Rebecca Gratz to Benjamin Gratz - November 19, 1841

Horace updates his Aunt Maria on the health and travels of family members and friends. Rebecca adds a note, discussing the character of their niece's new fiancé and furnishings she bought for Maria's home.

Writing to her sister-in-law Ann, Rebecca tells her of their family's trip to Saratoga Springs and Mary Riggs's participation in the social scene there. She also congratulates Ann on her stepson Howard's first-born child, and comments on a republished novel by Grace Aguilar.

Solomon writes to his aunt-in-law Rebecca, outlining his strong support for the insitution of slavery in the South. Miriam thanks her aunt for the books she sent to their children.

Marian Turzanski, born January 18, 1934 in Zupanie, Poland, was one of four sons in a Catholic family who owned large forest land. Before 1939, he recalls good relations with the few Jews in his village, one of whom once hid in the Turzanski home. After the German invasion, hostile Ukrainians threatened to kill Marian’s father; a friendly Ukrainian intervened and urged the family to flee. In Hungary, they moved frequently, settling in Keszthely, where Marian attended a school for Polish children. His parents had left their baptismal papers in Poland, to be used by Samuel Goldreich, the Jew they once sheltered. Life in Hungary after German occupation is detailed: terrorization by the Arrow Cross and German soldiers, ghettoization of Jews and Poles, deportation of Jews and Gypsies. Marian’s father was active in the underground, together with Hungarian Jews and other Christians; Marian and his brothers became messengers. He describes in detail the family’s deportation December 31, 1944, to Germany, via Prague and Vienna in sealed cattle cars and the luxury of bedsheets and decent food at the Wilhelmshaven work camp near Berlin. This contrasts with the starkness of the other camps he mentions briefly: Strashof, Bayreuth, Neumarkt. He describes brutal treatment by Ukrainians at Neumarkt. After liberation by Americans in 1945, he lived in Displaced Persons camps at Neumarkt, Hochenfels, Annsbach, Wildflecken, Heilbronn, Ludvigsburg and Bremenhafen. He came to the United States on August 27, 1949 after losing all of his relatives outside of his immediate family.

Rebecca writes to her sister-in-law Maria, expressing her excitement for Maria's family's upcoming visit, discusses Hazan Isaac Leeser's literary efforts and a fatal duel that occured in Philadelphia, and updates her on the health and travels of family and friends.