Last Letters

 

Marie-Eva (Heit) Dieser

Imagine you manage to escape the outcome of a world war, a revolution, a civil war and then the "Red Terror", communism's war on the "classes", ie basically everyone.

You are refugees in nation that has "freedom". 

My grandparents were such people.  Their plan was to gradually sponsor the rest of willing family who also wanted to escape the tyranny of communism.

But you had to wait.  Your parents were there...all your siblings were there...there were no family as you knew them in this new land.

So you wrote letters.  Back and forth.  Some of those letters would be censored, some would have one page "blank", written in milk...so my grandfather would know what was actually happening.

Some letters were so desperate, that no self-censorship was done...it was a direct appeal...because personal destruction was imminent.

Those are the "last letters" our family have.

This first letter is dated January 5, 1933. It was written by my great-grandmother, Marie-Eva (Heit) Dieser to her daughter and husband (Elisabeth Dieser Gerk and Paul Gerk) my grandparents.

It reads:

Letter #1, dated 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.