  I am very happy that you are healthy and have good wives [sic!].  I would love to be with you, but it is very difficult, and God knows how long it will take.  I must learn a lot, because I missed four years, but it is easy and I hope it will all be for the best.

Otherwise I am healthy.  I have a short winter coat, a lumberjack and a leather cap.  And now I am closing.

                          Jindrich Grun, /Heini/

[Lili continues with a note to Regina]

My dearest Ryfka –

From the previous lines you'll see everything concerning us and the child.  Heniele would very much like to know why you left Erez [Palestine] and if it is so that one cannot exist there. Since then, he heard that his uncle is not for Erez, he will not hear of seeking anything there, even though he initially showed interest in it.

He is a wonderful child and is recognized by everybody because he is particularly beautiful.  He truly resembles all, especially Chaskel and very much you, Dago.  I love him very much for he has all good qualities and bases to be a good and noble person.  Besides, he’s very agreeable to everybody.  Today his English teacher emigrated, he [Heini] has completely taken this over by himself and moreover one can accomplish all with him.  He can also be very lively and joyful, and I do not speak about the past with him, even though many times a day he is asking for his parents, in the form, that he says, mamička to tak udelal, albo otecko to tak spravil, which means, dear mother made it this way at home, or dear father said this[.] He eats pudding especially eagerly, and he has even told me the recipe that his mother cooked five years earlier.  I cannot imagine a life without this child, but it is my strongest wish that he soon find a place that will be best for him.  Chaskel writes that he is fighting to get the child, we all want him to have it, but I want to make sure that I give him the basic education before we do anything else. 

Otherwise I don’t have much to tell.  I am very happy for you that you are happy there and hope that you will be even happier when you find a nice man. I wish to you just as I have. He [My husband Isidore] is unbelievably agreeable [anständig], good and characterful.  He is one of six brothers.  He’s the only one that survived, the others were killed.  God helped me to protect him and with the Almighty his help also succeeded with me, although it was often only by a hair’s breadth that we were not destroyed.

Now, in conclusion, I remain sincerely,

         (signed)              Leonie   Isidor    Heini

The First Letter

I should have sent this letter out before the last post.  It is the first letter in our set.

I am sure that the only reason we have these letters is because Regina saved them.  Regina saved everything (we have a wonderful list of the things she took with her to Palestine that I have previously posted), and my father saved almost nothing.  So while it is clear that Lili was writing to my father before this letter, Regina arrived in New York in October, 1945, and our series of letters dates from then.

The letter is relatively short and an easy read, and I'm including it partly because I found it very moving.  Lili writes about her marriage and their status and briefly about her family's experiences during the war.

26 October 1945

Dear Dago;

I hope you have received my last letter. Concerning Heinele, things have not yet progressed one step. The consul undertakes nothing and does not even register, so that this appears foreclosed for the near future, since so many await emigration. I believe the child’s case is a special one and on this ground it would perhaps be good if you perhaps attempt something directly with the Department in Washington or with some other place. I would be so pleased if the child were already with you, so that he would be settled and well raised. Concerning this I ask you to interest yourself unconditionally if you couldn’t undertake something there. I am sending you the enclosed picture. He is a splendid youth, very smart, has much desire to learn and is very capable, true and devoted.

My niece Anny, lives in WATFORD HERTS [Hertfordshire], 1 Smith Street, England / Anny Lefkovic / tries also to bring him to England. I ask you to make a connection with Anny, since I believe that he then could come to Dago more quickly from Anny. Perhaps in England one needs some financial guarantees that you so kindly are willing to give.

Here I can hardly offer the child anything, be it clothes, food, etc. It goes without saying that I do everything and spare no sacrifice, but the possibilities are not many, and I would like the child to have some good after so many difficult years. I stress once more, that these things and the whole of our past presses me about it, to ask you to do everything in the interest of the child. It goes without saying that as soon as we are with Gusta, we then will be jointly involved in the upbringing of the child, for I believe I love him even more than if he were my own.

