Object numberM2016/039:001a
DescriptionDocument containing two letters. The letter from Lottie Levinson, Chief Emigration Officer, American Joint Distribution Committee, sent on the 23 December 1946 in English, addressed to Miss Charlotte Ostertag, discussing her possible reunion with her fiancé in Turkey. They had been engaged and separated for eight years.
The donor replied on the same document, in pencil, in German. In it she berates the Committee, saying that she has had contact with their offices over the phone but could not travel due to the front of her feet being amputated (due to frostbite on a forced march). This letter was written just a year after the war ended.
The donor replied on the same document, in pencil, in German. In it she berates the Committee, saying that she has had contact with their offices over the phone but could not travel due to the front of her feet being amputated (due to frostbite on a forced march). This letter was written just a year after the war ended.
Production date 1946-12-23 - 1946-12-23
Object nameletters
Dimensions
- height: 260.00 mm
width: 205.00 mm
Language
- German Dear Miss L, 71/01/47
Today I received your letter of the 23rd of December 1946. It is strange how long a letter from your organisation takes from Celle to Hannover, especially as the cars of your committee probably visit Hannover once a week. Furthermore it is peculiar that an organisation that should look after people from concentration camps follows the bureaucratic guidelines of public offices and administrations. Once we believed that you came over here to help us, however your attitude is the same as that of foreign nations – I explained situation to one of your officers in the spring of last year, it was forgotten. My fiancé addressed your office in Turkey, Istanbul, also in vain. After I gained contact with Mr Ben…’s secretary by phone after trying for days and explained that I did not have the fare nor the strength (the fronts of both my feet have been amputated and I walk with a walking stick) to come to Belson. Iw as once again forgotten. I and all the comrades who do not profit from the black market ask ourselves, why are your offices here? If one wants to help, then one should and must come to those who are in need of help! I was myself a social worker, but I do not believe that one has to study at a university to help, a true Jewess knows that to help, one listens to the heart! I am convinced that you and all of your colleagues will smile about me, for unfortunately unfortunately not every Jew in the world today is aware that they are a representative of an outlawed community and that they have to representi it, always and everywhere.
Naturally I could tell you my ‘antiquated’ views in English, but what good would that do, this letter, together with hundreds of others will end up in the waste paper bin; one just calls it a ‘German’ Jewess who is again ‘selected’. Only now not by Hitler but by Jews. If you had read my documents carefully you would not have asked the quite funny question whether I still wanted to go to my fiancé. We are two mature people and have been engaged for the last eight years. Because of the emigration laws of the day we were unable to come together in 1938. So we were held here until the SS put us in a camp for four years. If all Jews, whether rich or poor, are able to walk around, there will never be an emigration.
With kind regards
L.O
English
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Annette Brett