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.....