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Today we have a letter from soldier Paul Zerzawy addressed to his brother Robert Zerzawy in Brüx, Bohemia. Paul continues to send a few boxes of flour at a time to his family as described in the posts on September 3, 14, and 16.
23.9.1918
My dear ones!
Thank you for Grandmother’s letter. I am not just a little bit surprised and frightened by Papa’s illness. I knew nothing from him. A letter came saying nothing – what is he writing to you?
Yesterday I sent the boxes numbered 16 and 17 in Robert’s name and #18 and 19 in Grandmother’s name. 8 kilos flour, just as I sent you previously. If you want to have really fine flour, you only need to use a sieve one more time. As for getting cooking fat, it is very difficult. I will see. Write soon.
Your,
Paul
In the address line, Paul uses the abbreviation “jur” in front of his brother’s name. Robert had graduated from high school and was trying to follow in his brother’s footsteps by studying law. In those days, legal study was seen as a more universal educational foundation than it is today – the idea was that knowledge of and training in the law and legal thinking would be useful in any field.
Like Paul, their father Julius Zerzawy was serving in the military. Although we have seen that letters and packages went back and forth often, it was still difficult to know how loved ones really were doing. Particularly since family members didn’t want to worry each other. So they wrote of “nothing” or like Helene in 1940, tried to make light of impossible circumstances.