Object numberM2001/001:009
DescriptionPostcard from Jozef Sztorch (father) in Lodz ghetto to Jakob Sapir in Kobe, Japan 18 March 1941. Censored by the Nazis, the postcard also has the stamp of Ch. Rumkowski, the "Elder of the Jews in Litzmannstadt," with the name and address of the sender below the imprint. The ghetto was in western Poland within the territory incorporated into the German Reich, thus a German 15 pfennig stamp rather than a General Government stamp, and a Wehrmacht censor imprint with eagle and swastika.
He writes: "We have received your first card from Kobe and according to your wish are answering right away. Hope you received our congratulations for your 15th wedding anniversary. I am always with body and soul with you and like birds my thoughts fly after you. My dreams and wishes are always concerned with your good luck and wellbeing. You have no idea how I worry about you and little Peter. How I long for you and think of nothing else except that I wish you to succeed in everything"
Jakob Sapir, his wife Tola and son Peter, travelled in the late 1930s from Poland to Vilno in Lithuania, then on to Moscow. They then travelled from Vladivostock to Kobe, Japan and eventually arrived in Shanghai in 1941. They lived in the French quarter in Shanghai, but were later moved into the Hongkew ghetto. Peter Sapir attended St. Francis Xavier's school, run by English priests, which was outside the ghetto boundary. Jakob Sapir earned a living in Shanghai running a Polish kitchen. The family left Shanghai in 1947, aboard the "Hwa Lien" ship, migrating to Sydney, Australia.
He writes: "We have received your first card from Kobe and according to your wish are answering right away. Hope you received our congratulations for your 15th wedding anniversary. I am always with body and soul with you and like birds my thoughts fly after you. My dreams and wishes are always concerned with your good luck and wellbeing. You have no idea how I worry about you and little Peter. How I long for you and think of nothing else except that I wish you to succeed in everything"
Jakob Sapir, his wife Tola and son Peter, travelled in the late 1930s from Poland to Vilno in Lithuania, then on to Moscow. They then travelled from Vladivostock to Kobe, Japan and eventually arrived in Shanghai in 1941. They lived in the French quarter in Shanghai, but were later moved into the Hongkew ghetto. Peter Sapir attended St. Francis Xavier's school, run by English priests, which was outside the ghetto boundary. Jakob Sapir earned a living in Shanghai running a Polish kitchen. The family left Shanghai in 1947, aboard the "Hwa Lien" ship, migrating to Sydney, Australia.
Production date 1941-03-18
SubjectHolocaust, communications, censorship
Object namepostcards
Materialpaper
Dimensions
- whole width: 104.00 mm
whole height: 147.00 mm
Language
- German 18.3.1941
My dearest TECIA, Jana and little Peter. We have received your first card from Kobe and according to your wish are answering right away. Hope you received our congratulations for your 15th wedding anniversary. I am always with body and soul with you and like birds my thoughts fly after you. My dreams and wishes are always concerned with your good luck and wellbeing. You have no idea how I worry about you and little Peter. How I long for you and think of nothing else except that I wish you to succeed in everything. Now from us is that we are well, expect two parcels you sent us. From TECIA we had a card and she also sent us a parcel. My dearest, write often, it stills my longing for you. Does little Peter sometimes remember his grandma? With kisses and embraces your loving mother and grandmother and Josef
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Dr Peter Sapir