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Today we see three letters from POW Erich Zerzawy in Siberia to his family:
Sender: E. F. Gfrt Row 200/74.
Erich Zerzawy
Beresowka
Eastern SiberiaAddress:
Zerzawy siblings
Brüx
Bohemia
8/VII.17
My dear ones!
I was happy to get your cards, one from 20/IV and even another from 4/XII. I am very happy that you are well. Praise God of course. I hope all is well with you in all aspects of life. What do you think of the new political party? Are you satisfied? As far as I am concerned, there is nothing to worry about. I am fine and the first 50 [rubles?] which I finally received will be very useful for supplies and such. It is one of the two sent by Spassker [?] — I’m not sure which one it is. I reclaimed Papa’s #51205. I am curious as to which it is. It’s raining now and it has been for 48 hours without a break. That’s an odd occurrence.
Your Erich would love to write more, but he can’t.
Written along the side edge:
Sincere greetings to all of you from me.
Address: Miss Helene Löwy
Vienna I
Salzgries 10
Beresowka 9./VII.17.
Dear Helene!
It’s not at all nice the way you just ignore me! I haven’t gotten a single line from you. You didn’t even write once from Brüx which was more an etc. You’ll have a lot to make up. Nothing has changed between us and it’s because of you. And that I am still the old one, you should recognize that I am inconsolable that the field post package from you that was sent back should have arrived a bit earlier. Or at least Mr Morkale could have waited awhile. Sincere greetings and kisses from
Erich
To: Mr Robert Zerzawy
Brüx
Bohemia
B’ka 29/VII.17.
Dear Robert!
By chance I got together with your dear brother, which made both him and me extremely happy. I found out that you are happy and well. Erich looks good and since I haven’t seen him for awhile, he has grown. I hope you are healthy and doing well, as is the case for me.
Greetings from your pal.E. Ledlauken [?]
So you see that I am here too,
Erich
A few thoughts:
In the July 8 letter to his siblings, Erich is chatty and talks about current events. He assures everyone that they shouldn’t worry about him.
In a card he writes a day later to his aunt Helene, he is playful and teasing about letters and packages that haven’t arrived — showing us that Helene’s letters to her nephews were likely as full of fun and affection as were her later letters to her children. Of the three Zerzawy brothers, Erich seems to have had a sense of humor closest to hers. Paul’s letters were mostly very straightforward and businesslike and Robert’s were loving, emotional, and kind. When I originally saw this postcard, it was the first time I thought of my grandmother’s life as a young woman, even though she didn’t marry until she was in her 30s. I had a sense of her childhood in Bilin from the stories she wrote; I had a sense of her as a wife and mother from her letters and my own mother’s stories about her childhood. But here was evidence of my grandmother as a single woman in Vienna, along with an unfamiliar address in Vienna. We saw another letter to Helene in the January 28 post — a letter from 1918 from her nephew Paul Zerzawy.
It continues to amaze me that in wartime soldiers, and even POWs, received packages from home. Although, clearly many of the packages never made it to their destination, or were not as full as when they were sent. It’s also impressive that mail from POWs arrived when addressed with so little information — Erich’s letters home to Brux to his family merely give the town and the last name. According to Wikipedia, the city had a population of about 50,000 in 1920.
Finally, the card sent from later in the month shows us what a small world it was, even in far-flung Siberia. A friend of Erich’s brother Robert finds himself in the same place.