Handwritten letter

Handwritten letter (page 1) in German Kurrent script

14.04.1940from München (Munich), Germanybetween Julius Oppenheimer, Elsa Oppenheimer, Mina Weiler, Margit Bernstein, Karl Maier2 pages

Original — Deutsch

N⁰ 26
                                        München den 1[4?]tᵉ April 194[? — letzte Ziffer im Riss verloren]
Liebe Mina!   Gestern den 13. Nachm.[?] bekamen wir Brief
18. Jan. mit den Papieren Morris[?] u. Katz nebst [b]zgl.[?] Brief [... Papier abgerissen]
hoffen wir da[?] einen Schritt hier weiterzukommen. Die
Bürgschaft von Ottis[?] haben wir noch nicht. Nach deinem Brief
v. 6 sind solche schon [an?] beide abgegangen. Bitte gehe nochmal [zu den?]
Bürgen Morris[?] bezw.[?] Katz nachfragen [b]zgl.[?] Deck.[?] An
das Konsulat schickte ich dieser Tage die [... unleserlich, evtl. "Zeugnisse"], da wir
angenommen haben, die Papiere werden direkt dorthin ge[schickt — Rissrand]
Nun sollten wir vorgeladen werden, würde ich [... unleserlich]
[... unleserlich] Beschaffung der Passage. [Denn?] ich
glaube nicht, dass man irgend[wie?] uns zu Hilfe kommen
[nehmen?] kann, [... unleserlich] Kinder [ein Wort durchgestrichen] u.
[wenn?] bekannt man wohl [Bescheid?], wenn nur das
[... unleserlich] hat, zweitens kann es noch Monate
dauern u. wir leben doch in einer Zeit, wo man nicht
auf den morgigen Tag rechnen kann. Es freut uns
zu hören, dass du einen Ge[?]artikel gefunden hast,
bitten wir unseren lieben Gott dass er alles zum
besten führt u. leitet nach seiner Bestimmung. Wenn
die Vetter Opp. gar nicht[s] [... unleserlich] wollen, so können solche
doch wenigstens die Passage bezahlen u. so sich einen eigenen
Gedenkstein setzen. Je[d]es[?] Mutter[herz?] wünscht keine größere
ihre Kinder möchten dorten 1400 Dollar zum Trustfond stellen
Ottis[?] 1000 Dollar, Edgar 800 u. so würden wir noch zu solchen
sein. Ein Risiko haben alle drei nicht, hoffen doch nach dieser
Unterstützung. Friedl [mein?] [... unleserlich] kann uns [... unleserlich]
geschehen, wenn Edgar sich dazu bereitstellt u. nicht nur
verspricht, sondern auch Wort hält. Heute bekamen ein Brief
von Niederbayern, dessen Sohn ist auch in U.S.A.
schreibt seine Eltern, dass er bei einer Spedition Firma
arbeitet u. will ihr helfen mit [... unleserlich] u. [Deutschen?]
Lederer heißt derselbe u. sucht den [... unleserlich] wegen. Der
[... unleserlich, teilweise durchgestrichen] Enkel die [Schwarz?]stelle [... unleserlich] erhalten.

[Bleistift unten links, Archivnummer:] 1293

Translation — English

No. 26
                                        Munich, the 1[4?]th of April 194[? — last digit lost in the tear]
Dear Mina!   Yesterday, the 13th, in the afternoon[?] we received [your] letter
[of] 18 Jan. with the papers [for] Morris[?] and Katz together with the relevant[?] letter [... paper torn away]
we hope thereby[?] to get a step further here. The
guarantee (Bürgschaft) from Ottis[?] we do not yet have. According to your letter
of the 6th such [documents] already went off to both. Please go once more [to the]
guarantors Morris[?] resp.[?] Katz and enquire regarding[?] cover[?]. To
the consulate I sent these last days the [... illegible, possibly "certificates"], since we
assumed the papers would be sent there directly [torn edge]
Should we now be summoned, I would [... illegible]
[... illegible] procuring the passage. [For?] I
do not believe that anyone will come to our aid in any way
[can take?], [... illegible] children [one word struck out] and
[if?] known one knows well [what to do?], if only the
[... illegible] has; secondly it may still take months
and we live in a time in which one cannot
reckon on tomorrow. We are glad
to hear that you have found a [?]-article,
we ask our dear God that He guide everything for
the best and direct it according to His will. If
the Oppenheimer cousins will do nothing at all[?], then they could
at least pay the passage and thereby set themselves their own
memorial stone. Every[?] mother's heart[?] wishes no greater
their children should place 1400 dollars there into the trust fund,
Ottis[?] 1000 dollars, Edgar 800, and so we would still [come] to such
be. None of the three runs any risk; we do hope after this
support. Friedl [thinks?] [... illegible] can [... illegible] to us
happen, if Edgar makes himself ready for it and does not merely
promise but also keeps his word. Today [we] received a letter
from Lower Bavaria, whose son is likewise in the U.S.A.
[he] writes to his parents that he works for a forwarding firm
and wants to help her with [... illegible] and [Germans?]
Lederer the same man is called, and he is looking for the [... illegible] on account of. The
[... illegible, partly struck out] grandchild received the [Schwarz?] position [... illegible].

