First Post-WWII Letters to America: Opa to Ida July 1946

Translated by Philip Graupner


(1946.07.16 Opa to Ida...translation)

Schlangenbad, 16 July 1946

My dear Ida!

I take it for granted that you have received my letter and now know where we live. Not that it makes much difference in Schlangenbad if you write my name instead of August Dauer. The letter will still come to me; the street name is really insignificant where there are only about 70 households.
But now to you. Since I don't know how long a letter takes and your birthday is getting close, I wish in this manner to bring warmest best wishes to you for your cradle festival. May you be around for a long time for your family and hopefully it is granted me the chance to see you again. I had almost given up, for with our food one doesn't have much resistence to whatever comes along. I was very ill for 8 weeks and didn't believe that I would ever recover. I still am not completely over it and am very weak. One would now need to eat something nutritious but it isn't available. The doctor prescribed extra rations for me 4 weeks ago but I haven't seen anything yet. With 2 lbs.= 1000 gr. of bread a week it will take quite a while before I am really back on my feet again.
Mother and I intended to pick a lot of berries in the woods this year so that we had at least some preserves for our bread during the winter but then I got sick. Mother went one more time to pick raspberries but then got such a bad foot that she could no longer walk, so now we shall just have to see how we will get by. Carl wrote to us that he had sent a package but so far nothing has arrived. You shouldn't wonder about our stationery, that is no longer available, or only in limited amounts. It doesn't matter really, as long as we have something to write on.
Yes Ida, Mother and I no longer thought that we would have to live through such hard times again but we will have to make it through if we want to forget the ill-fated Hitler years. This will be difficult and will take a long time, for the wounds are deep and if nutrition was better, we would succeed. To be sure, Paul lost everything too, but he is still young and will rise up again eventually. It is different for us. We will probably have to make do with the few things we were able to save. Anna and Adolf too, have to set themselves low and would certainly not complain if they hadn't lost Rudi in the last minutes. Still, there is hardly any family in Germany that came through the war without some trace. Therefore, heads up and rebuild, for then we can probably also eat more and better. And now Ida, once again very hearty birthday wishes and many greetings to you , your husband and the 3 boys.

Father