Handwritten letter

Handwritten inventory/packing list in blue ink

1940from [München/Munich or Stuttgart, Germany]between Julius Oppenheimer, Elsa Oppenheimer

Original — Deutsch

[Bleistift, quer am oberen linken Rand, sehr blass:] N[o?] 8[?]
[zwei gewellte Zierstriche oben links]

                    Koffer N: 4        Haas

 36        Servietten
  9        Tischtücher
  2        Tafeltücher
  8        Oberbettücher[?]
  8        Plumeaux
  3        H. Nachthemden       w[eiß?]
 11        „          Hemden
  1        Jubläumsged.[?]
  6        Frottier Handtücher
  3        Bettdecke[n?]
  2        Herrn U Jacken
 11        „         U Hosen
 10        Schlüpfer
  3        H. Unterjacken
 12   P.   „       Strümpfe
 12        „       Taschentuch farbig
 12   H    „                        „
 12   H  Hemden
  1        Herren Weste
  7        Herren Hemden farbig
 20        farb. Kragen            „
  6. gr.   Eau de cologne
  6. kl.           do

[Randnotiz, quer am rechten Blattrand, in Kurrent, andere Tinte:]
Heute haben wir das Buch[?] vorgefunden. wo wo[n?] [Zeilenende am Blattrand abgeschnitten]
deiner Wäsche diese Kiste keine bey, vielleicht
brauchst du [?] [?]
                    Herzl. Grüße u. Küße
                        [Name unleserlich]
              Brief für Fräul. M[orris?]

Translation — English

[pencil, sideways at the upper left edge, very faint:] N[o?] 8[?]
[two wavy decorative rules at the upper left]

                    Suitcase No. 4        Haas

 36        napkins
  9        tea towels / table cloths (Tischtücher)
  2        table cloths (Tafeltücher)
  8        upper bed sheets[?]
  8        eiderdowns (Plumeaux)
  3        gentlemen's nightshirts       wh[ite?]
 11        „            shirts
  1        anniversary place-setting[?] (Jubläumsged.[?])
  6        terry-cloth hand towels
  3        bed blanket[s?]
  2        gentlemen's under-jackets (vests)
 11        „          under-drawers
 10        knickers / underpants (Schlüpfer)
  3        gentlemen's under-jackets
 12   pr.  „        stockings
 12        „        handkerchief, coloured
 12   gents „                          „
 12   gents shirts
  1        gentleman's waistcoat
  7        gentlemen's shirts, coloured
 20        coloured collars            „
  6  lge.  eau de cologne
  6  sml.          ditto

[marginal note, written sideways along the right edge, in Kurrent, different ink:]
Today we found the book[?]. where wh[ere?] [end of line runs off the edge of the sheet]
of your laundry none in this crate, perhaps
you need [?] [?]
                    Warm greetings and kisses
                        [name illegible]
              Letter for Miss M[orris?]

Historical context

This is a hand-written packing list, in blue-black ink, for a single piece of luggage — the heading reads "Koffer N: 4" (Suitcase No. 4) with the name "Haas" added in a finer, darker pen, apparently the owner or the forwarding agent. The contents are entirely household linen and clothing (napkins, table and bed linen, Plumeaux/eiderdowns, men's night- and day-shirts, underwear, stockings, collars, and two lots of eau de cologne), which is exactly the kind of Umzugsgut inventory German-Jewish families had to draw up when packing a Lift or trunks for emigration around the metadata date of 1940. It appears to be a working packing list rather than the formal Devisenstelle declaration itself: there are no Reichsmark valuations, no purchase dates and no acquisition columns, all of which the Devisenstelle normally required on the official Vermögensverzeichnis of exported property — so this looks more like the household's own tally, of the sort that would have been used to compile such a declaration, and I would not label it a Devisenstelle document without corroborating pages. The sideways note in Kurrent on the right margin turns the sheet into a piece of family correspondence: it explains that none of the addressee's Wäsche is in this crate and closes "Herzl. Grüße u. Küße" with a line about a letter for a "Fräul. M[orris?]", which suggests the list was sent to a relative abroad who was trying to keep track of what had been shipped. It does not, however, share the consignment numbering of the sibling page 001_018_0006: that letter lists crates 6963, 6964, 6965 (plus a fourth read as 0066) and "Koffer J.O. 1, 10, 12, 14 u 15", whereas this sheet is headed simply "Koffer N: 4" with no J.O. prefix and no five-digit crate number, so on the evidence of the numbering alone the two documents appear to describe different shipments.

