[On Back of Envelope Return Address]

Otto Gesang Bremen Gartenstr 11
[circle-23]

[On Front of Envelope Address]

Family
Charles Cornelius
Bellevue Iowa
Jackson County 
R.R. 4
U.S.A.
[Postage stamp and most of postmark are missing. The front has an ink stamp and the left edge a tape seal indicating the letter has been opened and examined by censors.]

[Transcript of the letter, mostly following a translation by Paul C. G. Lutz. I have added some paragraph breaks to improve clarity. I have also inserted occasional notes in brackets like this one, for example to deal with problematic translations or transcriptions.]

						Bremen
						Sept. 5, 1947

Dear Cousin & your family:

With joy we received notice that a package from America was to be picked up. We fell into each other's arms with joy as we unpacked the beautiful things. We couldn't make up our minds what we should be happiest about, For in the meantime since we wrote you our little one arrived and he feels right well in the beautiful, good things you sent. 

Dear cousin, it must sound childish to you as I describe things to you, but it is fact. You must know that before the war I was well supplied with clothing, but through the war lost everything. Now I should answer some of your questions. What my calling is: I am a tailor. Ever since the end of the war I have had to run about in my army clothes. It is sad what this dreadful, unholy [unselig] war has made of us. 

I was a pattern cutter and a supervisor in a large factory, which was leveled to the ground during the war. After the war, I was again employed as a pattern cutter in another factory, but with what little I had to eat, I could not stand to be on my feet and running about, so I became independent. At the moment we only get alterations or remodeling. New things are hardly made anymore, and there are few orders for suits or uniforms; if there is an order for one of these, there are no goods available for the material because materials are not available. If a little material becomes available it is largely exchanged for something to eat. 

To obtain food the people first have to run to the management of a farm any number of times and stand there so long and wait [in wooden garbage sheds?] before they receive anything. 

Because of these conditions you see why I am so overjoyed about the good suit which you sent me in such friendly manner. I will now, finally, be able to shed my German army uniform. Perhaps I will also sometime get rid of my badly worn out shoes in which I am slopping around, and which hang on one’s feet like lead. Our ladies are running around wearing wooden shoes like the Russians. 

My wife also is happy about the materials and the dress. Since she is a master tailor she would be extremely happy to be able to make something new for a change. She also has lost everything. Her parents' home was totally destroyed by firebombs, so you can imagine how happy she was that there was something in the package for her too. She had a difficult time with the birth. They had to take the child by means of a Caesarean operation, to keep the little boy alive. Both are again hale and hearty. 

You asking your letter if I might be very young since I have just been married one year. I feel like an 18 year-old but am already 39, born in 1908, and my wife is already 34 years old. You write that you think there were six of us brothers and sisters and your right. It was Edward, Berthold, Christian, Marie, Fritz and I. Edward went missing [ist verschollen] in America and Berthold fell in France in the War of 1914-18. Christian is now the oldest among us, then comes our sister Marie, then Fritz, the poor fellow is still in English captivity. He was drafted very late and became a prisoner immediately. We hope he will soon come home. In the meantime his oldest son has already married and Fritz has become a grandfather. Yes, and now I remain as youngest offspring. Fritz and I were a pair of stragglers in our family.

Dear Cousin [Bertha], you write also in your letter that you are the last of the Rommert clan. Where then has the family addition of Uncle Henry gone? You surely are the daughter of Uncle Adolf, aren’t you? The others are also in your vicinity. Perhaps you could extend kind greetings to them from us, or if you have their address, perhaps you could send it with your letter, and I could establish contact with them. 

You write in your letter that you want to try to send a package to Mother in Förtha, in the Russian Zone. I would suggest to you send it to us because we can send 2 mark worth or 1 kilo packages to that zone from here. I also want to try between the 15th & 20th of September to go to Thuringia in the Russian Zone, with my wife, for Mother would like to meet my wife and get to know her before she dies. In order to go home in one's own Fatherland you have to act like a thief and sneak across the border, and even then you have to be very, very careful, for if Ivan, by which we call the Russians, grabs border crossers he will drag you away and stick you in a mine where you will have little care and very hard work and your relatives receive no word about what has happened. It almost seems that anyone can do with anyone anything that he pleases. 

Now winter is knocking at the door. Hopefully it will not be as terrible as the last one. People had to put up with conditions so terrible that one cannot possibly describe it on paper. Now once more the "hunger ghost" will be knocking at the door for in this hot, dry summer the greatest part of the harvest burned up and was destroyed. The cattle, which normally could go out to pasture had to be butchered already in summer. It almost seems as if the earth's sphere must have turned and we find ourselves upon a different continent. 

Well we shall put our trust wholly in our Lord for he will protect us and lead us as he sees fit and will preserve us from our gravest needs. At any rate we want to thank you once more for those gifts and greet you from far away. Please let us hear from you again soon. 

				Greetings once more to our cousins
				Otto and wife Elfrieda