If You Live Long Enough . . .

 While we were in LA I tried to go through more boxes of stuff in the garage.  The most obvious things have been taken home, given away, donated, recycled, and tossed into the trash.  What's most left are various tools - screwdrivers, saws, gardening tools - that can be used around the house, and items that have some sentimental value.  

One day I found a valise full of condolence cards my mom received when my step-father died back in 1983.  That's almost 40 years ago!

The nearest empty  horizontal space was the hood of the car.  There were lots of cards and letters, most local, but a fair number from other parts of the US, Mexico, and Europe.  Do people get so many letters still today?  Not famous people, but just ordinary folks?  Or has email and FB and text and other media cut way back on communications via the post office?  

I went through them all and decided it was time for most of them to go on to a new life via the recycling bin.  I saved some with foreign stamps for my grandson who I'm hoping will find them of interest since there are drawers of stamps in the garage too.  

Most of the cards and letters were what you'd expect from condolence messages.  There were quite a few from people I had never hear of.  And then there was one that stood out from all the rest - from someone I'd never heard of that gave a glimpse of my step-father's life I'd never heard about:  his World War II service in the US Army.  

I don't know the exact chronology, but he was a German Jew who had escaped Hitler before the war broke out.  He had gotten his US citizenship and then (probably) was drafted into the army when WWII broke out.  What he did during the war, I had no idea.  

Until I read this letter, which I think may be of interest to others as well.  It covers, fairly briefly, the story of native German speakers, who were also fluent in English, who were used in Europe to interrogate prisoners and translate documents.  I've made it higher than normal resolution in hopes people will be able to read it.  

you should be able to enlarge by clicking on the image

I'm also putting it here in hopes that it might eventually be discovered by John Henry Richter's children and/or grandchildren because I would love to hear the tapes he talks about making in the letter.  Or maybe someone has transcribed them.  

The letter got me to do something I'd been putting off - call my mom's friend Edith.  We'd been taking her out to dinner during out annual visits to LA, but hadn't seen her since before the pandemic.  And I know why I didn't call.  She was about 95 last time we saw her.  I was afraid she was no longer with us.  But I called anyway and left a message - though it was her daughter's voice on the voice mail.  

But Edith called us back shortly and invited us for coffee.  We offered to bring the pastries.  She told us she was 95!  When we got to her house the next day we were pleasantly surprised to see how easily she was walking and carrying things from the kitchen to the dining room, and even bending down to pick things up.  And her mind was totally clear.  Only her hearing is a problem.  She was good on the phone because she has an app that turns the speech into text on the phone.  And while she did talk about the past in response to a couple of questions I had, she also asked detailed questions about the mechanics of renting out my mom's house when we aren't there (most of the time.)  I was going to video some of her WW II experiences - she got out of Austria as a 14 year old just after the Germans took over there.  She got to England where her mother was doing domestic work in a large house.  

But she said that the Austrian government had sent someone out to interview her a couple of years ago.  They are documenting the lives of Austrian Jews who fled - and perhaps some that survived but I don't know.  In fact you can hear her story here.