About us I have not much to write. The same difficulties as with the child are also with us. We have no affidavit, but this is not decisive, I hope and accept that as soon as possibilities offer themselves Gusta and perhaps also you will be helpful toward the journey, but the child comes before us. Otherwise we are well. Gusta alerted me about a package from you, that however we have not received, on the other hand we got a little package via Pilsen from a soldier. Truly, we need everything, since we have nothing, money we do not need. Have you received the returned 100 dollars that you sent through the bank? I have not accepted it and had it returned, ask after it at the bank there. When you have the opportunity, please send suet, meat (smoked), condensed milk, cocoa, tea, canned meat, all only kosher, otherwise not.

Please write to me as soon as possible, I greet you and all the rest most fondly, also on behalf of my husband,

Le[onie]

28 October 1945

Dearest Ryfka!

With extremely great joy I have read your first lines and it pleases me very much that you are now living with your family. Since the time we last saw each other, so much has come between us that I believe 100 years have passed. I hope that we will have the opportunity to speak to each other personally, since we have always understood each other well.

Meanwhile I have in the heat of the battle gotten married, that is even in the most difficult time, it was on 23 May 1943, in the midst of the heaviest deportations. But we have so spent together the most frightful hours of our lives, and with difficulty but yet with the help of the Highest we somehow survived. Of all my siblings only Gusti lives, in Seattle, and my oldest brother who a few weeks ago came home from Russia as a soldier, that is all. We were nine siblings, and all married.

I will soon close for now, but I hope that we will continue in correspondence as before. Enclosed is a picture of Heinele, he is a splended youth and seems to resemble Dago and Chaskel. He now only writes Czech and Slovak, which you could only understand with difficulty, but he is learning English and is quickly making good progress, he is also learning other things.

Unfortunately, I cannot feed him as well as I would very much from my heart wish to, and that makes me sad, although he has already gained 7 kg since he arrived from the concentration camp.

I am working at the American Joint [Committee], my husband in another bureau, but our wish is as soon and as quickly as possible to go to our sister Gusti and that nothing holds us back.

For today I am closing with many fond greetings, to which my husband joins.

Your loving

Leon[ie]

London? Palestine? the US? Where can Charlie go?

Chuck has translated several more of Lili's letters to my father and to Regina. Each one is interesting and revealing.  I've excerpted one of the new letters here.  I've also created a link under "Documents" on the right side of the blog, where I have a new folder called "Letters from Lili" and as we translate them, I'll put the entire letter in that folder.  


In her letters, Lili's primary concern is taking care of Charlie (Heini in the letters) and getting him to a good, permanent home.  This is not with her in Czechoslovakia, as much as she adores Charlie.  It is clear that she herself is trying to leave Czechoslovakia as soon as she can.  And she ultimately does, going to Seattle, Washington, where her sister Gusti and Gusti's husband were living.

The three major possibilities for Charlie were London, where Lili's niece Anny lived, the US, where her sister Gusti lived and where Charlie's three uncles (my father, Sam and Henry) lived, and Palestine.  There were problems and roadblocks to each option.

Last year, I found an undated letter written by Anny to my father, discussing the London option, and did a blog post about that.  You probably don't remember that, but here's the link to the post.  "Anny" signed the letter Hana Lefkovits, and, while she is willing to do anything she can for "poor orphan Heinele," the England she describes is right out of Foyle's War, with severe housing and food shortages.  

Anny and her husband ultimately rejected their Jewish heritage and went to Hong Kong, where "Ann Lett" had her own TV cooking show, a la Julia Child. She was divorced twice.  Lili would not have been happy.

An option Lili might have been happier with was Palestine.  In a letter from November 14, 1945, Lili writes to my father:

 Now to business. We have not yet advanced one step with the USA consul. Perhaps you could undertake something there. I am trying everything here, and there is a possibility from England, but all is so uncertain and not yet ready. They say that some children will go to a Yeshiva [in England], and the child could be among them. Otherwise, Anny is still working in England separately [on other options].

