Rebecca Gratz to Maria Gist Gratz - April 25, 1839

Rebecca tells her sister-in-law Maria about her trip to Washington, D.C.and the lingering effects of an accident she had. She also shares her thoughts about Nat Turner's rebellion and expresses her concern for Maria's family's safety.

Rebecca tells her sister-in-law Ann of their family's travels for their health and comforts her regarding the business issues of her step-son, Howard, and son, Joseph.

Rebecca tells her sister-in-law Ann of all the family and friends that have visited and stayed with her in Philadelphia. She also commends the actress Fanny Kemble for her dramatic readings of Shakespeare.

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.

Anatole Gorko was born in Lodz, Poland on June 28, 1907 of well-to-do Zionists. He worked in his father’s spinning factory until 1939, when Germany invaded Poland. He fought in the Polish Army for three weeks. After being in the Reserves, he was taken to a prisoner of war camp for a few weeks. He found himself with his family in the center of the Lodz Ghetto in January 1940 and describes the life there. He worked as head cashier for the ghetto stores until August 1944. He and his family including his wife and child were finally deported to Auschwitz, in cattle cars, where, in the presence of Mengele, only he and his brother-in-law were selected for work and the rest of the family perished. He describes the train ride, arrival, selection, and shaving. He remained there for one month, then pretended to be a mechanic and was selected for a camp in Sudeten where after two weeks of training he worked on V2 rockets. Here he managed to sabotage, and persuade other workers, including German mechanics, to sabotage the work. He worked there from September 1944 until May 1945 when the Russians liberated the area. He made his way back to Lodz where he remarried, became head of the textile production for Communist Poland, but decided to leave. He smuggled himself and his wife to Munich, and waited from 1946 to 1948 to obtain necessary papers to resettle in the United States. He describes in some detail his adjustment to the United States.