Moghilau, d. 15.XII.41.
My dearest mother!
You’ll be wondering why we haven’t been in touch but I’ve just not had a chance at all. I asked a lot of people to tell me when we could send letters but the word never came. We’ve been waiting the whole time for the man who would have definitely brought me letters and money but who would’ve thought that such a terrible thing would happen to him. Hopefully you didn’t have any problems because of that. We were really sad and on top of that, we didn’t get any letters or money. Did Ms. Ebner pass on the attached letter the other day? I got the 1,000 rubles and the package last Thursday. Thank you for that. We really needed both. It all tasted lovely – the sausage, biscuits and sweets. You should tell us what you’re sending so we can check that nothing’s missing. But you shouldn’t send anything else via this man – we found out he only gave us the parcel after 6 days and what’s more, he made us wait another 3 hours while he was eating. You must’ve found this opportunity by chance, otherwise I’m sure you’d have written more. We still don’t know anything. Have you been able to do anything in the meantime? Have we got a chance? Thank God we’re happy and we have a relatively good room. Oskar’s earning some money too, but very little because everything’s terribly expensive and unfortunately there’s been nothing to come by for the last few days. Since rubles won’t be usable soon, the farmers don’t bring anything to the market anymore and if they sell anything they only want to exchange – particularly for soap. We just about managed to get a loaf of bread for 450 lei but it’s all gone today. Milk is a luxury – so are potatoes. Everything we brought with us is already all gone. We don’t come by any butter or eggs, Phöbus and Oskar are stick thin. I have lost weight but still look fine – the child is also […] bad. I didn’t bring much food and stuff with me because daddy told me he wouldn’t be able to carry it all. The Teitelbaums and Schemmels took everything with them – good thinking. On the other hand, a lot of things are being stolen or the people from Chernivtsi threw away almost everything because people were hunting them. Tatelt had amazing luck. As an American, she was allowed to go back and as far as I know, everyone that stayed is okay and she’ll find everything when she gets back to her
flat. Maybe you’ve spoken to her in the meantime, as they wanted to spend the night at Weber’s house. How are you? Do you have any signs of life from Dad? I dreamt about him last night. Are you all well? Health is all that matters now, so that you have the strength to survive all of this. God will provide for us so that we can come back again. People in Radautz have also taken some action for us so we still have hope, if you can do anything for us. – Davy makes me so happy, despite his cheek, because he’s very clever and speaks as well as a grown-up. Yesterday he said to me, we pray to God, why hasn’t he helped us? As long as you’re all in good health, it’s a consolation for me, the fact that you live like human beings! But I’m standing firm and I believe everything will be alright with us as well. A thousand kisses from your dear Phöbus. Particularly for you Mum, don’t worry too much. Love and kisses from us all.
Kisses, Davy
Hopefully you’ve not told Tatelt about our misfortune. Don’t tell anyone about it. Love, Phöbus