[Pencil, lower left, archival number:] 1293

Historical context

Page 1 of a two-page letter from München, headed with the writer's own serial number "N⁰ 26" in the upper left — the same private letter-numbering convention seen on 001_018_0009, not quota or waiting-list data. Page 2 (001_018_0008) is signed "Euer Onkel Julius", so this appears to be Julius Oppenheimer (b. 1882 Gemmingen, d. 1942 Ghetto Piaski) writing to his niece Mina Kaufmann in the United States. The content is standard 1940 emigration business: affidavits/Bürgschaften from two American sponsors named Morris[?] and Katz, papers already forwarded to the consulate, the fear of being summoned (vorgeladen) before the passage money exists, and an appeal to the American "Vetter Opp." — the Oppenheimer cousins, presumably including Otto Oppenheimer of New York — to place 1400 dollars in a trust fund (1000 from "Ottis"[?], 800 from Edgar). The remark that "we live in a time in which one cannot reckon on tomorrow" is the writer's own assessment of his situation; he was deported and murdered in Poland two years later.

On this transcription

Machine transcription (claude-opus-5) — not yet checked against the original scan. 12 passages marked doubtful in the text.

Re-read from the original scan on 2026-07-28. Legibility: poor. [?] marks are deliberate gaps, not transcription errors. SPECIFIC CHECKS REQUESTED. (1) Dateline: the place is unambiguously "München". The day reads as "1" plus a raised "tᵉ"; I could not resolve whether a second digit (a 4) is present, so I transcribe "1[4?]tᵉ April". The year is "194" followed by a digit lost in the torn upper-right corner, so "194[?]" — the previous pass's "10. [month] 1940 or 1941" is NOT supported: the month is clearly April, and the day is not 10. Internal evidence: line 1 says "Gestern den 13.", and on page 2 Else writes "Es ist Samstag mittag"; 13 April 1940 was a Saturday, which fits an April 1940 date but leaves a one-day inconsistency I cannot resolve from the image alone. (2) Salutation: "Liebe Mina!" is CONFIRMED — clearly legible at the start of line 1. (3) Dollar amounts: "1400" is CONFIRMED ("1400 Dollar zum Trustfond stellen"). The previous pass's "100" is REFUTED: the two figures that follow are "1000" (four digits) and "800", i.e. "Ottis[?] 1000 Dollar, Edgar 800". All three numerals are among the clearest strokes on the page. (4) The upper-left "N⁰ 26" is the writer's letter-numbering, NOT a quota or waiting-list number. Bottom-left pencil "1293" is an archival/microfilm number. Still unresolved and worth a human eye: the sponsor surname read "Morris" (could be "Norris"); the recurring abbreviation before "Brief" and "Deck." that I read as "[b]zgl."; the word after "dieser Tage die" (line 9); the object of "einen Ge[?]artikel gefunden hast" (line 19) — it plainly ends "-artikel" and begins "Ge-", but I will not guess the middle; "Je[d]es Mutter[herz?] wünscht keine größere" (line 24), which is grammatically incomplete as I read it; the name "Ottis"/"Otties" which occurs twice and is probably Otto Oppenheimer but is not written "Otto"; and the last three lines (32–35), which are faint, partly struck through, and where my reading is little better than letter-shape guessing. Lines 11–16 are the weakest block on the page. Revised readings: I explicitly checked and reject the previous machine pass's readings for this page. "Kette [?] und liegt u. [?] höfisch [?] Leber [?]" and "ich trotz [?] Halbfinale dabei" have no counterpart anywhere in this document; nothing on the page supports them and I did not carry any of it over. I also could not confirm the claimed dateline "den 10." — the month is April and the day is not 10. Within my own work: I first read line 6/26 as "Otties" and considered "Ottos"; I have left it as "Ottis[?]". I first read line 8 as "nachstellen" and settled on "nachfragen". I first read "Nun sollt wir" and settled on the conditional "Nun sollten wir vorgeladen werden, würde ich ...". I initially read the word after "1400 Dollar zum" as "Trostland" and settled on "Trustfond" (the English "trust fund"), which fits the American context. I initially took the top-left "N⁰ 26" for a possible reference number and, following the sibling page 001_018_0009, identify it as the writer's own letter count.