Rebecca Gratz to Maria Fenno Hoffman - May 15, 1815

Miriam tells her aunt Rebecca about the growth of her congregation and her efforts to raise funds for her synagogue to employ a permanent reader.

Rebecca writes to her sister-in-law Maria about the effects of Yellow fever, including the death of a New Orleans pastor, and tells Maria that their Philadelphia social circle desires to see Ben.

Rebecca tells her sister-in-law Maria about the health of family members and friends, particuarly about Ellen Hays Etting, whose newborn recently died. She also discusses the literature she is reading.

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, updating her on the preparations for her niece's wedding and expresses her sorrow over the deaths of her synagogue's minister, Abraham Keys, and a close family friend, Gertrude Meredith.

Rebecca updates her sister-in-law Maria on news about family and friends and shares her thoughts on the novel Mariamne by Elijah Fenton.