Handwritten letter
München, 27. 3. 1942. Meine Lieben, entschuldigt bitte, dass ich Euch diesmal solange warten liess, bis ich das schöne Paket bestätige, das schon am Dienstag gut in unsren Besitz kam. Wir freuten uns, wie immer, sehr darüber u. danken Euch herzlichst dafür. Ebenso für Euren lb. Brief u. das Paket nach Sagn[?] innigen Dank. Es kam auch gut dort an u. hat grosse Freude gemacht. Nun ist das Wetter so schön geworden, dass man ganz Sehnsucht nach Frieden bekommt. Wir hatten diese Woche schon schlechte Nachrichten. Unsre [ein Wort durchgestrichen, unleserlich] Verwandten aus Darmstadt u. Nürnberg mussten weg u. hat man von den andern Lieben noch keine Nachricht. Seit einigen Tagen ist in unsrem Heim Besuchsverbot für Alle, auch die Frauen, deren Männer hier sind, können nicht
Munich, 27 March 1942. My dears, please forgive me that this time I kept you waiting so long before confirming the lovely parcel, which already came safely into our possession on Tuesday. We were, as always, very glad of it and thank you most warmly for it. Likewise for your dear letter and the parcel to Sagn[?], heartfelt thanks. It too arrived safely there and gave great joy. Now the weather has turned so lovely that one gets quite a longing for peace. This week we already had bad news. Our [one word crossed out, illegible] relatives from Darmstadt and Nuremberg had to leave, and there is still no news from the other dear ones. For some days now there has been a ban on visits for everyone in our home; even the women whose husbands are here cannot
Page 1 of a two-page letter written from München on 27 March 1942 and signed on page 2 by Julius and Elsa (Else) Oppenheimer, who appear to be living in a Jewish 'Heim' (collective home/camp) in Munich; the writers thank relatives or friends for food parcels and report that a total ban on visits has just been imposed, so that even wives of men held there may not come. The sentence that relatives 'from Darmstadt and Nuremberg had to leave' and that no news has come from 'the other dear ones' appears to refer to the deportations of late March 1942 — the Darmstadt transport to the Piaski ghetto and the Nuremberg transport to Izbica, where Max Marx Oppenheimer died in March 1942. Julius Oppenheimer (b. 1882) and his wife Elsa/Else (b. 1894) were themselves deported from Munich to the Piaski ghetto near Lublin days later; she died there on 4 April 1942 and he in April 1942, which makes this among the last surviving writing from them.