NYPL, Letters To Sala

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Introduction Sala’s Europe, 1939-1945 Prewar Jewish Life and Deportation Nazi Slave Labor Camps The Judenrat Geppersdorf Nazi Postal System Ala Gertner Sala's Labor Camps Jewish Holidays Harry Haubenstock Schatzlar Liberation In America

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Raizel Garncarz
Letter to Sala Garncarz, in Yiddish, Karlstad, Sweden, December 20, 1945
NYPL, Dorot Jewish Division, Sala Garncarz Kischner Collection

Rejoicing at her younger sister’s survival, Raizel, in her first letter to Sala after liberation, expressed her exuberance at reconnecting with family: “December 6, 1945 will be a memorable, festive day for us, for today I received a letter from you, my dearest one. I can’t believe my eyes; it happened just as I was feeling abandoned and resigned. I did not doubt that you were alive, but I could not figure out how you—the one of us who knew best how to survive—remained silent. Why doesn’t she let us hear from her, I thought to myself. Forgive me, Sala, for writing so incoherently. Oh God, what goes on in my mind now!”

Raizel’s second letter (shown here), in her beautiful Yiddish penmanship, reflects on the impact of the war on the family and the need to persevere: “Surely, we owe this to [our parents], to write in the language in which [they] spoke to us, and in the language in which we spoke to [them].”