Rebecca Gratz to Miriam Gratz Moses Cohen - September 17, 1857

Writing to her sister-in-law Ann, Rebecca expresses the joy and comfort her brother Ben's visit gave her after the deaths of their sister Richea and brother Jo.

Rebecca writes to her sister-in-law Ann, informing her of all the clothing she has sent her. She also updates her on the health, travels, and deaths within the extended family.

Margaret (Peggy) tells her friend Rebecca of her visits with friends and the 4th of July celebrations in Trenton. She also discusses her love interest and the pros and cons of matrimony.

After making extensive preparations for her sister-in-law Maria's visit, Rebecca expresses her deep disappointment that she and her family cancelled their trip to Philadelphia. She also discusses the health issues of her cousins and the effects of the Small Pox outbreak in the Orphan Asylum.

Anne Dore Russell, née Weidemann, a non-Jew, was born in Brandenburg, Germany in 1926. She went to school from 1933 to 1945 in Brandenburg. Her father told her about experiences of Germans opposed to Hitler. She knew that her uncle was sent to Sachsenhausen and heard about a Jehovah’s Witness who was imprisoned and later killed for his beliefs. A neighbor who had been a Nazi sympathizer, had a mental breakdown after executing Jews as a soldier on the Eastern Front. She speaks briefly about Kristallnacht and life in Branderburg under the Nazis. Her father, a civil servant, lost his position in 1933 because he was a Social Democrat and belonged to the Socialist Party (SPD). He told Anne Dore why he opposed the Nazi regime. He avoided using the “Heil Hitler” salute and secretly listened to the BBC (British Broadcasting Company). She learned to be careful in public because of her father’s beliefs. The local police took her father into protective custody in July 1944 during a roundup of men suspected of involvement in a plot to assassinate Hitler. She mentions the behavior of local Nazis near the end of the war, after which she went to Humbold University in East Berlin and then the Free University in West Berlin.