Here in a short time there will be a children’s aliyah to Erez [Palestine], and the child could also [go] with it. But Heini knows that you are not in favor of that and therefore the child has lost all desire and now no longer is considering that proposal. Objectively, however, I must admit that the children are doing well there and also they go to good schools and, what is decisive, that the children who were there are all alive and those who were here were 99% killed. This pursues me day and night.. Besides it appears that from Israel also an emigration to the USA is possible, as indeed the case of Ryfka shows, and you know all the steps how it is done. [My Aunt Regina emigrated from Palestine to NY in  September, 1945.  I don't know how hard that process was.  I do know that my father paid for her passage.]  Please write to me why you are so against it and also the grounds concerning it. I repeat to you, I want to neglect nothing in the interest of the child, nothing at all, we have unfortunately neglected enough.

When Chuck emailed me this translation he asked, "As for the contents, do you have any idea why your father was opposed to Charlie's going to Israel? Of course, it wasn't yet Israel in 1945." 

That was a really interesting question.  Here are my thoughts:

1)   After their parents died in 1928 or 1930, Charlie’s mother Marta and my father took over the family business and responsibility for the family.  Sam, Henry and Regina were in their early teens, Erna in her late teens. Marta and my father were 23 and 20, respectively. Even before the war I think my father saw it as his responsibility to take care of the family and keep it together.  Regina loved Palestine, and I don’t know why Regina came here in 1945, but my guess is that having the family together may have been a big factor. 

2)   Regina had been in Palestine from 1938 through 1945.  I wish my father had saved her letters.  Whereas the three brothers in NY all were married and had jobs and growing families, Regina was single (i.e., “unsettled”) and living a subsistence existence.  My mother used to complain that Regina was always begging for money and my father would send her money (which, according to my mother, they didn’t have) and Regina would go out and buy umbrellas for all her friends, of which she had many.  I don’t think that would have painted a picture of Palestine as an ideal place for Charlie, though, in actuality, he probably would have done well there, too.

3)   As Chuck pointed out, it wasn’t Israel then, and there was probably not a lot of confidence that it ever would be.  And my father wasn’t one for rosy predictions.  As Chet said, he was always practical. My father WAS an avid Israel supporter and the only non-business international trip I think he ever took was to Israel.  But my guess is that he wasn’t a Zionist in Europe.  Another interesting question I’ll probably never know the answer to.  In any case, Palestine in 1945 was a British mandate with an uncertain future and undoubtedly a challenging place to live.

4)   It was also true that the survivors who went to Palestine had a difficult time being accepted by the pre-war settlers, though that may not have been evident at this time.  

But my guess is that it was my father’s sense of his responsibility for Charlie and the family that was the major factor.  I asked Chet this morning what he thought, and he had the same reaction.    

As a side note: writing this brings back memories of my parents sending boxes of our old clothes to Israel……until, I think, our relatives got insulted that we were dumping our old clothes on them and told us they really didn't need them.

---------------------------

I've taken some significant liberties with Chuck's translation to try to make the letters more readable.  Hopefully, I'm not changing the meaning too much.

Another letter from Lili

I have another letter from Lili to my father and Regina to post, thanks to the translation help of my cousin, Chuck.  

For those of you who haven't yet mastered the family tree, Chuck, more formally, Charles Brauner, is my cousin on my mother's side. Chuck's father, my Uncle Sol,  and my mother were born here, but our maternal grandmother was born in Chrzanow, and our great-grandmother was a Hochbaum.

Confused yet?  You can safely ignore all this.....but there will be a test!

After my last post, I got several inquiries along the lines of "Did Heinele make it to the US?"  And "what happened to Lili?"

