Link to Family Tree to understand family relationships.
Today we see the second part of the letter we saw on September 16 from soldier Paul Zerzawy to his family. As with so many things on my journey, mysteries and missing links have a way of being solved. Pretty amazing after over 100 years.
Upon transcribing the translation for a letter we will see in October, I discovered that it solved the puzzle of the earlier letter. That letter is dated October 3, 1918 and is written to his brother Robert, but included part of a different letter to his family – the missing pages of the September 16 letter!
Since the letters were written in old German script, it was impossible for my archivist and me to determine the order and content of letters. Our only clues were dates and signatures. Letters were organized in a way that would have made sense to their reader, but not to those of us unused to writing letters or worrying about saving on postage. Letters often were written on rectangular paper (7”x10” or so) that had been folded in half. When unfolded, a four-page letter would have the first page on the right side of the front and the last page on the left side of the front, and pages 2 and 3 on the other side. It seems that the writer started a letter with the intent of it being a single page and if they discovered that they wanted to say more, they’d start a new page with the same order. However, they rarely numbered the pages. It was only after finding one long letter where Paul had numbered the pages that we got the hang of it. Today’s letter was doubly confusing, because the last two pages were written on a the same size paper but in the way we would normally write a letter!
The first part of this letter began with a check in about himself and family members, followed by detailed information about the boxes of flour that would be coming their way. It continues here:
…On top of this, there is postage for which 1 kg is about 3kr. On the black market, it probably costs 8-10 times as much. Do you have the opportunity to get the wheat ground or to exchange it for something else? Please write to me about this right away (see my last letter from September 5).
Please write me everything concerning the beginnings of your university studies. -- What is the situation with my war bond insurance? – Has my good shirt already sent out to be turned inside out and when? – I ask Robert to take charge of the work for Couleur news as soon as possible.
Lido writes to me that he probably will go off on his leave in the middle of the month, so you can get advice and help from him.
I do not know if I have already written about it, that here there are 2 color brothers [Farben Brüder] with whom I am in regular contact. They are A.H. Pfiff (medical officer, 62nd Feldpost) and Griff (c/o medical lieutenant Julius Gutfreund, Feldpost 645).
Please send them your questionnaire immediately.
Finally, dear Robert, I still have to write to the following soldiers who are on leave in Brüx; please greet them for me. Please give me the following addresses: [list of names]
Metzel’s address: Oscar Metzel Feldpost 405
Pepp’s Address: Chief doctor Dr Josef Weiss, FP 638, Field hospital 303
I will send other addresses for CB.When you reply, please answer the questions so that I do not have to ask everything twice. Especially since the exchange of news by Feldpost is already slow enough.
Kisses to all of you,
Your Paul
We learn about another money-saving measure – rather than buying a new shirt, he asks whether his good shirt has been sent out to be altered, presumably to be refashioned/recycled by turning it inside out to hide any stains or blemishes to the material. Like food, I would imagine new clothes were difficult to come by, so even if he had plenty of money, he might not have been able to purchase anything.
It appears that Paul refers to his college fraternity brothers and the clothes they wore: per Wikipedia, “Visually, the most discerning characteristic of many Studentenverbindungen is the so-called Couleur, which can consist of anything from a small part of ribbon worn over the belt, to elaborate uniforms with riding boots, sabers, and colorful cavalry jackets, depending on circumstances and tradition.”
In the letter, he asks for information about and provides addresses for a number of his friends. Paul’s photo album included many photos of groups of men in various uniforms. Paul had numbered the people in some photos which led me to the realization that he had written something on the back of many pictures. This led me to the discovery of the card we saw in yesterday’s post.
I assume that the photo below from April 8, 1915 is of his fraternity brothers. I don’t think he was in the army yet, so the uniforms they are wearing are consistent with the Wikipedia description above. On the back of the photo, Paul lists the names with at least two of the people mentioned in this letter: Griff and Pepp. In his absence, Paul relies on his friends to help his family and give his younger brother advice.
