Link to Family Tree to understand family relationships.
From 8-year old Hilda’s diary:
I forgot to say that I sang for Uncle Julius and Aunt Josie. I have a beautiful new song book that my Grandparents in Germany sent to me. It is full of pictures. The pictures are on top of the songs and up and down the sides of the pages. They are of little boys and girls playing in the meadows and woods, and of tiny churches in the snow with lights shining in the windows. The picture I love most of all is the one of God. He is sitting on top of a cloud and on top of a song called “Weißt Du wie viel Sternlein stehen.” He has a long, red robe, and a long, white beard, and sweet blue eyes, and He looks kind, as if He loves everybody. The song says that he does too. The last line says “Kennt auch dich und hat dich lieb.” That means: “He knows you too and loves you.” Anyhow, I sang that song, but I guess not too well, because when I finished it, Aunt Josie asked me to play something on the piano and I played “Fur Elise.” Then Grandmother said that I might go to bed and Alma took me upstairs. I think the family was upset with me and at times that is a great comfort, because I can escape my room and play or write my thoughts in my diary.
Hilda says the book was sent from her grandparents in Germany, which I couldn’t understand — all of her grandparents were in the United States. However, Helene’s father in Bohemia was Hilda’s grandfather’s brother. When I looked up the lullaby Hilda mentions, it sounded familiar. It turns out that my grandmother Helene sent the book, which Hilda mentions in a letter she wrote to Helene in 1946 who was in Istanbul waiting to come to America. By the time Hilda was born, Helene’s father had died, but we see that she and her mother kept up the connection with his American relatives, sending letters and gifts. What an unexpected treat to find connections to my grandmother in Hilda’s diary!