BuiltWithNOF
Letter2

Dear darling Sister and dear Sam,

 

 I’ve not yet had a reply from you to my last letter; but I must write to you that a month ago I received 36 zlotys from dear Aby through the mail—but no letter; is this a joke? I’m thinking a lot about why I had no letter from him.  If I snag a letter from you, dear Jeanett[e], I’m happy.

 Now, dear Jeneatt[e] and dear Sam and most of all dear Aby I’m writing the following to you all:

 From reading the papers you know a little about what the Jews are going through here; but what you know is just one one-hundredth of it: when you go out into the street or drive on the road you’re barely 10% sure that you’ll come back in one piece.  Permits [to be in business] have been taken away from all Jews, etc. I, thank God,

because I have a Koncesyi [a special permit to conduct business] have a permit for the trucks, but it’s not a sure thing, given what the times are now. My own opinion is that if it were still [possible?] to sell one’s property [real estate] then they’d let it alone. Oh well—everyone has his own tsuris, but you can never get enough of examining other people’s tsuris…Anyway this is my mission: it’s now the case that many families can go, and have already emigrated, to America provided that their families there put down a $5000 deposit, after which they can get out their brother and his wife and children, after which they can get the deposit back; and I’m of the opinion that they also take securities [i.e., instead of cash money] and perhaps you could manage to advance me the deposit; the idea is that with the money in custody I won’t, once I’m in America, be a burden to anyone.  Otherwise I wouldn’t have had to contact you with no money. [?]  If I have to sell everything that I’m able to I’d have about $1000 left, not including costs, to bring to America, but of course as long as there’s a possiblity that I could save all of us in so doing, then there’s no question of doing that, as you know. You should make some inquiries—you should write that I alone of all the family have remained alone in Europe and that I have training as an auto mechanic and that I’ve already been in America from 1912 to 1913, perhaps that will work.  Consult with my sister-in-law Mina [= Minnie Spieler] and maybe she can give you some advice about this, as I really want to get away from the gehenim with my dear wife and such darling four children.

 For my part, I’m going to send a letter, written in English, to Washington addressed to President Rosiwelt [Roosevelt] and I’ll write that all of my siblings and my entire family are in America, even my mother is buried there, and I’m [illegible] here, and …perhaps that will work.  There have already been cases when it did.

 But I emphasize here to you all that I do not want to leave here without something to live on—conversely, I have, thank God, everything that I need (and yet what do I get from it?)   Life is [illegible]. I know now that I wouldn’t be able to get such a life very fast in America…

 Still, life is the most precious thing of all, as long as you’ve got a roof over your head and bread in your mouth and all is safe and sound. I’ll now close my letter for today, and await a swift answer to the whole question & what you have to say about it.

 I hug and kiss you all from the bottom of my heart, and my dear wife and dear children do the very same, from you loving

   Sam

 

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