Back

Read the translation

Raizel Garncarz
Postcard to Sala Garncarz, in German, Sosnowitz, Poland, November 13, 1941
NYPL, Dorot Jewish Division, Sala Garncarz Kischner Collection

By the fall of 1941, Raizel had begun to shield Sala from the family’s true situation. Work and food were impossible to find. Deportations had become an everyday occurrence. Their father was ill. She writes in code about deportations, alluding to a “wedding” to which she was “invited … but I didn’t go because I wasn’t home when the invitation came.” Raizel’s personality and concerns shine forth in this letter: she chastises Sala for not writing more and for not obtaining another leave from Geppersdorf to visit the family, apologizes for not having another sweater to send her, and expresses her concern for her sister’s welfare, writing, “Bundle up as much as you can…. Don’t catch cold…. But don’t worry about us, we only worry about you.”