Dear Evchen,
After I had been very worried because I hadn’t had any mail from you since last Tuesday, your card dated the 21st arrived today. We read that you went to Nieheim, which makes us very happy. –
A letter went out to you on the 21st, in which I wrote to you that you shouldn’t do anything else for us, but you should rather go straight to Nieheim. Which you actually did. Now, at least, you will be able to rest, and your loved ones will certainly be happy to take care of you a little. I assume Grete will forward the letter to you. I also wrote in this letter that a postal package arrived, the other 3 ??? items are still at the customs office in Lemberg, we found someone who will take care of the items at customs and forward them to Kolomyia(?). It can take another 8 days, but we know
Your card from Nieheim just arrived, and we are happy to have news from you. Mutti
that we will get our belongings, and we hope everything is there. –
The 3 new packages will also take weeks, but we are confident that they will arrive. We are very happy that they have been mailed. We have heard that nothing can be mailed duty free any more starting January 1. We certainly won’t need the stamp from the consulate. Papa thinks that we will receive it using our passport and ID.
Another card came from Fritz, he asks us for all of our information which we immediately sent to him. I had not responded to the letter yet because I was very busy taking care of P. + G. Fritz hopes to get something for Gisel soon, which would make us very happy.
Gisel received her first 20 Zlotys and bought a pair of Russian boots for herself (12 Zl.). The cold here was minus 25 degrees last week, can you imagine how we are freezing. The people here are prepared for the cold. Other than that, everything is unchanged. We cannot imagine Papa starting anything here in this Siberian cold, and (we) can’t find anything for F. either. –
We received a 6-page letter from Brussels. Well, you know Paula’s style, all ??? and that is the help we receive from them. It’s exasperating. –
But God will surely not abandon us, and he will let us get together again, us from Leipzig and everyone from Nieheim.
We long for your news from N., and send much love from all
your loving Mutti
P.S. Today, we received a letter from Pelzens, they expect you on 4.I.(?) They look forward to your visit. Erika had a baby girl on the 13th. She is doing well.
Dear Mrs. Frankenberg, dear Grete and Suse,
We were happy to read your kind words. We can’t and don’t want to lose hope, even though sometimes it seems impossible. Unfortunately, Papa and Gisel have been very sick, and I was very worried. Thank God, it all ended well. Life here is very strange for us, and it’s hard for us to get used to. But all four of us are together, and our happiness over having Evchen in Nieheim and, with God’s help, soon with Fritz, makes it a bit more bearable.
We don’t have any prospects for income at the moment, but we still hope to find possibilities. Gisela has been teaching English and was able to claim her first 20 Zlotys of income. –
Much love to all from
your
Rath family
