Link to Family Tree to understand family relationships.
I first saw today’s letter in 2007 after my mother had a stroke and I was organizing her papers. She had a packet of papers: a few Red Cross letters, Helene’s letters from Istanbul in 1946, correspondence and official documents related to Paul Zerzawy, and this letter sent from Vitali to Helene between Buchenwald and Ravensbrück. If I didn’t have it in my possession, I wouldn’t have known prisoners were able to write to each other between the camps or to receive care packages and letters from family and friends.
Somehow Helene managed to keep this letter safe (although not in one piece) during the next 6 months in Ravensbrück, took it with her to Istanbul and then to San Francisco. A heartbreaking letter of love and hope.
10 September 1944
[The day of Release cannot yet be given. Visits to the Camp are prohibited. Inquiries are useless.]
[Excerpt from the Camp Rules:
Each Prisoner may in one month receive and send 2 letters or postcards. Submitted letters cannot be more than 4 pages of 15 lines per page and they must be neat and easily read. Money may be sent by Postal order only, giving first name, surname, birthday, prisoner’s number, but without any messages. Including money, photos and sketches in letters is forbidden. Letters and postcards, which do not follow these rules, will not be accepted. Letters that are not neat and are difficult to read will be destroyed. In the Camp one can buy anything. National Socialist newspapers are available, but have to be ordered by the prisoner himself in the Concentration Camp. Food packages may be received at any time and in any quantity.
The Camp Commander]
Most dear one///I am always with you and your mind. It is all as in a dream. In August, I sent greetings through your friend Rosa. I received a letter from Elsa stating that further packages will be sent to you. I receive on average 6 packages per month. I hope that you receive as many. Elsa sent the letters from Eva to you through the Red Cross. I am certain that you got much joy from them. //We will soon see each other again and I delight endlessly in the thought that we can, as before, live together “en famille.” I predict that we will see the prompt realization of all our wishes.
Vitali
Reading this letter now that I know Vitali’s fate (see August 24 post) is all the bittersweet. This was Helene’s only written evidence of Vitali’s love and existence as she waited and hoped over the next 35 years for him to arrive and for them to be reunited en famille.