Letters From Brno

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- Imagine madam.

Normally we have a carefree life.

The factory is running smoothly, we love our family.

And then one fine day people arrive, steal all of our belongings and we have to leave our homeland immediately.

I still believe in a departure for France.

The first thing I heard was that antisemitism is highly developed in this country, but what can you do?

It's the same all over the world.

- This is a story that began 40 plus years ago when I found out that my mother was Jewish and that she wouldn't speak about her past.

I had this almost insatiable curiosity about her family, about her life and, and this increased over the years as I grew up.

And it became a mother and wondered, you know, what had happened to her that made her incapable of talking about her past.

- The subject was always changed if we brought up my mom's background or Czechoslovakia.

It was kind of this stigma and sort of a tension that we could feel, but we didn't understand why.

- I didn't know very much about it at all.

She was very quiet.

We didn't talk about grandparents.

It wasn't until we got older that there was bits and pieces about her being Jewish and where she came from, but she was very, she didn't want to talk about it.

- There was like always whisperings of, of mom was born in Czechoslovakia and there was just you.

You heard bits and pieces, but we didn't get, or I didn't get the full story until Karen really started digging.

My mom never talked to me about anything from her past life.

- I described her when I did her eulogy at the memorial and I said, if I had to pick one word, it was enigmatic because I always felt like to me she was this mystery.

- You don't really want to remember.

Yeah, and it's hard to remember.

And so how do you do that?

I don't know.

- It was December, 1976.

I was a college freshman at the University of Michigan dating this guy Steven Siegel, my great uncle, Hans Schindler, who had heard about this romance.

He was asking me, you know, so what happened with Steven Siegel?

And I was being flippant and just said, well, we broke up.

I guess I wasn't Jewish enough for him.

And Hans looked at me and said, you have more royal Jewish blood in your little finger than Steven Siegel has coursing through his whole body.

Don't you know who your greatgrandfather was?

And I saw my mother was listening and what I could see was how angry her face looked hearing this.

And the first thing I thought was, wow, she's Jewish.

And the second thing I thought was, why is she so angry that I'm hearing this?

Sarah and Sigmund were my great-grandparents.

Armand and Herat were my grandparents.

Erica was my mother, and Daisy was her younger sister.

- We kids would always watch TV and we would be laying on our stomachs in the family room.

And Hans and Maryanne happened to be visiting.

I turned hands in Marianne.

I just asked, what is your religion?

And like the whole room, the adults in the room just gasped.

My mother I think, said, you know, you don't ever ask anybody that question.

Never ever ask anybody what their religion is.

My feelings were hurt - Tons to Marianne to us were our grandparents.

Sort of.

I remember talking to my dad and it was always just like, don't question your mother.

Don't, don't bring it up.

Don't talk about it.

- I do remember one thing she said to me, I don't know why, I might've said, you know, maybe God will help us with this.

And she said, you know what?

You're on your own.

Any kind of a situation or a bind that you get yourself into, you can get yourself out of.

And that made me relax.

I mean, I, I still hear that her voice to this day - Later on, I thought I understand that knowing more about her and her background, that I don't think that I would have much of a faith.

And I think that I would have a bit of fear as well in my being that maybe something horrible like this could happen again.

And if I don't say anything about being Jewish, and maybe I'm safer.

- And a quote that my mom told me was that when she was born, Armand said, I have just fallen in love with Erica and they adored each other.

And she loved his sense of humor that he was sort of a, a prankster.

His love of cars and driving was something that, that she certainly inherited and told the story of her father taking her driving when she was five or six and letting her drive on his lap.

And you know, she steered the car into a ditch.

And Armand said to my mom, you know, this is going to be a secret for us and we're not going to tell your mother about this.

- She had this convertible Mustang, it was bright yellow and I just remember, you know, like whipping down Grand River in East Lansing with her driving.

'cause sometimes at night she would just say, who wants to go to Dairy Queen?

And it would be a summer night and she'd pile all of us in.

We'd drive down a dairy queen as soon as we got the ice cream, we'd jump in the car and then she'd start flying down Grand River in the other direction and ice cream was just flying all over us and in our hair and she didn't care.

It was just, she was such a wonderful, warm, caring, fun person.

- I had swim practice.

You had to be there at like at 7: 00 AM and mom would be in the car ready to take you.

She was at every swim meet recording your times.

