Letters to Sala

continued

. . . we ate breakfast. One of the girls had brought with her [at deportation] some Lithuanian cheese, which she shared with us. We also had bread and butter — an excellent breakfast. For dinner we had cabbage soup, quite tasty too.



Similar austerity back home in Sosnowiec appears in a letter from Sala's sister Raizel:



. . . we still don't have a sweater for you. There is none to be had at the community and we are so broke that we can't afford to buy you one. . . . I could send you mine . . . it might be a little small . . . maybe we should send you [your sister] Blima's green dress, but it has short sleeves.



Letters from home, each bearing a stamped Z from Nazi censors, used code, like Raizel's description of a deportation:



Imagine, I was invited to a wedding. Chajka Szpiro already left to go there, but I didn't go because I wasn't home when the invitation came.