Last Letters & the Great Silence

Now working on the chapter "Last Letters & the Great Silence" An analysis of the last letters we received from my great-grandmother in January of 1933. Her name was Maria Eva (Heit) Dieser. She was pleading for help to buy food. Soviet postal authorities stole the money and letters my grandparents sent. She starved to death in August of 1933. There was then a 51 year period of silence, as the family were told they would be shot if they corresponded with our family in Canada.

My grandmother did not find out until 1984 that her Mom had starved in 1933.

All the letters are pretty much like this one...they had two things on their minds...thanking God for health and survival January 5, 1933. Written in old German dialect, it reads:

May God grant you warmest greetings from your mother and mother-in-law to you children Paul and Elizabeth and your two children. I thank the dear Lord I am still halfway healthy and hope this letter finds you as healthy as when you left me. Further I want to tell you where the father has gone with the two children. They have gone further into the Kavkas (ed. note: Caucasus) and I am home alone. Dear children, conditions are difficult here with respect to food. Times are tough dear children. Yes dear children we are having a hard time getting food. Some people have had money sent to them. For one coin (taler) one pound of flour can be bought in Kamyshin. If you could come to my aid could you send me 5 (taler) which would give us five pounds of flour. Perhaps then I wouldn't starve to death, dear children. Again I ask if you can help me so that I don't have to starve. Now I will close this letter and greet you again and ask you to write quickly