Found Letters--German--1940s

[wahine]

In the war, my grandpa was sent home on a leave to visit his sick baby son. This way, he averted Russian captivity and survived.
He got home just in time to witness his son die. My grandma always told this sad story, saying it was some kind of blessing in disguise that the loss of her child saved her husband.

She also says "the stork got too close to her" on that home leave meaning that she received her next baby right away. In the end, she had five children, eleven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
So far. She's still alive and kickin at 95.

She had kept several letters that her husband had written to her from the war; I felt very honored that she allowed me to read them. That was a moving experience, seeing a side of my grandfather that I hadn't know at all.

 

[Metatron]

Great story, thanks for sharing.
I'm glad your granddad survived and led a good life with your grandma.
And here you are, after all!

 

[Wire9Vintage]

I live in a German-heritage town, so in the early part of the 20th century, there would have been a lot of relatives in Germany and a very common occurrence for local folks sending all kinds of things back to Germany right after the war. I work with a lady who was a young teenager still in Germany after the war, and her family received such packages. She tells me that they were so grateful to see such things as sugar and coffee and any kind of fabric because there was literally none to be had.

Wonderful letters! Take good care of them!

 

[wahine]

Those packages really made a difference to many families back then. They even found their way into our language - when someone gives you a package with food and/or things fit to feed the soul (like books or toys), we still call it a "Care-Paket".

 

[hatguy1]

Unfortunately, the letters I'm about to mention seem to be lost but my mother has talked all her life about her German-immigrant grandmother receiving letters from pre-WW2 Germany and how they had to be smuggled out to be mailed. The letters of course were written in German.

She especially remembers her grandmother receiving one (the last) and midreading (silently) dropping the pages and just going into hysterics. Apparently, the letter was from her sister still in Germany saying basically by the time you're reading this letter, my husband and I will be dead. They were tested and determined to be "good Aryan stock," genetically, and therefore had to report to SS breeding centers where they would be matched with opposite sex Germans also of "good Aryan stock" and essentially forced to breed with them.

As they opposed this on religious grounds, they were given the choice to either submit to forced breeding or...to remain in their homes and be gassed to death by the SS. Apparently, they chose the latter.

What I wouldn't give to get my hands on those letters for historical purposes.