Getting Organized

After waking up at noon today, making lunch, and resting our eyes, Maia and I hit the letters again.  After the overwhelming feeling of yesterday's discoveries, I decided we would, for now, only focus on what we could read, because this was yesterday...



The process today ran smoothly.  Maia typed into the translator, I read the German, corrected the translation, and put a number on the letter.  Then I started putting the letters into this folder.
 

The letters are truly incredible...  Here are some bits and pieces, and the translations are rough because they are simply there for me to glance at and remember what the German said. 

   From a letter written by my grandmother's dad to his brother in  June of 1947:  (my grandmother's family left Germany in 1937)
" For years, I eagerly awaited to hear from any of my friends, but in vain. All the more you can imagine my joy when at last a letter came from you. Just by chance we have received your letter, however, because we no longer live on that street, it has been 9 years since we moved. Well, my dear brother, I would be very glad if you could send me some details of how you are since the invasion of the Germans in Poland and what has become of the other beloved brothers and sisters. I have not heard from anyone since 1938. How and when did you come to Palestine and how are you now?  " 

From a letter written by my grandmother's mother to her friend Trude in May  of 1946:
" I am assuming this is really you. It is a miracle from God that you live, one of my old friends. Max just came from the HICEM (there we process the immigration for my brother Heini), and he told me that he found in the lists of survivors, your name, and of course I sat down immediately to write to you because I could not maintain my peace without doing it. I have no exact address from you, I will send a letter to the local Committee. In the "Aufbau "and the "SEMANA Israelita" (Jewish Weekly Newspaper in Buenos Aires), I've read that your cousin Siegfried Sabersky is in Berlin, I have forgotten his address. If you write to the Jewish. Community in Berlin, they can tell you, he is registered there. Where is Paul and Irma, have you hear something from Hans? My mother and all siblings except Erna (here in Montevideo), Paula (in Colombia), and Heini (in Shanghai) have all fallen victim to the Nazi beasts. I have only received confirmation of this today.  I do not know where, when or what horrible deaths they have suffered. "

These are just some of the horrifying lines I have come across today... The first letter that my grandmother writes to her best friend's mother is also devastating. There she still thinks that her friend is dead, however they were reunited in the 90's which is when Oma sent her copies of all the letters she had writen her.  I'll post some of those letters tomorrow.

I will say that the job of going through this material is so much easier since I get to sit at my grandfather's desk, with his chair, in this most wonderful office that my aunt had ready for me.  Behind me, on a bookshelf, I have my grandmother's family tree hanging.
 
Then next to me I have a whole board where my aunt hung the rest of the family trees that Oma made. 
 
On my desk, we have invented a hanging mechanism so I can put the letters there when I translate. 
 

The office is great, and it is my own little space to spread out the craziness. Today, I spent all day in here, and the best part is that I am ok with it.  Because with the letters I get to go to all these places through the words of my grandmother, her parents, her aunts, etc.