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Letter from Otto Herrmann to Inge Herrmann on 26 September 1938
[nb-NO]Object number[nb-NO]M2020/023:056
[nb-NO]Title[nb-NO]Letter from Otto Herrmann to Inge Herrmann on 26 September 1938
[nb-NO]Creator[nb-NO] Otto Herrmann
[nb-NO]Description[nb-NO]Letter from Otto Herrmann in Germany to his daughter Inge on 26 September 1938. Inge would have arrived in Fremantle, Australia around the time she received this letter. Otto gives a brief update on his and Regina's lives in Magdeburg, and comments on his amusement about a marriage proposal Inge received on board the ship. Otto also gives his daughter advice for her departure onto her new homeland of Australia, telling her to make sure she possesses all her belongings and locks her suitcase.
Otto also comments that "you do not have to make any unnecessary worries, regarding the political situation, until now everything goes their customary course and there lives indeed a God in heaven, who will not let us all perish."
There is an associated letter from Regina Herrmann on the same date (M2020/023:055).
Part of a collection of over 60 letters to Inge-Ruth Poppert (nee Herrmann) from 1937 to 1957, as well as memorabilia and personal documents that detail the Holocaust experiences of the Herrmann family, and the establishment Inge's life in Sydney, Australia.
Inge was born on 12 October 1922 in Wolmirstedt, near Magdeburg, Germany to Otto and Kate-Regina Herrmann (nee Manneberg). Inge lived in Wolmirstedt, but attended school in Madgeburg from 1933. The family relocated to the city of Magdeburg in 1935 where Otto owned two shops. Due to anti-Semitism and anti-Jewish legislation, Otto had lost his clothing business in Wolmirstedt. However, from 1937 with the increasing Aryanisation of Jewish assets and property, the Herrmann family again forcibly lost their remaining businesses and way of life.
Despite the worsening risk to all Jews in Germany, Inge's parents initially resisted emigration, though in 1937 they decided that their daughter should leave. Inge was approved to go to Australia after being assessed in Berlin. She arrived in Sydney via London in September 1938.
Otto and Regina lived in increasing poverty and anxiety. Otto was arrested in 1938 and sent to Buchenwald for a brief period before being released. In October 1942 they were deported to Theresienstadt. Inge received no sign of life from her parents from 1944 and only learned years after the war that they were deported to Auschwitz in October 1944 where they were murdered.
Otto also comments that "you do not have to make any unnecessary worries, regarding the political situation, until now everything goes their customary course and there lives indeed a God in heaven, who will not let us all perish."
There is an associated letter from Regina Herrmann on the same date (M2020/023:055).
Part of a collection of over 60 letters to Inge-Ruth Poppert (nee Herrmann) from 1937 to 1957, as well as memorabilia and personal documents that detail the Holocaust experiences of the Herrmann family, and the establishment Inge's life in Sydney, Australia.
Inge was born on 12 October 1922 in Wolmirstedt, near Magdeburg, Germany to Otto and Kate-Regina Herrmann (nee Manneberg). Inge lived in Wolmirstedt, but attended school in Madgeburg from 1933. The family relocated to the city of Magdeburg in 1935 where Otto owned two shops. Due to anti-Semitism and anti-Jewish legislation, Otto had lost his clothing business in Wolmirstedt. However, from 1937 with the increasing Aryanisation of Jewish assets and property, the Herrmann family again forcibly lost their remaining businesses and way of life.
Despite the worsening risk to all Jews in Germany, Inge's parents initially resisted emigration, though in 1937 they decided that their daughter should leave. Inge was approved to go to Australia after being assessed in Berlin. She arrived in Sydney via London in September 1938.
Otto and Regina lived in increasing poverty and anxiety. Otto was arrested in 1938 and sent to Buchenwald for a brief period before being released. In October 1942 they were deported to Theresienstadt. Inge received no sign of life from her parents from 1944 and only learned years after the war that they were deported to Auschwitz in October 1944 where they were murdered.
[nb-NO]Production place[nb-NO]Germany
[nb-NO]Date[nb-NO] 1938-09-26
[nb-NO]Subject[nb-NO]families, migrant experiences, loved ones' contact
[nb-NO]Object name[nb-NO]letters
[nb-NO]Material[nb-NO]paper
[nb-NO]Dimensions[nb-NO]
- width: 209.00 mm
height: 294.00 mm
[nb-NO]Language[nb-NO]
- German My dearest beloved Ingelein!
Many thanks for your lovely congratulation for the holidays, you have made us very delighted, especially both letters from Aden and Colombo, as per the event of Eref Jontif [Erev Yom Tov Jewish New Year]. I am very excited, how you will hold the holiday on the ship. We were Sunday yesterday afternoon together in Temple, today midmorning mummy went and tomorrow I will go. Yesterday we were invited by the Wandrows for lunch, there was chicken fricassee and we thought it tasted good. I have not eaten such a meal in so much of a day or a year. It gives me great sorrow that you are suffering under the heat, but in between it will soon cool down, because you have now transcended the equator and tomorrow as God wills, you will tread for the first time in Fremantle, the Australian soil, well you will do it in one happy hour. You do not have to make any unnecessary worries, regarding the political situation, until now everything goes their customary course and there lives indeed a God in heaven, who will not let us all perish. Mummy, who today wrote first, who imparted to you about Ms. Ascher, the son was Gaffier (auxiliary policeman, the same who was shot on duty) last in Erez. About your attained marriage proposal I am very amused, you do not need to always genuinely accept right away, people like that make fun of it soon. What I still wanted to say, we have written to you to Port Said and also to Colombo, and since yet steadily written via airmail, so it's not our fault, when you do not obtain the letter. From us is still one letter to Fremantle and one letter to Adelaide on the way, and this one goes to Sydney, this is the last letter that we have addressed on the ship. Now my good child, hold all your things well together, that you, when you leave the ship, ensure nothing is missing, and lock your suitcase well. When you give the same to a servant or to someone else
I am glad that you have washed your clothes, that is always good, when it comes to people, and you have all your things in a dash, that makes already a good impression, and from the first impression it hangs the most. Here in the moment a heat like in midsummer, well it is no wonder, the Aeten has Yom Tov, only we cannot in this business use this weather. Now my good child, now I will conclude so that the letter will go. Anyway, I wish imaginably everything well for your new stage of life, that you with your arrival in Sydney starts, God gives you the power to endure the hard times because that is spared to no one, stay always righteous, then you will already go through the world and from that it depends a lot, if we in the foreseeable future can be united.
[nb-NO]Credit line[nb-NO]Sydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Kim Poppert
In appreciation to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) for supporting this archival project.