Weekly Writings – Page 2

Gone but Never Forgotten

Last Letters from the Holocaust

This past week in class, we were assigned to read letters from the “Last Letters from the Holocaust” exhibition in Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center. The letters we were assigned to read spanned the years 1941-1944 and gave many different perspectives of people living in ghettos, concentration camps, boarding deportation trains, and various other scenarios. After spending some time reading these letters, I was choked up. I couldn’t fathom having to write a last letter to my family. There were many times when individuals didn’t know that the letter they were writing was their last letter.

Warsaw Ghetto-1941

The first letter I chose was written in 1941 by a woman named Perla Tytelman, her son Samuel and her daughter Rega from the Warsaw ghetto to the head of the family, Yosef, and Rachel in Siberia. As I was reading, I noticed a progression of sadness and worry which spanned the different members of the family who lent their voices in writing this text. In one of the first paragraphs, Perla writes how the war would have to end at some point like all things do. In writing this, Perla shows a type of analytical intellect into how the world operates. She understands the reality that everything ultimately comes to an end. As the letter progressed, different family members mention that the recipient of the letter hadn’t replied to any of the letters. Ten letters had been sent and none were sent back in return. This raised many questions for me. I wondered if this was a response to the experiences Yosef and Rachel were enduring? Was it a personal choice? Were they angered at the “better position” the other half of their family was in living in the Warsaw ghetto?

At the end of the letter, Samuel writes that Perla is frying chicken cutlets in the kitchen and desires to send a portion of the food in the letter envelope. However, due to the nature of the postal service, she is denied permission to do so. This part of the letter shows a piece of humanity and “normalcy” into how a family lived their “everyday” lives. “Everyday” is obviously used loosely as this was taking place during the Holocaust and inside the Warsaw ghetto. Nothing about these experiences were normal.

Deportation train, Italy-24 February 1944

The second letter I chose was a postcard written by a woman named Anna Ventura from a deportation train leaving Italy to Auschwitz in 1944. When Anna completed the 24 word postcard to her family, she actually threw it from the cattle car and it was eventually discovered. After reading this letter, I was struck by a variety of details. The first being how short the letter actually was. Anna was able to convey how strong her love was for her family as well as her optimism for how soon she was going to see them. It was amazing how high her spirits were. Imagine! She is sitting on a train headed to a death camp and she is hopeful and has the strength to tell her family how strong her bond is with them. Anna also has a selfless attitude in that she writes that “all my thoughts are on you” indicating a selfless attitude. She isn’t thinking of herself but rather her family.

A Librarian’s Lasting Stamp

The Librarian

This past week in class, we were assigned to read a letter from the Clara Breed Collection. Known for her support of Japanese American children during World War II, Breed worked as a librarian who communicated with these children while they lived in internment camps. As she noticed the departure of Japanese American children to internment camps, she gave the children self-addressed stamped postcards to give them an outlet for correspondence. Many of the correspondences between Miss Clara Breed and the children were compiled into the Clara Breed Collection, which can be accessed via internet.

The Recipient

One such receiver of these letters was a girl named Katherine Tasaki, who was interned in Arcadia, California. In one such letter dated May 4, 1942, I enjoyed reading about Katherine’s love for reading. She writes how the internment camp just got a library and her favorite thing to read is the geography magazine. I found this topic of choice very interesting . You could imagine that because she is stuck in one place, she probably yearns to travel and is therefore attracted to this magazine. As I was reading about Katherine’s affinity to geography, I wondered where she wanted to go. Did she only want to go back home? Did she want to travel around America?

Another piece of the letter I found striking was Katherine’s love of the piano. She mentions to Miss Bree that one day to went to practice the piano but when she arrived, she remembered that she had left all of her music books at home in San Diego. I paused my reading and thought about how powerful the gift of music is and that Katherine has the ability to harness her musical gift but is ultimately unable to do so. This made me really sad because music comforts us and Katherine was probably looking for comfort to shield her from the hardships she was experiencing.

To Infinity and Beyond!

