Tag Archives: Farewell letter.

A sad but brave farewell letter- Young love destroyed.

bob

Operation Frankton was a British WWII commando raid on shipping in the German occupied French port of Bordeaux in southwest France.

The plan was for six kayaks  to be taken to the area of the Gironde estuary by submarine. The twelve men would then paddle by night to Bordeaux. The operation was carried out between 7-12 December 1942.

The best way to describe the mission is a suicide mission. Of the 12 men involved in the operation only 4 survived.

One of the marines  21 year old Robert “Bobby” Ewart knew the dangers involved and wrote a farewell letter to his 16 year old Girlfriend Heather Powell.

Below is the text of the letter.

“Dear Heather, I trust it won’t be necessary to have this sent to you but since I don’t know the outcome of this little adventure, I thought I’d leave this note behind.

I couldn’t help but love you Heather, although you were so young. I will always love you, as I know you do me.

That alone should get me through this, but one never knows the turns of fate. One thing I ask of you, Heather, is not to take it too hard. You have yet your life to live.

“Think of me as a good friend and keep your chin up. Some lucky fellow will find you who has more sense than I had and who can get you what you deserve.

Yours for ever, Bob, chin up Sweetheart.”

Bob Ewart was captured on December 10 1942 and executed. After Heather received the news of Bob’s death she got ill, she contracted tuberculosis and died heartbroken shortly before she turned 17.

 

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Donation

I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2, however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thank you. To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the PayPal link. Many thanks.

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Holocaust in words

drawing

It is said that a picture paints a thousand words , and it does, but that also means that sometimes a picture is just to horrible to look at it, for just a glimpse can evoke a thousand emotions. There are so many images of the Holocaust which are just to gruesome to view, However sometimes just the words of victims can have a deeper emotional impact that lasts.

Below are just some examples of last words send to family members, either on postcard or letter. I don’t know the dates but that doesn’t matter for the words are just so powerful.

A message from Margot Triest’s mother.

“Little treasure, I’m sure you have found girlfriends already. Always take care of yourself, little one, always be well and have fun … Always be brave, little girl, and with God’s help, we will see one another again.”

Margot did not see her mother again, The words were written on a postcard, and Margot;s Mother had thrown the postcard out of the train, bur miraculously it was found and given to Margot.

A message from Ernst Bornstein’s parents(excerpts from letters send to Ernst)

“As time passed by we received more terrible news about the “Aussiedlung” (the resettlement of the Jewish population) .

“We are standing in front of our wagons because our town is now Judenrein. Like other transports before us, we are probably going to the extermination at Auschwitz. Stay strong and make sure that you stay alive. And do not forget all this.”

A message from Fanya Barbakow(Excerpt from her last letter)

“My dear ones!! I am writing this letter before my death, but I don’t know the exact day that I and all my relatives will be killed, just because we are Jews. All of our Jewish brothers and sisters were murdered and died a shameful death at the hands of the murderers… I don’t know who will remain alive from our family, and who will have the honor of reading my letter and my proud greeting before death to all my beloved and dear ones tortured at the hands of the murderers.”

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I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2, however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thank you. To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the PayPal link. Many thanks.

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Source

Yad Vashem

 

Two last letters

 

04These 2 letter are truly heartbreaking. The 1st one because it was written by a young boy showing appreciation for a gift, not knowing what fate waited for him after his mother had sent his letter. This one actually tore my heart to pieces.

The 2nd one from a young man who knew exactly what was waiting for him and yet he was able to comfort his family. A real Hero

Zalman Levinson was a nine-year-old boy who lived with his mother, Frieda, and his father, Zelik, in Riga, Latvia. They stayed in regular communication with Frieda’s sister, Agnes, in Israel, who would send gifts to Zalman.

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Frieda sent Agnes a postcard from Riga in April 1941. After that, the letters suddenly stopped. it is known  now that the family’s names were included on a list of inmates at the Riga ghetto, where about 30,000 Jews were held captive.

