Handwritten letter

Handwritten letter with multiple notes from different family members

07.09.1941from München (Munich), Germanybetween Julius Oppenheimer, Elsa Oppenheimer, Frieda Allersheimer, Mina Weiler

Original — Deutsch

[oben, fremde Hand / Archivvermerke:] 43.    3529 [?]+1 St. [Haken]    817/2

[L]iebe Mina l. Fritz                                        München den 7. Sept. 41.
Besten Dank für Brief vom 18.8. No 18 Wir freuen uns
immer Nachricht zu haben. Der l. Simon hat heute angerufen u.
erwarten denselben wenn es ihm möglich, ende dieser Woche
hier, er wohnt jetzt Her[?]elstraße 31/III muste umziehen.
Ist Frau Sofie Kahn angekommen wäre es möglich nach
Lis zu kommen mit Hilfe ihrer Bekannten u. von da
das Visum nach U.S.A. zu erhalten. Frau Sofie K. hat
uns versprochen darüber in Lissa[?] Rücksprache zu nehmen.
Vielleicht könnt Ihr in Verbindung treten, ich bin ja
schon daran gewöhnt wenn man wieder soweit ist,
wieder etwas anderes dazwischen kommt. Alles andere
berichtet Euch die l. Else. Bleibet gesund herzl. Grüsse
u. Küsse Euch          Euer                    Julius

--- [zweite Hand] ---
Meine l. Mina u. l. Fritz, auch ich freute mich mit Eurem
l. Brief sehr u. ganz besonders, dass Ihr gesund seid.
Ich glaube, dass Simon nur vorübergehend dort wohnt. Margit
ist im selben Haus. Ihr schreibt ja doch vorerst über uns.
Die Grüsse Eurer Lieben erwiedert herzlichst. Wir können uns
ihre Lage vorstellen. Von Selma[?] hatten wir auch Brief. Sie
sind gottlob gesund. Auch Agnes grüsse herzlichst. Braucht sie noch
kein Kindermädel. Wir hören [ein Wort durchgestrichen] öfters von Soferl[?] u. Katherl[?] u.
auch die Mutter schreibt, dass alle gesund sind. Viel Arbeit haben
sie halt immer. Dass Alice[?] so zufrieden ist freut uns sehr,
ein Equivalent für alles was sie durchmachen musste.
Hannys[?] Vater haben wir gestern tel. gesprochen. Sie sind gesund.
Nun wünschen wir Euch nochmals alles Gute u. grüsst
bitte alle lb. Verwandten u. Bekannten herzlichst, Euch selbst
innige Grüsse u. Küsse, Eure Euchliebende Else.
Gute Feiertage, fastet gut. Von Tante Frieda, Guetl[?], Dora,
Rosa, Hermine, Marie u.s.w. viele Grüsse.

[unterste Zeile, abgesetzter Streifen:]
z.Zt. Mina Kaufmann 622 West 141 Str. Apt 3 D New York City.

Translation — English

[at top, another hand / archival marks:] 43.    3529 [?]+1 St. [check mark]    817/2

[D]ear Mina, dear Fritz                                        Munich, the 7th of Sept. 41.
Many thanks for the letter of 18.8., No. 18. We are always
glad to have news. Dear Simon telephoned today and
we expect him, if it is possible for him, at the end of this week
here; he now lives at Her[?]elstraße 31, third floor — he had to move.
If Frau Sofie Kahn has arrived, would it be possible to get to
Lis[bon] with the help of her acquaintances, and from there
to obtain the visa to the U.S.A. Frau Sofie K. has
promised us to take the matter up in Lissa[bon?].
Perhaps you could get in touch with each other; I am after all
already used to it that whenever one has got that far again,
something else comes in between again. Everything else
dear Else will report to you. Stay well, warm greetings
and kisses to you          Your                    Julius

--- [second hand] ---
My dear Mina and dear Fritz, I too was glad of your
dear letter, very much so, and quite particularly that you are well.
I believe that Simon is only living there temporarily. Margit
is in the same house. You are writing by way of us for the time being, after all.
The greetings of your dear ones are returned most warmly. We can imagine
their situation. From Selma[?] we also had a letter. They
are, thank God, well. Give Agnes warm greetings too. Does she not yet need
a nursemaid. We hear [one word crossed out] quite often from Soferl[?] and Katherl[?], and
Mother writes too that everyone is well. They always have plenty of work,
of course. That Alice[?] is so content makes us very glad,
an equivalent for everything she had to go through.
We spoke with Hanny's[?] father by telephone yesterday. They are well.
Now we wish you once again all the best, and please give
our warmest greetings to all the dear relatives and acquaintances; to you yourselves
heartfelt greetings and kisses, your loving Else.
Good holidays, fast well. From Aunt Frieda, Guetl[?], Dora,
Rosa, Hermine, Marie etc. many greetings.

[bottom line, on a separate strip:]
c/o Mina Kaufmann, 622 West 141 St., Apt 3 D, New York City.