Some of this will be a repeat from previous posts, but, yes, Heinele did indeed make it to the US.  Heinele is, of course, Charlie (Charles) Grun.  I think most of Lili's letters are going to be a window into her efforts to get Charlie settled someplace, the challenges she faced doing so, and her remarkable persistence and competence. They also provide an excellent picture of her life in postwar Czechoslovakia. 

Charlie ultimately came to the US in August, 1946, arriving on Sept 7th, on a ship that sailed from Marseilles. I'll post more about that another time, but here's a picture of Charlie arriving in Philadelphia, and his Uncle Henry and Aunt Hilda. The story is that it was a hot summer day, but Charlie's suitcase had been lost or stolen and all he had were the hot woolen knickerbockers he was wearing, and, my mother said, a wooden basket from his Aunt Lili that originally had fruit in it and now smelled, but that he wouldn't give up.

Charlie came to live with my family in the Bronx.  This must have been something of a challenge to my parents, though when I asked about this, my mother said, no it wasn't...it was something they knew they were going to do, there was never any discussion about it. Besides, she added, he replaced my Aunt Regina, who had been living them since she came in 1945. 

Charlie and me in the Bronx

I was a toddler and my mother was pregnant with Esme and we all lived in a one-bedroom apartment at 10 E. 198th St.  Charlie slept on a sofa or daybed in the living room.  He didn’t speak any English, didn’t want to speak German, and nobody else knew any Czech.   But Charlie was as wonderful as his Aunt Lili said – he quickly learned English, caught up in school and lived with us in the Bronx and then Bayside, Queens until he married Alice and went into the Army, and then onto college and the rest of his life.  There will be lots more about Charlie, who was loved and admired by everyone who knew him, in future posts.

Lili and her husband Isidore also came to the US, in May, 1948, with their one-year old daughter Naomi, and settled in Seattle, Washington, which I believe was where Lili's sister Gusti and her husband were living.  I've done a previous post on their trip to the US (they managed to miss the boat the first time)  which you can read about here. I never met Lili. I assume Alice and the Grun girls did, but I may be wrong about that. Here's a wedding photo of Lili and Isidor, dated May 23, 1943.

In any case, finally getting to today's topic, here's Lili's letter to Dago and Ryfka, dated November 3, 1945:

3 November 1945

Dear Dago,

I have written you several letters without yet receiving an answer. Above all, I want to inform you that the USA Consul doesn’t have anything written, so that I know nothing of how to begin with the affidavit from Heini. I ask you, therefore, to get in communication with my niece Anny Lefkovitz, Watford Herts [i.e., Hertfordshire], 1 Smith Street, England, perhaps she can do something. I am also in correspondence with her about this matter, but she can communicate nothing concrete to me. It is possible that a group of children [Kindergruppe] will travel from here to England, where they will be housed in a Yeshiva, but this, if it should really happen, would probably take very long, and time is money. I am very impatient and would very much like to know that the child would be in his place.. He is a wonderful kid, smart, friendly, very helpful, and very capable. One can accomplish everything with him. In the last letter we sent a photo, which, however, didn’t come out well; one can’t see his wonderful eyes and his beautiful teeth. He weighs 51 kg and has grown at least half a head since then. About his parents I no longer speak to him, I don’t want to make his heart, which is already so heavy anyway, still heavier. Dear Dago, I know I can trust, you will certainly do all, but all in the interest of the child, he is the last jewel that has remained to us.

Please try, if you have the possibility, to send a package of 1 kg. We need it urgently. Canned cheese [Käsekonserven], coffee, cocoa, chocolate, canned milk [Milc[h]konserven], soap, vitamin C, suet, or oil (kosher suet).  I would be very thankful to you if you could send us an additional small package for the child, with stockings, a scarf,  and gloves. Please send this package to this address in any case:  Svob.V.Grünberg, Nepomuk u Plžně, Czechoslovak Republic, R.- 1783. As an experiment, please send first 2-3 packages, we will watch for their arrival. Please do not think it bad that I give you so many different orders, but we truly need the things urgently and we cannot procure them.  I might now remark that we have not had any coffee, any cocoa and similar things for five years. Physically we are very reduced and could not recover. Mainly, however, I want the things for the child. At midday we eat in a Volksküche [soup kitchen?, literally a people’s kitchen] and you could not well imagine how little nutrition we take for ourselves. From Gusti we received a package, meanwhile she sent several through England, however, they have not arrived.

