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 7th 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:
.jpg)
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
No comments:
Post a Comment