Around the time of a recent family reunion in Oklahoma, my father came across a letter written to my great-grandparents just after WWII. The letter was in German, and so my father copied it and mailed it to me to see if someone here could translate it. Hiske learned some German in school and could produce a rough translation, which proved to be pretty interesting. So last week I went over to a German friend’s house to have a native speaker translate it (thanks Nick!).
Below is his translation [items in brackets are our comments]:
Mister
John Swart
Rocky, Oklahoma
U.S.A.Sender: Aljet Sandersfeld Firrel
Postoffice Bagband Kreis Leer
British zone
Province of Hannover
German [sic]Lovely Family Swart!
With great joy and a thankful heart we have received your thoughtful and valuable package. You wouldn’t believe how glad we were about all of the good things, especially about the shoes and the coat, because we don’t have a lot of warm clothing for the winter. We can really use the things you sent us, very well.
Since we have the new currency, it’s now possible to buy things here. There’s no need to even bother asking for fabric and shoes because they are so expensive here, and one just has too little money. Shoes that cost 8 marks back then, now cost up to 60 marks. Potatoes and rye, which have to be imported, cost the same as back then, it just doesn’t make sense.
But as I said it has become a little better. Before the new currency we couldn’t buy anything for money. We could only get what was on the food vouchers. We’re fine. Hopefully there will be no war. That would be horrible. We’re war-tired.
We often wonder how it’s going with Meenke, Leena, and Gesche? In the beginning, your dear mother often wrote about the older kids. Our oldest son is also called Meenke. He was a prisoner of war in the US for three years, in many places.
We are really short on bicycle tires. He thought maybe you could send us a few. We always carry our milk with the bikes to [Some Village] and we don’t have our land near [that village]. You can’t buy any here. So right after the new currency came they had some, but we didn’t have any money yet. And now they don’t have any anymore.
Please be now thanked from my heart 1,000 times for your kindness and your efforts. The Lord will reward you. The US is surely making big sacrifices for Germany. Many clothing donations came to Germany for refugees and some of those we got for our girls. Regrettably, for the men there is not really much of use.
Greetings from my heart and again many thanks from all of us here,
Your uncle and family.