Please let me know if you are in any way in communication with Tina [Tina Green was a cousin of Charlie’s father who lived in NY] and if  William Green is a relative of ours, and if so, could he determine something for us to do. Still our endeavor is to come to Gusta as quickly and as soon as possible, we have no other endeavor as this, we have so much behind us.—

Otherwise, we have nothing particular to report, except you and all dear ones fondly to greet,

Leonie

My dearest Ryfka!

I cannot close the letter without addressing a few lines separately to you. I accept with certainty that you have already completely settled in there, and I would very gladly have from you a detailed letter about how all the years have gone for you, how you have occupied yourself, etc. What I can tell you of our last 6 years is so hateful and horrible, that I would rather not write about it, only that one, that I am very very happily married and have a very decent and good husband. We have been through a lot and did not believe at the end that we are still living and have emerged from this hell. I cannot write about it, but I hope I will have the opportunity to speak to you about it all and that this should be soon is our only wish. I am sending you a picture of us both, the photo of Heinele we sent earlier.

For now I close with many fond greetings and kisses.

Your

Leonie

Dear Dago! Many fond greetings sent to you.

Send on the envelope beautiful American stamps. Heini

Some comments:

1)  Chuck commented on Lili's use of the formal "Sie" to my father and the informal "Du" to Regina, and that he didn't know what accepted usage was in 1945.  

I was surprised at the different usage, and first checked to see if there was a significant age difference between Lili and my father, which there isn't. I think they were close to the same age (born c. 1908).  Lili clearly knew my father and his family.  We have several pictures of Lili in Beuthen.  I don't know whether she lived there, or whether she was just visiting and therefore the camera came out:

This one is inscribed on the back:

Dem Bilde ein freundlicher Blick, dem Original ein stets gendenken.  
Leonie Grun
Beuthen 10/VII - 36.

A rough translation is
"Look at this picture in friendship, always remember the original."

I think it was sent to Regina, but I'm not sure.  From the warmth of her letters to Regina, it seems that she was very friendly with her, which may explain the difference in her pronoun usage.

Lili didn't ever seem to smile for the camera.  I don't know whether that reflects the culture of the time, or her serious personality.  Here's a photo from 1937:

And here is one from 1938, after Regina had gone to Palestine, but before my father and Sam and Henry came to the US:

And one of Sam, Lili, Henry and someone I can't identify.  I don't think it is Marta, and that certainly looks like a cigarette and a cigarette holder, no?

And one last comment, on Charlie and his request for stamps:

I don't know whether Charlie ever became a stamp collector, but in among his papers are several envelopes of loose stamps from Czechoslovakia.....

More on Lili and Heinele

So what happened to Lili and Heinele?  (I have gotten several queries.)

Here is a partial answer:

Yes, “Heinele” DID get to the USA, in August, 1946.  His new name was Charles or Charlie.   My parents took him in, which must have been something of a challenge to them, though when I asked about this, my mother said, no it wasn't...it was something they knew they had to do.  There was never a question about it. (Besides, she added, she got rid of my Aunt Regina, who I hadn't realized was living them up until then, and MUCH more difficult than Charlie.)  I was a toddler and my mother was pregnant with my sister and we all lived in a one-bedroom apartment in the Bronx!  Charlie slept on the sofa in the living room.  He didn’t speak any English, didn’t want to speak German, and nobody else knew any Czech.   But Charlie was as wonderful as his Aunt Lili said – he quickly learned English, caught up in school and lived with us (we eventually moved to a house in Queens) until he got married and went into the Army and then got his BS and MS degrees at night, and had a career as a research chemical engineer.  One of his batteries was on the lunar landing module for the Apollo shot to the moon.  

