Rebecca Gratz to Maria Fenno Hoffman - December 13, [1819]

Rebecca expresses her condolences to her nieces and nephews on the death of their father Solomon Moses.

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.

Sarah Schwimmer was born in Irsava, Czechoslovakia on August 19, 1926, one of 15 children in an observant Jewish family. Her father was a blacksmith in a largely Jewish community and supported his family until antisemitic Hungarians confiscated his business in 1939 and those of other family members. Sarah and an older sister went to Budapest where she worked as a seamstress. Her sister, a beautician, tried unsuccessfully to obtain a passport from Wallenberg, but remained underground throughout the war at the Swedish Embassy. Sarah joined Dror, the Zionists underground movement. In September 1944 as the Germans were forcing all Jews into the Budapest Ghetto, Sarah and her sister hid for a short time, but eventually ended up in the ghetto and then got separated. She describes atrocities committed by the Germans soldiers as she and others were forced to dig trenches for Germans and graves for Jews. In September 1944, Sarah was taken with other women on a death march to Hegyeshalom on the German border. Only one third survived for 10 days without food, water or shelter, to be transported by train to Buchenwald, Ravensbrück, Burgau and Türkheim. She vividly describes hunger, loss of spirit and forced labor. Yet she had the will to survive. She was liberated by a regiment of black American soldiers on April 28, 1945. She walked with other women through Russian, French and English zones to reach Marseille for passage to Israel.

Rebecca thanks her brother Ben for his letter and continues to console him after the death of his son Cary. She also comments on the precarious political situation in Kentucky.

Rebecca writes to her brother Ben, sharing news of the sudden death of an old family friend, Ogden Hoffman, and a recent fire in Philadelphia.