Receiving Our Letters

This past Thursday in my first year seminar, we were joined by Susan Falciani Maldonado, the Head of Special Collections & College Archives. Now, that’s a long title and when I initially heard it, I knew I was in for a treat. After Susan introduced herself, she began speaking about the history of Muhlenberg and how the college operated during the World War II era. She told us that the V-12 Navy College Training Program was implemented on college campuses across the United States. This included Muhlenberg! We learned that many of the buildings on campus were converted into barracks and students who attended Muhlenberg were enlisted in this specific program. After speaking for a few minutes, Susan split our class into pairs and we were given letters written by Muhlenberg Alumni who were enlisted in this program. All of the letters which were received by our class contained a correspondence between a serviceman and the Alumni Affairs Office. When Susan came and delivered a thick manilla folder full of envelopes to me and my partner, I was excited. My partner and I opened up the folder and found old, yellowing letters from eighty years ago with a correspondence between a man named Ray Nies and the college. Many of the letters were very wrinkly yet still well contained. Some letters were handwritten, and some were typed with a typewriter. As we were reading our letters, it was sometimes a challenge to decipher the cursive handwriting that had faded away. I was taught how to read cursive in third grade and I was definitely up for the challenge.

Ray Nies

The correspondence between Ray Nies and Alumni Office spanned a period of time between 1945 and 1951. When reading through the letters, we learned that Nies wrote about his life as a Marine from his training at Quantico, a Marine Corps base in Virginia, to his duties around the Pacific including San Diego, Guam, and Japan. In one letter which we read, we were shocked to read that Nies visited Nagasaki and offered his perspective of the destruction he witnessed. Neither me nor my partner were expecting to read such a letter and we found the content extremely jarring. Throughout the letters, Nies shared his loyalty and continued interest in Muhlenberg’s athletic teams by peppering the Director of Alumni Affairs with questions. Additionally, Nies showed his loathing towards Muhlenberg’s decision to become a co-educational institution. He would write for paragraphs expressing his dislike towards this decision and even asked jokingly asked how soon it would be until Muhlenberg added a fashion department. (They still haven’t). It was not until he had a daughter did he appreciate the academics he received which propelled him to realize the educational value for her to receive an education. While reading letters that contained similar content to this, we wondered how soon his way of thinking changed from opposing the decision to appreciating. Did he have a conversation with a colleague? Did he actually come to terms with Muhlenberg’s educational transition?

Reading these letters opened up a new world for me and gave me insight and a new perspective into how a World War II serviceman lived during this time. I am curious to read more of these letters and see this topic as a possibility for my research paper.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Letter Writing

I have fond memories of letter writing. Ever summer starting at the age of 10, I attended a sleep away camp. Before I departed for the first time, my mom sat me down and taught me how to write a letter. She first showed me where to address the recipient’s name on an envelope and where to place the stamp (always on the right side and not on the left). She then told me to always begin writing with the word ‘dear’. This was all very interesting to me! Never before had I ever written a letter, I had only received letters. So you could believe my excitement when I received the brightly colored Target stationary I had chosen only hours before. I can still remember the dark turquoise envelope sitting on top of the stack.

I wrote many letters that first summer. At the beginning, there were many letters I wrote begging my parents to fly me home because I hated camp. I used these letters to express my thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Whenever I felt homesick during the course of the summer, I would sit on the wrinkled sheets in my bunk house, take out my yellow legal pad and write. As the weeks progressed, my emotions changed and I started to have a great time! My letters began expressing the friendships I was forming, the activities I was participating in, and my disbelief in how soon I would be arriving home. Since my first year at camp, I have compiled every single letter I have received. It is fun to go back and examine these letters which document my camp career.

When I was looking at college courses to take for my freshman year, I was very surprised and pleased to see that a letter writing course was being offered. I immediately placed this course on the top of my list, registered, and fortunately I was accepted! I am so excited to examine a variety of different letters and see how letter writing has evolved and changed over time. I’m very interested to see how my writing improves over the course of this semester and how I progress as I writer. I do think that examining these letters will make me more cognizant of my writing abilities. I recently returned from a gap year this past June and I am concerned that my writing may not be up to par after not writing for over a year. Other than that concern, I am looking forward to attending this course.

My Writing Process

If I can be completely honest here, I really don’t like anything about my writing style. It is so hard for me to write because I’m constantly editing my words, phrases, and ideas. This results in assignments taking 2-3 times longer than they should. This year I would like to be less judgmental of my writing and learn how to better structure my thoughts as well as improve on brevity. The most important part of writing is communicating your thoughts clearly and in a straightforward manner. If you don’t do this, your message won’t be coherent. I would also like to improve and grow my confidence as writer. Every time I begin a new assignment, I get a pit in my stomach as I stare at the blank page staring back at me on my laptop. This fear prevents me from putting my thoughts to paper and fills me with anxiety. It is very important for me to trust in myself build my confidence as I seek to pursue a degree in English.