More important, he was a real “mensch” – a wonderful, kind and thoughtful family person (he had three daughters and 6 grandchildren), whom everybody liked and who always made the effort to make sure that everyone in the family was okay.  He and his family lived in Matawan, NJ. 

A dedicated runner and fitness person, he died unexpectedly of a heart attack when he was out for a run one morning in 2000, at the age of 68.   Since he was thought to be the healthiest person in the family, this was a total shock to everybody, and it is one of the few deaths I have never really gotten over.

Interestingly, Charlie never talked about his experiences during the war, and nobody ever asked him.  I think everybody assumed  that was the right thing to do.  It wasn’t until the movie Shindler’s List came out and his synagogue asked him to give a little talk as part of a Holocaust memorial program that he wrote down his experiences, and so far as I know, that talk was the only time he spoke of them.  In that talk he said:  “Some maxims I try to live by:  ‘The harder one works, the luckier one gets.’  And,  ‘It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness,’ which you will recognize as a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt.”  I think that combination of optimism and hard work was what enabled him to create his new life. 

I think that fills you in about “Heinele.”  His aunt Lili (Leonie in the letters) and her husband also eventually came to the US.  For some reason, they wound up in Seattle, Washington, and I don’t think I ever met them.  They are both dead now.

A Letter from Lili

I'm back to the family history blog!  One of my summer projects was to get back to this, and to try to organize all the material I have (a major challenge, especially since organization isn't one of my core competencies.....).  In the process I uncovered this letter from Charlie's Aunt Lili in Czechoslovakia to my father.  It also has an added note to Regina, who had just emigrated to the US from Palestine and a brief note from Charlie.

I managed to get this translated from the German, with the help of an acquaintance and Google translate.  I've left most of the awkward phrasing because I'm afraid of changing the meaning, some of which I may have unintentionally done anyway.

November 19, 1945

Dear Dago  –

Many thanks for your long letter.  First I want to tell you that Heinele is well.  As I told you he goes in the third grade in the elementary school, plus he learns Jewish [Yiddish?] and English in private and evening classes.  He picks up very quickly and the learning goes easy. 

On Saturdays once in a while he is called to the Torah, and we eat lunch in the Folkskitchen.  He often helps out there.  He speaks German in a dialect that he learned at home in Beuthen, but he prefers Czech.  This he learned in 1939 after deportation to Prague, and he kept it as his mother tongue.  With me and my husband he speaks Slovak or Czech, but in a short time he will also learn English.  

As of December 1, we hope that we will all live together.  Up till now he lives with my brother-in-law, Backer, who is out of  town. I myself have only a small room on the 7^th story far behind the city, but the child is in his free time mostly in my office, which is in the city center and very close to his apartment.  It is all very difficult because he was supposed to go to Gusti [her sister], but it is not working out.  Like I already told you I am trying to get Heinele to London. But this has to be done from the outside.  I have seen cases where it was successful, but in my case my hands are tied because I am here.

He writes his name “Jindra” or “Jindrich.”  We are using no German names because everything reminds us of Germany, and we are eradicating the language.  The child likes to go to the movies, normally on a Sunday afternoon.  We haven’t been in the movies in 6 years, and we do not miss it.  We are so tired and we have hardly lived. 

Chaskel [Uncle Henry] writes that they have a small jewelry manufacturer.  Here you see it in masses, these articles, there are such things, so it is not of value, but Chaskel says he is doing fine.  And Chaskel writes often and writes very well, and I like to hear from him.  Gusti writes me and we are happy to get posts from all these people.