And I still have her handwriting.

- She was the disciplinarian of the family.

Dad worked a lot and was very focused in on his career.

So mom was really the parent that was in charge.

- Armand fell in love with Herta and she was 12 years younger and it wasn't approved.

Herta was very beautiful and she had great style and presence and when she would walk into the room, people would notice, My mom would tell the story of Armand waiting at the bottom of the stairs, look at his watch and look up the stairs.

And when Herta would finally appear and she was beautiful, that he would just have the biggest smile on his face.

1979, I spent half of my junior year abroad in England.

In the application I had written that I wanted to meet these relatives that I knew were in England because I wanted to find out more about my mother's family history.

And I didn't tell my mom that, but I think she suspected something.

She wasn't thrilled at all that I was going.

I think she was resigned to now she's doing this.

And so I met them, I met her cousin, Doret and DOT's mother, Valerie, and they told me bits and pieces about my mother's parents, but they didn't answer the big questions that I had.

Marianne died first and then Hans died in 2004 when he died, we met New York and had to clean out their enormous penthouse, two bedroom, Greenwich Village apartment.

And it had closets that were floor to ceiling that lined at a very long hallway.

We discovered this treasure trove from my mom's past and from her family's past.

And we uncovered letters and these were files and files and photographs and documents and it was overwhelming to my mother.

Maryanne kept everything, she kept all the letters that my mother and her sister had written to her that were in check from when they were children before Hitler came.

So these are from 19 34, 35, 37 on beautiful stationary and then more letters and more letters.

And then there were all these type letters that my mom saw were from her father and from her mother, but they were in German and then there were just hundreds of pages of documents and then all these photographs that my mom hadn't seen.

And so she went from like, oh my God, look at all of this to how do we deal with all of this to why didn't they show me this?

And why didn't they give me these photos, these photos of her parents and of her when she was little and she was so angry at them.

Now meanwhile, I'm looking at this stuff and thinking, okay, I want to take this because this will be more about this puzzle that I'm starting and, and I want to put together.

And she wouldn't let me touch any of the papers and said, I'm taking all of these.

- I don't think my mom would've liked Karen digging into her life before she became our mom.

- The first time I really learned about, about her actual past was, I think I was, you know, early twenties when my mother started, you know, investigating and, and kind of doing a lot of research on, on all of it.

I was aware that she'd come from Europe and had a lot of difficulties and awful times, but had no idea, you know, how truly horrific her story was.

And so I was just completely amazed that someone could go through that sort of experience and turn into this loving wonderful woman that was granny.

- That was the last I saw of those until I helped my dad when my mom was getting sick and they could no longer stay in the Florida condo.

And he asked me to come and help them move out.

And so that's when I, I saw the letters again.

They were still in that same suitcase.

At that point my mom was more advanced with mild cognitive impairment that did grow into fullblown Alzheimer's.

And then I didn't see them again until after my mom died in 2014.

That's when my sister Lisa found all the letters and they were under her bed.

And the sad thing was these letters were in Manila folders and on them she had written ESN, which are her initials, Erica, Stephanie Newman, and she put ESN translate.

And so she wanted to know, you know, what was in the letters.

And once I did start translating them, it was, it was wonderful, but it was heartbreaking because I, I wish she had known what her parents had written.

The letters from Armand and Herta, they started in 1939 and they end in 1941 and they were sent to the first concentration camp in 42 and they begin after they put the girls on the train, on the kinder transport and continue until late 41.

One of the themes is very much their worry about the girls if they have enough clothing, if they have enough food, if, if someone loves them.

And the other enormous theme was how they could get out, how they could get out of Czechoslovakia, either get to America somehow because Maryanne and Hans were doing everything they could to find a way.

And so Arman in particular wrote about that - May 1st, 1939.

The affidavit is currently the straw in which a drowning man clings because the difficulties to exit are fantastic.

And of course with time only become greater and what do you have when you have won this nerve wracking fight to the exit for yourself?

You may end up as a beggar in a foreign continent at best, but with a chance that there seems to be no longer in Europe for us.

October 12th, 1939.

Believe me madam, I often envy the dead who have their rest and no worries, we are in good health, but it's impossible for you to imagine how we live.

We are the pariahs of central Europe.

Be happy madam that you live in a free country.

- I think the letters help tell the story and I think the letters are what make everything very real.

