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Today we have two letters from October of 1917 sent from 19-year old POW Erich Zerzawy in eastern Siberia to his grandmother, brother Robert, and sister Kätherl in Brüx, Bohemia.
14./X.17.
My dear ones!
I just received Kätherl’s card from July 22nd. You can believe that it doesn’t exactly put my worries to rest about your health, when Kätherl does something different like getting pulmonary epicitis [perhaps catarrh of the lungs?] again. I am not entirely satisfied with Robert either. Erich would set a good example for you, because the fellow enjoys the best health. But you may be assured that I’d rather lie around in the chaise longue with you. So, get better. With a thousand kisses, especially for Grandma who doesn’t write to me at all anymore,
Your Erich
Beresowka 21/X.17
My dear ones!
Recently, I have at least heard some news from Brüx, although it’s been rather spare. But I hear so little from Papa; I know that Paul is forbidden to write to me directly, so you’ll have to let me know how he is doing. It is my most sincere wish that he is doing fine.
Robert’s new medical exam also does not make me very happy. Because if they keep him, what happens then at home? How do you think the September physical exams turned out? I found out about it in fact from a card that I got from the Rosner family on August 1st.
I regret that I cannot send my thanks personally for the very nice card, but you know how it is. But I do thank them very much, and let me do it through you. You can imagine how much it makes us happy here when we find out that old acquaintances remember us. Franzl Reh in Neumarkt — please greet him for me, Robert — he is the only one of my colleagues who has written to me. Here where I am nothing has changed, everything is just as it was, only that the season is changing. We now already have very cold days and it’s also snowing. In fact, the winter is beginning. We now will be shut in again for a few months, vegetating in the bad air in the barracks until the nice days come again and we can go outside without fear of freezing to death. Then it will be summer again, winter, and I just don’t know how long it’s going to take. Many people have given up hope of this ending anytime soon, me too. No matter how much one used to cling to every glimmer of hope and cherish the firm belief that it would be over, now we are pretty much convinced of the opposite. Maybe a new upswing will come, but nobody really knows if that will actually lead to peace. Be that as it may, eventually the time will come where etc., but I wonder if everyone will be fortunate enough to come home? So many have already really lost hope, and who knows what the others will be doing if some change in our situation does not happen soon.
Please greet everybody from me. Sincere kisses a thousand times.
Your
Erich
I have 31 letters written by Erich between 1916-1918. The card from July 14 is the only one written while serving in the army, all of the rest sent as Red Cross correspondence from the POW camp in Beresowka. The letter dated October 21 is the only actual letter – all the rest are postcards.
There were 5 Zerzawy siblings: Paul, Klara, Erich, and Robert were born to Julius Zerzawy and Helene’s eldest sister Ida. After Ida’s death, Julius married her younger sister Mathilde and young Käthe/Kätherl was the product of that marriage. Mathilda died in 1910 and Klara died in 1916. At the time of this correspondence, Julius and Paul were soldiers and not able to correspond directly with Erich. Robert had recently turned 18 and might find himself drafted at any time, leaving sister Kätherl and their grandmother alone and with few resources. Despite his own dire situation, Erich is has more concern for his family’s welfare than his own.
Although both the letter and postcard bear censorship markings, Erich apparently felt more comfortable writing about his own uncomfortable situation in the letter – perhaps knowing that the envelope kept the contents away from prying, but unofficial, eyes? This is the first time a sense of hopelessness has found its way into his correspondence.