TRANSLATION WITH TRANSLATOR'S COMMENTS
(PAGE 1)
Pithiviers Wednesday November 26, 1941
My Dearest Pola!
As I was writing to you yesterday, I mentioned that I would write today, so I want to keep my word and I am writing now.
I also sent you the letter I didn’t send on the day I wrote it.
As you can see, right after I sent you the unpleasant letter, I immediately wrote you another letter in response to yours, which I received with your nice package.
You don’t have a letter at home because you wrote me that you wanted to send it to me, but when you received the letter from me, you didn’t send it.
So I want you to send me your long letter, you can send it to Abyś. I understand you will do the same as myself and you will send me this letter. [Abyś could be an endearing form of Abraham. Pronunciation: AH-beesh]
I am looking forward to the package and I hope this whole story will simply be forgotten. Try to hide it in a few places so I can have your letter, which will be long.
[It’s not clear from the text what she was supposed to hide – is it possible that they somehow hid letters inside the care packages? Inside different items that were included?]
(PAGE 2)
You see, Pola, I know that my letters reached your home because Abyś received a letter from his parents where they say that Your Dear father received my letters and he will reply to them. He also got the greetings for Your parents which he read in the letter to Abyś’ parents.
They send greetings to me through Abyś and they say everything is fine with them.
As you see, it was my duty to write to Your parents, and you wrote me that for that reason you would break off corresponding with me.
But let’s not talk about it any more.
So today I am also writing an open postcard to Your parents, because they say that postcards travel faster. [It literally says “open postcard” – I’d imagine he means that it’s not in an envelope; this is not a standard expression in Polish.]
Have you not received anything from Poland yet?
I am very happy that everybody received the letters I sent. I sent letters to Gitele, Fryda and Gacia as well.
(PAGE 3)
I expect that everybody will give you an answer, and you will send it to Abyś.
I am very glad that you are writing me about our child.
But I’m not happy that you say that you will write only about the child and not about Yourself. I think I will change Your position towards me and you will write me a lot about you as well as about our child.
[A tiny little detail about the word “zmienie” – “I will change”. Leon wrote it with an accent above the final e, which is not Polish at all – we don’t have such a letter. Instead, it should end with another special character – ę, zmienię. This may be an influence of French, they have this kind of accented e at the end of words. Very interesting how Leon’s languages are intertwined.]
You made a very good decision to buy something for the child. She will be warmer in these shoes.
Have you bought anything else for the child, does she have winter clothes? Are any available? When you write that our Jacqueline is more and more delightful and happy, I am very glad.
She probably suffers a lot from teething and you don’t want to write me. Do you sleep well. I can imagine how beautiful our child is, she can sing already and she says papa.
[Not sure what papa would refer to – it could be “daddy”, possibly through German/Yiddish, but also “bye bye”, it’s one of the first things many children learn.]
You have to take good care of the child, remember that the little chair Gitele gave you
(PAGE 4)
is a little broken. Doesn’t it make the child tilt/tip over?
[This is really my interpretation. The grammar in this sentence is very unusual and so are the words, especially “przechiło” – there is no such word in Polish. However, maybe it was supposed to be “przechyliło” – tilted, tipped (over), and it’s just missing a syllable. It would make sense in the context of a broken chair that Jacqueline can’t sit straight in it.
Also, one verb is in the past tense but the whole structure is so strange that I can’t be sure if Leon is writing about the possibility that the chair might tilt, or has it tipped over already. Polish has similar past tense grammar in “hypothetical” sentences and I think French does as well. ]
My Beloved! You wrote that I would soon see you and the child. Because there are rumors about visits. So far there has been nothing special .I will write you as soon as they announce anything officially.
I want this day to come already when I can see You, My Dear, together with the child. I remember now that when we saw each other I said that you look good, and you then told me at the barrack that you had lost weight and that that new dress was already too loose on you. I didn’t notice that you were too skinny, you looked great, and you are writing me about this. Maybe I mentioned it in a letter somewhere because you work hard and you are with the child completely on your own.
You write me that you will soon have a photo taken of the child, take a photo of yourself as well, I want to have one. I know it’s expensive, but it will be cheaper to do them together. If I have a few francs
(PAGE 5)
I will send them to you so you can pay for the photo.