On this transcription

Machine transcription (claude-opus-5) — not yet checked against the original scan. 6 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. The item column is written in a clear Latin cursive and is mostly legible; the numbers, the pencil marking at top left, and the Kurrent marginal note are the weak points. Specific doubts: (1) "Jubläumsged." (line 8, quantity 1) — the letters read J-u-b-l-a-u-m-s-g-e-d with a following point; "Jubiläums-Ged[eck]" is my best guess but I cannot confirm the reading and a checker should look at this word first. (2) "Bettdecke" (quantity 3) — the ending is clearly -cke, not -cher, so it is not "Badetücher"; whether a final -n follows is unclear. (3) "Oberbettücher" — the number of t's cannot be resolved. (4) The mark after "Nachthemden" that I read as "w[eiß?]" is a w plus a flourish and may be an abbreviation I have not identified. (5) The glyph beside the "12" on the Strümpfe line is a capital P (identical in form to the P of "Plumeaux"), i.e. "12 P[aar]" — it is NOT the numeral 8, whose form on this page (lines 4 and 5) is a plain figure-eight. (6) The quantity on "Herren Hemden farbig" is a single crossbarred 7, not 17: there is no digit to its left. (7) "20" on the Kragen line and "36", "11", "12" elsewhere are gone over twice in heavier ink; the digits themselves are not in doubt. (8) In the margin note I am unsure of "Buch" (could be "Tuch"), of the last two words of line 1 ("wo wo…", cut off at the torn right edge), of the two words after "brauchst du", of the signature name (a 6–7 letter word I cannot resolve), and of the surname after "Fräul." which ends in -ris and could be Morris, Norris or Harris. (9) The pencil "N[o] 8" at the top left is an archival/later marking and is barely above the noise floor. No Reichsmark figures, no Devisenstelle stamp, no signature of an official appear anywhere on the sheet. Cross-check requested on the sibling page: none of the crate numbers 6963/6964/6965 and none of the suitcase marks J.O. 1, 10, 12, 14, 15 from 001_018_0006 occur anywhere on this sheet; the only identifiers here are the heading "Koffer N: 4", the name "Haas", and the faint pencil "N[o] 8[?]" at the top left. One speculative link worth a human eye: 001_018_0006 closes "Herzl. Gruß Arthur", and the illegible signature here follows the same formula ("Herzl. Grüße u. Küße") and has roughly the letter-count and the tall middle ascender of "Arthur" — but I could not read it and have left it as [Name unleserlich] rather than write a name I cannot see. Revised readings: On the first pass I read the item with quantity 3 (line 10) as "Badetücher"; at higher magnification the ending is unambiguously -cke, so I settled on "Bettdecke[n]". I also first took the long diagonal lines running through the left-hand number column to be strikeouts cancelling quantities; enlarging them shows a single continuous crease/tear in the paper running from the upper left down across the numbers 3, 11, 1 and 6, so no quantity on this page is actually struck through. The glyph beside the Strümpfe quantity first looked like the numeral 8; comparison with the "8"s on lines 4 and 5 and with the capital P of "Plumeaux" shows it is a P (Paar). Finally, at low resolution the quantity on "Herren Hemden farbig" looked like "17"; at high magnification the apparent "1" is part of the crease and the digit is a plain 7.