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Sala Garncarz
Letter to Mrs. Jennie Kirschner, in Yiddish, Ansbach, Germany, January 5, 1946
NYPL, Dorot Jewish Division, Sala Garncarz Kischner Collection

As time grew short and Sidney and Sala waited for his mother’s blessing on their intended marriage, Sala wrote to introduce herself to her prospective mother-in-law in New York and to request an answer. “A child is everything to a mother, especially the youngest child. Like Sidney, I am also the youngest child. We want the best for them, to see everything nicer, bigger, better. And if we don’t know where they are going, or with whom they go, so far away, we don’t have faith. We are not sure. I can understand and tolerate this, but we have now reached the final minute. About me, there’s nothing much to write, a plain Jewish girl from a kosher home and that’s all. I think it’s enough.” She concludes with an apology for her imperfect Yiddish: “You do forget how to write and I don’t know English at all.” Mrs. Kirschner gave her consent.