Historical context

A one-page letter written from Munich on 7 September 1941 by Julius Oppenheimer and, in a second hand, by his wife, who signs "Else", to Mina Kaufmann in New York (the address at the foot of the sheet, 622 West 141st Street, Apt 3 D, is in the Washington Heights refugee quarter of Manhattan). The first hand is still working the emigration channel: a Frau Sofie Kahn who has apparently reached safety is asked to intercede so that they might reach "Lis[sabon]" — Lisbon, the last open port for transatlantic emigration in 1941 — and obtain a U.S. visa from there. The letter appears to record forced rehousing: Simon (very likely Simon Israel Oppenheimer, b. 1876 Gemmingen, deported and died in Riga in December 1941) "had to move" to a new Munich address and Margit is in the same house, which fits the concentration of Munich Jews into designated "Judenhäuser" during 1941. It was written twelve days before the yellow-star decree took effect (19 September 1941), roughly two and a half months before the first Munich deportation transport (20 November 1941 to Kaunas), and about seven months before Julius and Elsa/Else were murdered at Piaski (April 1942). The correspondence is numbered ("Brief vom 18.8. No 18") — a common device for detecting mail withheld or lost in censorship — and the tone is correspondingly guarded: "Ihr schreibt ja doch vorerst über uns" (you are writing by way of us for the time being) and Julius's resigned "whenever one has got that far again, something else comes in between again" appear to be circumlocutions for blocked routes and intercepted mail rather than personal complaint. The closing "Gute Feiertage, fastet gut" points to the approaching High Holidays (Rosh Hashanah 22–23 September, Yom Kippur 1 October 1941).

On this transcription

Machine transcription (claude-opus-5) — not yet checked against the original scan. 9 passages marked doubtful in the text.

Re-read from the original scan on 2026-07-28. Legibility: good. [?] marks are deliberate gaps, not transcription errors. Script is a Latin cursive (not Kurrent) and mostly clean; the scan is only 1119x1560 px, so individual letters at word level are soft under magnification. Specific items for a human checker, in order of importance: (1) The day in the dateline. The glyph has a rising top bar, a short crossbar, and a long descending tail that loops below the baseline. I read "7", which agrees with the metadata date 1941-09-07, but the writer's clearly formed "3" in "31/III" two lines below looks quite different, so the digit deserves a second eye; "3" cannot be excluded. (2) The Munich street name, "er wohnt jetzt Her[?]elstraße 31/III". I can read the opening "Her" and the closing "straße" with confidence but not the two or three letters between; at high magnification it looks like "Herochelstraße"/"Herodelstraße", neither of which is a Munich street. "Herzogstraße" is the obvious candidate but I could not make the strokes fit it and have deliberately not forced the match. (3) "l. Fritz" in both salutations ("[L]iebe Mina l. Fritz", "Meine l. Mina u. l. Fritz"). The reading of the name itself is clear, but it does not match the roster, which gives Mina Kaufmann's husband as Jacob Kaufmann. Either the roster or my reading needs checking. (4) "nach Lis zu kommen" and "darüber in Lissa Rücksprache zu nehmen" — the abbreviation for Lisbon is written two different ways and neither carries an unambiguous stop; Lisbon is a contextual inference, not a reading. (5) Personal names in the second hand that I read but cannot verify against the roster: "Selma", "Agnes", "Soferl", "Katherl", "Alice", "Hannys Vater", "Guetl". "Soferl" and "Katherl" are Bavarian diminutives and are plausible, but the terminal -erl in each is partly guesswork. "Guetl" in the final list could equally be "Gustl" or "Gretl". (6) In "Wir hören ... öfters" one word is heavily struck through by the writer and is not recoverable. (7) The archival numbers at the head of the sheet ("43.", "3529", "817/2", and a short annotation I read only as "[?]+1 St.") are in a modern hand and are transcribed as marks, not as content. (8) The bottom address line sits on a separate strip of the sheet, below a clear gap; its hand resembles the first (Julius) hand but I could not confirm this from the capitals available, so it may be a third hand or a later addition. It is not counted as a correspondent's note because it is unsigned. (9) I attribute the closing postscript "Gute Feiertage, fastet gut. Von Tante Frieda ..." to the second hand (Else) rather than to a third writer: the letters are larger, but the construction of the capital G, the breve over the u and the -te ligature in "Gute" match Else's "alles Gute" three lines above. So: two hands of correspondence, not three, despite the several people named in the greetings. Revised readings: Dateline: on first pass the day digit read as "3" (flat top plus a bowl looping below the line); after enlarging it further the short crossbar and the unbroken descending diagonal resolved it as a crossed Continental "7", which also agrees with the metadata. Flagged as still arguable. — "Der l. Simon hat heute angerufen": first read as "Herzl. Simon", which is not idiomatic; the initial letter is the writer's capital D with a full loop, so "Der l. Simon". — "Besten Dank für Brief vom 18.8.": first read as "vom 8.8.", but a preceding "1" is present at the band edge, giving 18.8., which also makes the letter number "No 18" consistent. — "Braucht sie noch kein Kindermädel": first read as "Bewacht", which is meaningless here; the breve over the u is visible at magnification, so "Braucht". — Else's signature line: first read as "Eure Gross[eltern]" or similar because of the large initial; it resolves into the run-together "Euchliebende", i.e. "Eure Euchliebende Else". — The street name was at one stage written out as "Herzogstraße"; I have withdrawn that and left it "Her[?]elstraße", because the strokes do not support it and the roster warning about forcing plausible matches applies. — Note against the metadata: "auch die Mutter schreibt, dass alle gesund sind" cannot refer to Mina Oppenheimer née Kirchhausen, who died in 1913; the mother meant here is someone else and is not identified in the letter.