I think each letter over, you know, the few short years is a snapshot into kind of how the historical events were unfolding for, you know, a a small family.

- Once we started to see the letters, which was really all Karen, because Karen had them all translated, we would never have known a lot of these things if she hadn't done all that work.

I know that my mom would've been so proud of her, you know, and what she did, - I hear their voices, you know, through their letters and I was just rereading some of the translations of Heritage's letters and Maryanne, her younger sister is the one who got out of Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia and there's almost this teasing tone, you know, and this joyfulness too about Maryanne getting married.

The letter that I was just reading, it was be happy, be happy for your love and be happy that you found someone and we can't wait to meet him, you know, and they of course never did - Dearest best Marylander you most probably will worry about us or thinking how ungrateful and bad I am, but I still can barely write today.

I'm glad and happy that you had a good crossing and that you at least could rest up during the few days.

I thank you a thousand times for your love and care.

I have no idea if you know already or received maybe direct news that our dear children are already in England.

You had hardly left.

I was still in Prague when the notice arrived that the transport would happen on the 28th of the month.

I had made about 10% of preparations, but nothing actually was done.

We still had to go to the dentist, run errands, get suitcases, and so on.

You can imagine how that all happened and because of all the excitement, I just could do half of everything.

The poor little ones have already arrived.

Well, and today we got already a letter about the trip and yesterday a phone call from Valerie, they actually got good living quarters, one hour from London in a small college, fortunately close to Valley, who really takes care of everything and is very kind.

I'm ashamed how I send off the children, but I could not do any better given the short time the goodbye was very difficult.

But I hope that the children will get used to their life and feel safe.

I'm actually writing my first letter in weeks today and want to offer you so much love, but I feel like I'm hollowed out inside.

Please write to me when you're getting married and now for both of you, happiness, happiness, and again happiness as much as you can, absorb as much as you deserve.

Thousand heartfelt kisses to you.

Warm greetings to Hans yours Herta.

- My dad had us go through piles of things asking what we wanted.

I really wanted anything from Hans Marianne's apartment that I had seen when I cleaned it out.

And I think it really started in January of 2019 when I made the decision that I was going to take the three months off that summer to really do the research that I started thinking, okay, what am I going to bring with me?

And there was no way I could bring everything.

I was just sorting like letters from Armand that I could see from his stationary.

I I, I learned what his signature looked like.

Same with, and I'll find someone to do the check.

I'll find someone to help with the German or do the German.

It was also there that I started translating Armand's letters and paid to have Herta's translated.

And it wasn't just the content and the history and the questions that were being answered, but it was also, I was very moved by the people who dropped what they were doing and felt compelled to help me.

Some researchers contacted me and asked me if I knew that my mother and my Aunt Daisy were kinder transports and they said their names are on a list and it's sort of like Schindler's list, but it's Winton's list.

And Nicholas Winton was a British stockbroker who ended up putting together kinder transports to get Czech Jewish children out after Hitler had taken over Czechoslovakia in 1939 and he saved 669 children by getting them to England.

And my mother and my aunt were two of those 669.

- All I remember really is the fact that we were scared on the train or just in general on the, on - The train.

On the train.

- The word of this happening spread.

And so parents were coming and begging for their children to be put on this list, get them out, whatever it took.

The vast majority of those children, their parents did not survive.

How did Herta and Arman, how were they able to get my mom, Erica and Daisy on this list?

There was a list of 5,000 Czech Jewish children.

I don't know how that happened, but I do know that my mother said that when she was about to go on the train that she overheard her mother saying to other mothers that were there, I don't know if I will ever see my girls again.

She says that she heard that and got on the train with as a 10-year-old having heard your parents say that and not what they had been told, which was, you are going to England and we'll come and get you after the war.

- July 7th, 1939.

Dear Maryanne, I was very happy about your news about the landing and hope that you found everything as you wanted it to be.

Herta will have already told you that our children are in England and that we have relatively good news from them.

The separation from them was arguably one of the most difficult things in my life.

According to my sister, the children arrived in London just as happy as they were filthy, and she drove them straight to Caterham where they are very well accommodated.

If I could see the children soon, I would actually be completely happy.

- These letters were all censored and they couldn't describe things and so the ones that did get out, they're vague about when they've had to move.