In late 1941, Germans declared that they would be moving the ghetto’s inhabitants and settling them “further east.” Between November 30 and December 9, at least 26,000 of these Jews were killed southeast of Riga along the Riga-Dvinsk railway. It is likely that this is where the Levinsons, including Zalman, were killed.

The last letter that Frieda received from her nephew was a colorful drawing of his house and a brief letter he had written himself. The letter to his aunt was signed with his name and a brief, “Thank you for the present.”

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Wolfgang Kusserow and his entire family were under close watch from the Nazi secret police because of their religious activities. As one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, he believed that God—and not Hitler—was deserving of his loyalty.2-wolfgang-kusserow-family

 

Even after his father and mother were arrested for this, Kusserow continued to hold illegal Bible study meetings in his home. Like Gerhard Steinacher, Kusserow refused to join the German military effort and was arrested in December 1941. He, too, was tried and sentenced to death.

My dear Parents, and my dear brothers and sisters!

One more time I am given the opportunity to write you. Well, now I your third son and brother, shall leave you tomorrow early in the morning. Be not sad, the time will come when we shall all be together again. Those who will sow with tears, will reap with joy. “Those sowing seed with tears will reap even with a joyful cry.”

 

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How great the joy will be, when we see all of us again, although it is not easy now to overcome all this, but through belief and hope in the King and His Kingdom we conquer the worst. “For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor governments nor things now here nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other creation will be able to separate us from God’s love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39).

So we confidently look forward to the future.

Dear Papa, I am sorry that I was not allowed to visit you early in December. Exactly one year ago from tomorrow I saw you and Hildegard for the last time. In the meantime I have visited Lenchen. It was a special joy for me to see Mummy once again. Well, dear Mummy, Annemarie read me your dear letter during her visit… It is fine that you are busy in the baking factory (prison), so you are at least in a warm room and you have something to eat. Lenchen is now in the concentration camp.

Thus we are all separated, but everybody is steady. Yes we shall be rewarded for all of this. Read this in James 1:12: “Happy is the man who keeps on enduring trials, because on becoming approved he will receive the crown of life, which Jehovah promised to those who continue loving Him.”

“Dear Annemarie, once more special thanks to you for all your endeavors. May this our Lord reward you. I have you all constantly in mind. That was a life, when we were all at home together! – And suddenly separated!

Well Satan knows that his time is short. Therefore, he tries with all his power to lead astray from God men of good will, but he will have no success. We know that our faith will be victorious.

In this faith and this conviction I leave you.

A last greeting from this old world in the hope of seeing you again soon in a New World.

Your son and brother (signed) Wolfgang”

Wolfgang was killed on March 28, 1942. He was 20 years old

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Last words of Martin Zellermayer

43.-zellermayer002A planned sea crossing on 21 March 1942 of the  Austrian born Jewish Engelandvaarder (Lit. England-farer) Carl Martin Zellermayer and eight others failed because they were betrayed. In the ferry boss’ house in the Dutch harbour village of Simonshaven they awaited nightfall. Once it was dark, they could embark on their journey to England. But before that happened, the Germans surrounded the house and arrested the would-be Engelandvaarders.

engelandvaarders

Zellermayer was executed by the Germans on 15 August 1942. A few hours before his sentence was to be carried out he wrote this letter to his fiancée Annie Koningsbrugge.

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His farewell letter begins: ‘I was just informed that my death sentence is confirmed and will be carried out this very afternoon at ½ 3. So I have just 4½ hours to live and then I must die.”

 

 

 

Below is a picture of the death notification of Carl Martin Zellermayer in the  Jewish weekly newspaper, which ran from the 11th of April until the 28th of September of 1943 by the Jewish council in the Netherlands but was under censorship by the German occupiers.

I don’t know what happened to the brother of Martin Zellermayer ,who placed the notification on the 19th of August 1942.

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I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2, however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thank you. To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the PayPal link. Many thanks.

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