Did you ever meet my sister Gusti?  She does not write well, but she is a beautiful person, of which there are few.  Even her husband is very steady and nice.  He wrote me that he has all the Saturdays and holidays free.  This has us very happy and it is my outspoken wish that our child is brought up in the Jewish sense, and so remains. We have seen the big businesses and the wealthy firms  that collapsed like a house of cards overnight and the original owner who fought to keep the business going and then collapsed. 

There is a lot to talk about, but we will keep it for ourselves, until we can speak in person.  I fear that our opinions may differ, but our views are still unchanging even after all we had to live through. 

Today I got news that a parcel that was sent by you from NY arrived here.  I do not have it yet, but in a few days I will pick it up.  Many thanks for sending that.

Now I have another worry, Gusti [her sister] writes that they sent a package to the address of a nephew of mine, Capitan Bernat Grun, Praha Karlin, Kralovska 59. Now, however, he was transferred and I do not know where he is. Actually my older brother who came from Russia was living with him, but it is possible that the son has taken the father, and both are no longer in Prague and the package has gotten into the wrong hands. This will make me very sick, because there are things that are very important for me:  winter coat, boots, and hats, which we need just as much as a bit of bread.

For now I close with many kind regards to all.

Send me please some pictures of yourself and especially of little Frances.  We sent you a picture of Heini and one of my husband and myself, which hopefully have come. 

Again warm regards,

         (signed)               Leonie

[Leonie continues….]

Here are a few lines from Heini. He writes in Czech, because he does not like to write in German:

Translation [into German, provided by Lili]:

Dear uncle.  I am very glad about your news.  Whenever I go to aunt, the first thing I ask about you.  I’m in the third grade in school.  I am busy learning and I am healthy.  I am happy that you are healthy and have good wives [sic!].  I would love to be with you, but it is very difficult, and God knows how long it will take.  I must learn a lot, because I missed four years, but it is easy and I hope it will all be for the best.

Otherwise I am healthy.  I have a coat, a lumberjack and a leather cap.  And now I am closing.

                        Jindrich Grun, /Heini/

[And Lili continues with this note to Regina]

My dear Ryfka 

From the previous lines you'll see everything concerning us and the child.  Heniele would very much like to know why you left Erez [Palestine] and if it is so that one cannot exist there. Since then, he heard that his uncle is not for Erez, he will not hear of seeking anything there, even though he initially showed interest in it. He is a wonderful child and is recognized by everybody because he is particularly beautiful ["schon" -- "nice" may be a better translation?].  He resembles Chaskel and Dago.  I love him very much and will give him the base to be a good person.  He’s very outgoing and we do not speak about the past, even though many times he is asking for his parents.  I cannot imagine a life without this child, but it is my strongest wish that he soon find a place that will be best for him.  Chaskel writes that he is fighting to get the child, but I want to make sure that I give him the basic education before we do anything else. 

Otherwise I don’t have much to tell, I am happy for you that you are happy and hope that you will find a nice man. 

My husband [Isidore] has a good character.  He is one of six brothers.  He’s the only one that survived.  God help me to protect him.  It was only by a small margin that we would have been destroyed, too.

Now, in conclusion, I remain sincerely,

        (signed)             Leonie   Isidor    Heini


And now some background and commentary from me:



Most of you will remember that it was Charlie's Aunt Lili (aka Leonie Schwarz) who tracked him down after the war ended, and then managed to contact his uncles and get him to United States.

Here's how Charlie describes the experience in his document "A Remembrance:"

In the papers that Charlie left are letters written by Lili to my father ("Dago"), Regina ("Ryfka") and Henry ("Chaskel") between May, 1945 and June, 1946. 

There are 25 of them, mostly typewritten, but written, of course, in German. I've managed to get two translated, this one, which I chose because of the note from Charlie, and the very first one I have, which is dated May 15, 1945, and which I'll reserve for a future post, because this post is getting too long.

I'll end, though, with a photo of "Heinele" and Lili and her husband Isidor, labeled "Bratislava, 1946."