When Armand lost his job, no longer had a job because the Nazis took the factory and I have, you know, the envelopes and you can see that they've been opened and also stamped with swastikas.

So in order for letters to get out, well you're not going to malign the Nazis and you're not going to say everything that you've heard because the letters would be taken.

- My dear Mrs. Russell, the most cruel thing there are today are people because they use their intelligence to constantly invent new tortures for their fellow human beings.

Even in our immediate vicinity, a large number of unfortunate people left within hours of unknown destinations.

That is why you are absolutely right what you say.

And we have been trying for a long time to get an exit to a neutral country which is associated with enormous difficulties.

We would love to all move north together like the migratory birds in spring.

I fear however, that it will not come about because every day brings new tightening of both the entry and the exit side, which can also be completely blocked every day.

I also have the feeling that as long as the business has not been sold, there will be no exit.

- Dearest Mariannderl and dear Hans, we have received your last letter after 12 days censored.

Hopefully it's all the way that you write and not that you don't want me to have a heavy heart.

What would you advise us to take if we possibly went away?

It's really lovely of you and how you take care of the children and how good you are to them and to us.

It makes me sorrowful.

How can I thank you for all your goodness?

I do not want you to do a job if it does not have to be.

And for us by no means Mariannderl, do not just think about us, enjoy life a little bit for you and Han alone, I'm so tired that I almost fall asleep while writing and I still have so much to do every day.

I only do a part of what I should really do.

I thank you many more times for all your goodness and love and I kiss you heartily.

Yours, Hurta.

- She got to pack a little suitcase and her mom and dad went to a train station and they had to put Daisy and Eric on this train and they could only have one suitcase.

She spoke Czech and she spoke German and she spoke French, but she didn't speak English and she was going to England.

Being on the train with Daisy was awful because Daisy cried and she clung to my mom and she was scared and my mom had to take care of her.

And then when they got to England, she said there was no one there to greet her.

- Valerie went to the wrong train station and by the time she got to the right station, they were the only two children left and they were with police and they were hysterical.

- My mom, I remember her saying that she would never do that to her kids.

She would rather die with them, have the kids die with her than do what her parents did to her.

- It shows such strength and, and you know, the, the foresight to be able to say, you know, I I need to look out for my children and do what's best for them in the long run and be able to overlook, you know, how painful it must have been for him and and his wife.

Part of the reason we named Milo, Armin Kruger was to bring this story to the next generation and make sure that it, it keeps going and it doesn't get lost.

- In many of his letters in 1939, Armand said, now I know it was the right thing to do, but I I reproached myself that a a about putting these children on and that they have to raise themselves without parents.

- We keep getting good news from the children.

The letters replace theaters and concerts.

They are written with so much childish humor and orthographic errors that you really have to laugh about it because they unlearn Czech.

They do not understand German written and English.

They start to learn and that is all contained in their letters.

We have little to tell and no good news.

It has become very quiet at home into the nursery and into the garden.

I dare not go.

Two lively are still the rejoicing of their voices At times there is crying weekdays are all work, but with little joy compared to earlier because the ghost of aryanization stands before our door.

- I want to believe that they knew how much they were loved, but I think as an adult and as a parent you appreciate so much more What it took you know for Herta and Arman, for my grandparents to put their two beloved daughters on a train when they were eight and 10 years old to a completely unknown future if they had known how much you know they cared and worried about them and thought about them and just wanted them to be safe and healthy and happy somehow.

And I want Arman inheritance love and devotion to their girls known - November 6th, 1939 and since we have now reached the difficult times, I want to answer your questions too.

We are here alone now.

Uncle went on vacation to Prague.

I had the feeling that I can stay here until spring if unforeseen events do not occur.

We are of course interested in departure visas but they are extremely difficult to obtain.

I have received notification from the American consulate that my turn will be in two to three years.

Unfortunately this includes a great deal of money for the enormous taxes that I had to pay for the relatively large real estate in which no one has freely available today.

If you have bridged the difficulties of entering the country, the difficulties of leaving the country will pile up some of which you have been through but which have become greater from day to day.

Of course there is a danger that the exits are completely blocked and degrees are issued by the state, which you are probably familiar with from the newspapers.

But that didn't upset me either because I took good care of the children outside and it would be easier to get by with hurt alone with the children.

This would of course have been a disaster.