How do you know that Max has shoes? [It could also be boots – there is no difference in Polish, the only way to know would be more contextual detail]
He wanted his wife to make a pair of shoes for him and another one, which would be for me. But she can’t get anybody to make them even though she has the materials.
[Interesting – if I had only the first sentence, I would think that the wife will actually make the shoes herself. But in the second sentence it’s clear that she was supposed to find a shoemaker.]
Beloved Pola! You wrote me that you have an opportunity to get shoes for me, but please, don’t spend the money, I can manage, because it’s expensive nowadays. Please, buy shoes for yourself because I know that you don’t have any.
I thank Icek and Gitele for the pair of gloves they gave you for me. I think they will reply to my letter.
How are they doing, are they working a bit. How is their little Michel, does he ever visit our place.
In this package [he?] can send one pair and then our pair…
[Unclear – there is no subject in this sentence to tell who would send – and I’m not sure what they are sending, either. A pair of gloves?]
You haven’t written me at all if you have sewn our 30 pairs and if you have sold them.
[Again – unclear what she was sewing: something that comes in pairs, and she could sell them. Gloves? But then why would someone else have to give her gloves for Leon? Pants maybe?
A side note on one of the other documents you sent me – the one with Pola’s photo. I shared it with Agnieszka, since it was in French, and she deciphered that Pola’s profession was listed there as mecanicienne. This was a puzzle for a moment – was she a mechanic fixing machines? Or working with the use of machines? Then Agnieszka found Pola’s obituary that said she was a seamstress. Is it possible that Pola worked at some clothing factory and made clothes using machines? We don’t know exactly what was meant on the document.]
We have news here that Albert is at Dransy [Drancy], and Hersz Jankiel was let out of Dransy [Drancy]. Is that true?
(PAGE 6)
It’s strange that Dajerman is at home already, and yet he hasn’t been with Genia yet.
You wrote me a while ago that it costs 13 francs at Genia’s, or 15 f. Will ??? agree. [I don’t know what Genia is selling. I’m reading the whole context and it doesn’t seem to provide any clues. Maybe it was something so obvious that L & P didn’t have to mention it.]
If you get it, which is difficult now, you can send as much as you can in one package, and then in a few days the next one.
I will try to send you some cards/tickets the regular way. [Leon uses the word “kartki”, which in Polish mean postcards, rationing tickets, even sheets of paper. The existing context is not suficient to figure out what he meant.]
I will finish my letter now and I am looking forward to letters from you, so we can continue writing to each other.
I know [hole in paper, verb missing] with letters, they will send them on all occasions. [Also, the verb in this sentence is missing – there is a little hole on the crease and the word is not legible.]
So, after this letter, my Beloved Pola, I am waiting for a reply from you.
I send you my love and kiss you as strongly as I used to before…
Kiss our nice Jacqueline.
The one who misses you
Leon
You asked me if it is true that we have fire in the stove. Yes! We can cook everything, whatever one has. Send me a pack of coffee, which you are getting for the tickets.
[Leon used the French word here for coffee – cafe, or perhaps cafę, which would be an interesting form – a French word with a Polish ending. But that’s what happens when one speaks multiple languages! He also mentions “tykiety” here – the rationing tickets, I assume.
There is no difference between furnace and stove in Polish, but since they are cooking on it, I’m assuming it’s a stove.
Second comment – Leon used the verb “Send” multiple times in this letter and even though it’s slightly misspelled in most instances, it’s easy to understand. But it also makes me think how tricky Polish is with all the endings.]
(TRANSLATOR'S NOTE)
An EXTREMELY side note about Jankiel – the name mentioned in the letter. It really has nothing to do with Leon’s correspondence, but it’s a bit of Polish/Jewish culture.
If you said this name in Poland, many people would connect it right away with a character from “Pan Tadeusz” [Mr. Tadeusz], one of the best known Polish literary pieces. Towards the end of the book there is an extensive description of Jankiel’s dulcimer concert where he presents the history of Poland through music.
A movie was made recently based on this book – you can see Jankiel’s concert here: