# Translating handwritten German letters, circa 1939-1941 **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 19, 2018, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translating-handwritten-german-letters-circa-1939-1941/824824 "2018-11-19T22:23:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2018, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translating-handwritten-german-letters-circa-1939-1941/824824/21 "2018-12-29T19:43:22Z")
Maybe the Auschwitz Museum? ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2018, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translating-handwritten-german-letters-circa-1939-1941/824824/22 "2018-12-29T20:59:34Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > To follow up, I sent a few pages to **EinsteinsHund** , and he not only transcribed and translated them in just a few days, he went on to do the entire job, at no charge, in about a month. He has been very kind, generous, and helpful during the entire process. My family and I are greatly in his debt and extremely grateful for his efforts. I have just today put a gift in the mail to him that I hope he will find meaningful. > > I have already expressed my thanks to **EinsteinsHund** profusely in our private e-mails, but felt it was important to do so here as well. His generosity to a stranger is typical of the best aspects of the SDMB community, and is a welcome reminder in this day and age that there are still many very good people in the world. > > I am assembling scans of the original pages, along with **EH** ’s transcriptions and translations, and my own notes that provide additional context, into a book for circulation among my family. I plan to have a preliminary edition ready as a surprise for my mother when she visits me next month, shortly after her 89th birthday. I will also distribute copies to her sister and her three sons (my cousins), and my sister. I plan to interview mom and my aunt to obtain additional information to add to an expanded edition of the book. > > Thanks again to everyone who made suggestions here. With the family’s permission, I will probably provide copies to Clark University and other institutions. > > But mainly, _vielen dank_ to **EinsteinsHund**! Thanks for your kind words, **commasense**. As I told you in my emails, the work was a pleasure and a labor of love for me. It is the most interesting project I’ve ever worked on and I thank you for sharing some of your family’s moving history with me. I would be delighted and humbled if the finished work went to a university, but I’m mostly glad about the fact that the authors of the letters, your mom and your aunt, will see it :). I’m looking forward to your mail, and thanks again. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2018, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translating-handwritten-german-letters-circa-1939-1941/824824/23 "2018-12-29T21:10:27Z")
Great job, **EH** If it’s appropriate to share, what were some of the more interesting things that were revealed in the letters? ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2018, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translating-handwritten-german-letters-circa-1939-1941/824824/24 "2018-12-30T16:23:54Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Great job, **EH** > > If it’s appropriate to share, what were some of the more interesting things that were revealed in the letters? On its face, the story is not very dramatic – nothing like Anne Frank, for instance – and the letters themselves are the mostly mundane writings of two little girls: the weather, going to school, gathering strawberries, what they got for holiday presents, and so on. The more remarkable aspects can only be understood from outside the text of the letters. For instance, in spring 1941 my mother writes, “We aren’t going to school anymore,” but doesn’t explain why. But she had told my sister and me, when we were young, that once the authorities in Luxembourg required the school children to _sieg heil_, my grandparents took their daughters out of school and taught them at home. The most amazing aspect of the story is that for two years my grandparents somehow kept my mother and aunt from feeling that they were in danger. We may never know exactly how my grandfather arranged to get his family out of Germany after the war had already started, stay in Luxembourg for two years, and then get passage on one of the few ships that transported Jews to the U.S. in 1941. But somehow he and his wife did it, and did it without emotionally scarring their children. My mother and aunt are two of the most positive, upbeat, and optimistic people you will ever meet. Once I have shared the book with my family, we will decide how public we want to make it. Thanks for your interest. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translating-handwritten-german-letters-circa-1939-1941/824824.md?page=1)