I blamed myself for a while and said that the children belonged to parents in times of war, but this is wrong because worries about their future had crushed us and paralyzed our resolve.

I was a fatalist in the war and it's me again today.

Everything is destiny.

- He is a beautiful like eloquent writer, but some of the way he would phrase things it would get lost almost in translation into English.

- My dear with your letter of November 21st, we were very happy for a long time.

We did not have any news from the children and we were accordingly concerned.

We are happy to know that the children and you are healthy.

If you do not mind, could you send to us the letters the children addressed to you?

I am very interested in whether the children have progressed and whether they've forgotten their mother tongue.

Please tell the children that we were very happy with their two letters.

If they only knew how happy they make us with their writing of their little business, they would sit down every Sunday and write down what happened to them in the past week.

We do not know anything about them, only that they are supposed to be fine.

What they do the whole day, we have no idea if they could tell us about their daily schedule or what their meals are made of or if their clothing is okay for the winter.

We would be relieved that they are missing us is no wonder now I cannot imagine what it is like to have the children at home.

Without them.

The house is empty.

We feel sad and uncomfortable.

Now it is almost half a year since we let them go away.

For us it is a reassurance that they did well.

It could have turned out differently.

- My dear Mariannderl and Hans, many thanks for your letters.

I am sorry that you have to take on yet another job.

I am sadly convinced that you are doing all of this because of me to help us however you can.

I don't want that price though for you.

I know how it is setting up on you, how it is wearing you down both physically and mentally and I beg you not to let hands allow this for you.

I was so excited for the birthday letters from the children, but I have a painful feeling that I only get to read them two months after they were written and I think about how much the world has turned In the meantime, hopefully you get to hear from them more often about their wellbeing, even if it is probably still a little delayed.

We don't hear anything at all from Valerie.

Is she near or with the children?

I'm slowly preparing for our immigration, although I never get very far because I'm always so busy and distracted with other things.

- May 15th, 1940, we received your letter from April.

In the meantime, the children have moved to a new environment that I do not even know in the name of God.

Keep them safe and healthy.

If you hear something of them, please let us know.

You certainly understand us.

I hope it does not turn out that we made a mistake in sending them away.

Now it will soon be a year that we have been separated from them.

In between there is a lot of grief and worry.

Only the hope of a new life will keep us upright.

- In 2009 they did a reenactment of the Winton train and they invited all the kinder who are still alive.

My mom was at that point much too sick.

There's no way she could travel.

And so I went and took my son Max.

Max and I were with a, a woman who we were told was on the same transport as my mom.

She was older, my mom was 10 and she was 14 and I think there were 220 children on that particular transport when they went through Nuremberg.

Nazi soldiers came on the train with their guns, with bayonets.

The woman that was traveling with us who was on that transport was retelling this and said that she will never forget the screams of the children.

They were terrified because these soldiers came on and they took some of the suitcases and like ripped through them with a bay.

They didn't, they didn't shoot anyone.

They didn't harm any children physically, but emotionally.

And they were laughing, you know, the whole time.

- My only beloved children.

I congratulate you on your birthday today and hope that my wishes will reach you in time.

It is the second time that we cannot celebrate this feast together.

We will think of you incessantly on these two days.

You have to wait a little longer for your presence until we are all together again.

And this should also be our birthday wish for you.

I know that gifts would've been dear to you than all of this writing.

The only thing I can do is to keep the things intended for you in a safe place and send them to you when the mail service is open again.

And now my only ones.

Make sure you stay healthy, always stick together and protect one another.

As a pair, you are always stronger than either of you alone.

You also have two very good ants who care about you and make your life as beautiful as it is possible today.

We will never forget that.

Be both embraced by your loving father.

December 9th, 1940.

I would like to inform you that I have written to the American Consulate General in Vienna to let me know what I have to do to get a visa with reference to the fact that I was registered in January, 1939 and at that time when the former consulate announced to me that I would be allowed to arrive in two to three years, then I received my original letter again, sent back and it was stamped with the following visa application of the above-mentioned application date have not yet been reviewed.

Exceptions and accelerations are out of the question.

It is impossible to state the date of the departure.

Now next year I will try again, but I do not have the impression of getting a visa in this way, nor do I have the opportunity to speak with anyone there.

That's why I'm not overly optimistic about this direction.

In this type of circumstances, leaving the country seems to be impossible.

- Max and I were able to meet Nicholas Winton.

