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Author(s) / Origin of Letter
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Recipient(s) / Relationship to Author(s) / Destination of Letter
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Summary
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Siegfried Jellinek |
Max Jellinek (brother of SJ) |
Siegfried’s message gives us a glimpse of the relative safety and well-being he seems to be experiencing in the formerly Polish city that had come under Soviet control a little more than two months earlier. The card provides evidence, that Siegfried was not only still alive in January 1940, but also, reportedly healthy and working as a woodworker to sustain himself. The rest of Siegfried’s message shows his longing to hear from and be heard from his deeply beloved brother and family. It is particularly remarkable that this postcard is extant, in that it travelled from a USSR- controlled Polish city, “Via Siberia,” to Shanghai, and that it eventually reached G. Nadja Jellinek in Mandate Palestine, who passed it on to me, P. Jellinek, in 1999! |
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January 1, 1940 Beloved Brother! I hope and wish that this card reaches you so that you are informed about my stay.1 I am healthy and work here as a woodworker and earn my daily bread. I’ve received mail from home, but despite my repeated letters, they have not yet received anything from me. I would have immense joy to hear something from you. Please give Felix2 and everyone my heartfelt greetings and be most affectionately kissed by your faithful brother, Friederl3 |
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Translated by volunteer staff at the Leo Baeck Institute, NYC in 2010; edits by ChatGPT AI in 2025;
Footnotes
1. A possible alternate translation for the end of this sentence is: “. . . so that you know where I am staying.”
2. This most probably refers to Felix Hirschensohn, the brother of Siegfried’s wife Martha,/thus Seigfried’s brother-in-law. For in-depth information about the complex context in which it was possible for Max, Felix and approximately 20,000 other Jews to find refuge from Nazi persecution in Shanghai, see https://www.yadvashem.org/articles/academic/flight-to-shanghai-the-larger-setting.html#:~:text= and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Ghetto
3. Siegfried’s familial nickname;
