Handwritten letter

Handwritten letter on blue/green paper

24.11.1941from München (Munich), Germanybetween Julius Oppenheimer, Elsa Oppenheimer, Otto Oppenheimer, Josef Oppenheimer, Mina Weiler

Original — Deutsch

München den 24. Nov. 41
Liebe Familie Krieger! Hoffen seid bester
Gesundheit. Deine[?] liebe Schwester u. Nichte
lassen Euch vor der Abreise herzl. grüssen
sowie ein grosser Teil der Verwandten u.
Bekannten sind gezwungen die Reise
mitzumachen. Wir freuen uns von Euch wieder
etwas zu hören u. empfanget alle herzl. Grüsse
                    J. O.
Meine Lieben, über Eure Lieben hörten wir
immer von Euch u. freuen uns, dass Ihr
Euch so gut eingelebt habt. Lore[?] wird nun
schon eine junge Dame sein, denn es sind
doch schon beinahe zwei Jahre, dass Ihr von
uns fort seid. Mina ist nun nicht mehr
in New-York sondern seit einigen Wochen
in Baltimore. Wie geht es Ihnen lb. Frau
Bär[?]? Von meinen Lieben in Holland haben
wir regelmässig Nachricht u. sind sie gottlob
gesund. Ist Heinz[?] schon bei Euch?
Lasst bitte auch mal etwas von Euch
hören u. seid alle herzlichst gegrüsst
              von Eurer Else.

[unterer Seitenrand, in derselben Hand, Adresse:]
Mr. Siegfried Krieger Prospect Street 15
East Plain[s?] New York

[obere rechte Ecke, sehr blasser Bleistift, Ziffernfolge ca. vier Stellen: [... illegible]]

Translation — English

Munich, 24 Nov. 41
Dear Krieger family! We hope you are in the best of
health. Your[?] dear sister and niece
send you their warm greetings before the departure,
as well as a large part of the relatives and
acquaintances who are compelled to go
along on the journey. We look forward to hearing
something from you again, and receive all warm greetings
                    J. O.
My dears, about your dear ones we always
heard from you, and we are glad that you
have settled in so well. Lore[?] will by now
already be a young lady, for it is after all
almost two years since you went away from
us. Mina is now no longer
in New York but for some weeks now has been
in Baltimore. How are you, dear Mrs.
Bär[?]? From my dear ones in Holland we have
regular news and they are, thank God,
well. Is Heinz[?] with you already?
Do please let us hear something from you
again, and be all most warmly greeted
              from your Else.

[lower margin, same hand, address:]
Mr. Siegfried Krieger Prospect Street 15
East Plain[s?] New York

[upper right corner, very faint pencil, a roughly four-digit numeral: [... illegible]]

Historical context

A short two-part family letter written from München: the first eight lines are in the hand that signs "J. O." (appears to be Julius Oppenheimer), the remainder in the hand signing "Else" (his wife, spelled Else here, not Elsa). It is addressed not to Mina Kaufmann but to the Krieger family in the United States (the foot of the sheet carries the address "Mr. Siegfried Krieger, Prospect Street 15, East Plain[s?] New York"); Mina is mentioned in the third person and is reported to have moved from New York to Baltimore a few weeks earlier, which matches the known Baltimore period of Mina Kaufmann's life. The first paragraph appears to refer to the deportations from München: a sister and a niece send greetings "vor der Abreise" and "a large part of the relatives and acquaintances are compelled to go along on the journey" — the standard euphemism for a deportation transport. If the dateline is Nov. 1941 as read, this sits directly on the München transport of 20 November 1941 to Kaunas, on which Frieda Sara Allersheimer née Oppenheimer was murdered at Fort IX on 25 November 1941; Julius and Else themselves were deported to Piaski and died there in April 1942.

On this transcription

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

Re-read from the original scan on 2026-07-28. Legibility: fair. [?] marks are deliberate gaps, not transcription errors. Very faint graphite on a coloured/low-contrast sheet; nothing was readable at native contrast and every reading below rests on heavy local contrast enhancement. Items a checker should look at first: (1) THE DATELINE. The day reads "24" (second digit has the crossbar-and-stem of a continental 4; "21" cannot be wholly excluded). The month glyph is genuinely ambiguous between "Nov." and "Jan.": capital plus a closed oval plus one short letter plus a full stop. I settled on "Nov." on internal evidence, not on the letterforms — see reading_changed. The year reads "41". This CONTRADICTS the catalogue date 1941-01-14 in both day and (probably) month. (2) "Deine liebe Schwester u. Nichte" — the capital could equally be S ("Seine"); the singular "Deine" also sits oddly beside the plural "Euch" used throughout. (3) "Hoffen seid bester Gesundheit" — written elliptically, with no "Ihr"; I have not supplied one. (4) The name "Bär?" (line "Wie geht es Ihnen lb. Frau Bär?") — B + a-with-diacritic + r; could be "Bar". Not a name in the brief's list. (5) "Lore" and "Heinz" are both plausible given names but neither appears in the brief's list; both are single-pass readings. (6) The address line "East Plain[s?] New York" is the weakest passage on the page. There is no East Plains, NY; White Plains, NY (which has a Prospect Street) would be the obvious real-world candidate, but the first word begins with what looks like E-a-s-t, so I have transcribed what I see rather than correcting it. (7) The pencil numeral in the upper RIGHT corner (not left) is four digits at most, too faint to read; left as illegible. (8) An archivist's/curator's black arrow is drawn over the words "Dame sein" in the middle of the page and partly obscures them; "sein" is a reconstruction from the visible ascender and the grammar of the sentence, so treat it as uncertain. The script is ordinary Latin cursive here, not Kurrent. Revised readings: The month: I first read the capital as "J" and considered "Jan. 41", which would agree with the catalogue date 1941-01-14. I settled on "Nov. 41" on three pieces of internal evidence rather than on the letterform, which remains ambiguous: (a) relatives being 'compelled to go along on the journey' and a sister/niece greeting 'before the departure' fits the November 1941 deportations from München and has no counterpart in January 1941; (b) Mina having moved to Baltimore only 'a few weeks' ago; (c) 'almost two years since you went away from us', which for emigrants who left around the turn of 1939/40 points to late 1941. A human should re-examine the glyph. I also first took the crossed-out-looking stroke after 'Dame' for a deletion by the writer; it is the modern black arrow annotation drawn on the document, not the writer's cancellation. Signature read as 'Else', not 'Elsa'.