He was close to a hundred at the end of that and he greeted us in Liverpool station and then there was a reception at the Czech Embassy in London.

And I was able to thank him personally for saving my mom's life and my aunt and show him that at the time there were 18 people alive that wouldn't have been if it hadn't been for Nicholas Winton and all the people that helped him arrange, you know, the, this transport.

- The biggest, most impactful part of the experience was meeting Nicholas Winton and had a much larger impact on me than I was expecting.

We only talked to him for, you know, a couple minutes, but even just that short bit of time really impacted me and I think that was one of the first lines that we said to him.

Without you there would be no me, - My loved ones.

I'm very troubled about how much commotion and possibly expenses on top we are causing you, yet we cannot do anything about it.

But under no circumstances may you take care of all these big burdens.

Yet I hope that the good solution will be found.

It's a terrible thought for me that you both struggle and care for us, but you yourselves do not get anything enjoyable out of this for yourselves.

I have the strong feeling that an exit journey for us from here will probably be impossible.

I thank you both from the depth of my heart for all your sacrifices.

I am afraid we can never really pay you back for it all.

Fortunately the little kids don't have to worry and are well off, even though I miss them very, very much.

I have to hurry up, still need to do the laundry or I won't get it done again.

Heartfelt hugs and kisses yours Herta.

- I'm sure they doubted themselves and it was only when things got really bad when Armin said it would've been an and he writes, it would've been impossible to have the children here and that it was even hard with Herta because she was so upset and so worried and so anxious.

- May 25th, 1941 my dear, we received your dear letters from April 28th.

We also received your affidavit messages from dot and the little ones.

If you have forbidden it, I still have to thank you for the extraordinary effort which you have so far.

Put in our interest on your part more than what is humanly possible has happened.

And I am now doing everything I can to complete the work you have set in motion.

If contrary to expectations that doesn't work, at least we can't blame ourselves for neglecting anything.

Yesterday I applied for the travel permit and should, in all probability go to the Jewish community in Prague in 14 days as a friend in Prague inform me, who is dealing with my matter as an intermediary.

No decision has yet been made as to whether real property can be used to obtain the tickets.

If it turns out negative, I will try to raise this amount from a friend.

I do everything I can to achieve my goal.

However, the difficulties are fantastic.

You will have already seen that leaving the country is one of the most difficult problems today and also requires a lot of luck.

It is also possible that you risk everything and not get away in the end.

- Another theme in Armand's letters was the hope for seeing everyone again, for seeing Maryanne again, for being reunited with the, with the children again.

That they would all have, you know, a a, a time where they'd be a family, a cohesive family, and, and everyone would be together and would be safe and would be healthy.

- Dear Mariannderl, on one hand I was excited to see your photo.

On the other hand though, I'm sad to see that you are still just a spindle thin as you were before.

I feel the main guilt lies with us as you never get any peace.

The letters from the little ones made us happier than you can imagine.

My wish to see them again is becoming more painful.

It seems now more serious for me to get to see you all again.

For now, my deepest thanks for all your love and goodness with which you care for us and burden yourself.

Live more for yourself.

- Your Herta - Terezin is kind of turned into a quiet point town, but to, you know, really start appreciating the past and how the awful events that unfolded there and realizing that was where my grandparents were kept and, and kind of lived by, you know, forest work was, was awful.

And, and we located the actual barrack and, and saw the actual unit and, and just how awful it was.

- Armand and Herta at that point, they were treated like prisoners so they were locked in.

There wasn't what people imagined from some of the Nazi propaganda films that were made at Terezin so that they could portray this camp that was almost like a spa.

The way they filmed it was so convincing.

It was so effective that the Red Cross said, you know, it's amazing how well the Jews are being treated by the Nazis.

And so I think that Armand inherit knew much more than what they communicated.

But what I could tell from Armand's letters, and like I said, it was the tone and what he would write that when he had given up hope.

- July 31st, 1941 Armand's last letter, my dear, your dear letters of June 26th and July 10th have given us a lot of pleasure.

It is also known to us that the visas are now issued only via Washington, but I do not have the impression that there is a chance to come to you.

In the meantime, I've already received my work assignment and although I am working as a worker in the cement factory, I'm very satisfied with this.

Also associated with this activity are various benefits that only the working man enjoys.

I work until further notice in the second shift from 2:00 PM to 10:00 PM daily, come home, numb and sink into a corresponding sleep.

Herta feels already much more comfortable and has gotten accustomed to her new environment and into the new circumstances very well.

Thanks to the nice housemates who established a particularly good understanding by mutual consideration, our new home, which had approximately the size of half of your last home, is very cozy and appropriately designed.

And we are not overcharged, we were not hit hard and we are satisfied with our lot.

It is now the third time that we can only join in the thoughts of the little ones and do nothing to contribute.

We can only ask you in the truest sense of the word, to be the interpreter of our warmest feelings and our dearest wishes.

It cannot be put down to paper what we like to say so gladly.

And we have to pick this up at a time when we will all be together.

And hopefully this will not take too long.

But today, tell them that our thoughts are with them day and night.

And that one feeling dominates us to make them happy.

Though unfortunately we can do little to help them.

They should only stay healthy and get along for their birthday.

They would certainly be abundantly gifted by good people.

How happy I would be if we could be present with a little something so they do not completely forget us.

We wish them the best that we can give and give to God that we will meet again in joy.

They should always take good care of each other and love each other.

With that, they give us the greatest pleasure.

I want to close with that.

Be deeply embraced by yours, Armand - Armand's.

Last letter was in July of 1941.

And after that, what I have learned what happened for the Jews who were deported to concentration camps from Czechoslovakia was the following.

In October of 41, it was decided that there would be no more passports issued.

And then in November of that same year of 1941 was when the mass deportations of Jews from Czechoslovakia began.

Armand and Herta and Armand's mother, Sarah were on one of those 12 transports.

And then they were taken to the main train station and transported to the train station that was closest to Terezin, which called Vasa and Armand.

And Herta and Sarah were on transport, capital a lowercase E. And that transport happened on March 29th, 1942.

Their transport numbers were, Sarah's was 304, Armand's was 305, and heres was 306.

And I was told by a Terezin expert that that meant that they traveled together because their, the numbers were in, in succession.

When they arrived, they had to march approximately three kilometers to Terezin.

And then men were separated from the women.

And Sarah died at Terezin.

And according to an eyewitness account, she died of starvation on April 8th, 1942.

And she was buried in one of the two mass graves at Terezin.

Armin and Herta survived and were placed on a second transport.

Approximately a month later, the second transport that Armin and Herta were on had approximately 1000 people.

And when it arrived in Piaski on the 25th, around noon, that approximately 400 men between the ages of 15 to 50 were taken off the train and sent to a labor camp.

And Armin, because he was 49 years old at the time, was most likely taken at that point and separated from Herta.

And I was told that most likely Herta was immediately gassed.

As soon as she arrived.

Learning this that they were separated was really upsetting to me because I had hoped that even in this horrible situation that they were like together, you know, at the end.

And I don't know for sure, but I don't think that they were, they demonstrated by their example and what they did and how they wrote about what they did.

And almost unfathomable, you know, love Of a parent for their children.

- If I saw them, the first thing I would do is run and hug them and tell them I love them and that my son's named after him, that's his middle name.

And Hannah, beginning with an H is named after Herta.

I would want to tell them that their girls turned out so well - And it must have been a horrible thing they had to do.

And I, I think I would tell them too, that I heard their voices and that I'm doing what I'm doing because I heard their voices and I wanted other people to hear them too.

- Karen and I and Scott and Tracy - Wouldn't be here without them.

- They grew up and became the people that they did and I think took on a lot of the characteristics of, of their parents.

- They ferociously loved their children and and grandchildren, and they spoke every week, at least every week on the phone until Daisy died.

And even though they never knew what Armand's wishes were for them, that they love each other and that they take care of each other and really support each other, they absolutely fulfilled his wishes for them.

This is my mom and her sister Daisy, and there's Armand and Herta, that's my grandfather and grandmother.

I see it as a potential anchor for curriculum that I can already imagine, and I want it shared to help people understand and and learn the truth.

It's so powerful to be holding the paper and thinking, my grandfather, you know, he touched this paper, he signed this.

This is his signature.

Same with Herta.

My grandmother wrote these and in many of them were pouring their hearts out and they took on a value.

Once I could hear their voices.

That is hard to describe.

It's like having this tangible evidence of the heart and soul of relatives whose voices were not heard until now.

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Take control of your hormonal health.

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