Letter: Letters Home

This letter is by a soldier stationed in Palestine, seeking safe passage for family members to New York. He references himself as "man without citizenship," hoping to become a Palestinian citizen at some point. The card is written in a hard-to-understand German alphabet, Sütterlin. "It was used in Germany for about 30 years though it sticks with some older folks to this day,'' museum officials say. "Add to that the author's handwriting and we have a lot of guesswork.''

The exhibit includes envelopes to America that include senders' "official'' middle names, designed by authorites to denigrate and identify Jews. Every Jewish woman had to adopt the middle name Sara and each man adopted Israel (see red overline).

This postcard from the Warsaw Ghetto is written in three different hands to family members in New York. Excerpts: I kiss you heartily, I hug you strongly. I kiss you and love you. Try to communicate with us ... Nothing new and good here. I kiss you strongly. We are anxiously awaiting your letters. How do you feel? Be of good cheer with the hope that we will be together again ... With God's help all will be good yet.

Amy Snyder, Executive dierctor of the Holocaust Museum & Education Center on NewsMakers 06-10-12.

The lead caption on this compiled display of censored mail to the U.S. says: "The ultimate goal was to make life in Germany so miserable for Jews that they would seek to leave through emigration. This policy was not successful. Many Jews could not or chose not to leave. Even more Jews fell under German control with the annexation of Austria in 1938 and the acquisition of Czech territory in early 1939."

The Holocaust Museum & Education Center of Southwest Florida is getting personal, and what could be more personal than to read someone else's mail?

Now through Nov. 30, the museum will host the traveling exhibit, Letters Home.

This exhibit offers visitors an intimate glimpse into the lives of those who endured the ghettos and camps of the Holocaust.

Often with oddly hopeful messages, the letters give us a glimmer of understanding about what life was like for people caught up in those terrible times.

These brief, intimate glimpses are what remembrance is all about — remembering the humanity of each person lost.

Some of the mail took five months to reach America.

Created by Orlando-area artist Anita Lam in 2006, the display uses correspondence and memorabilia donated to the Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center of Florida, located in Maitland, by Henry Mayer of Longwood.

The collection — originally called the Fox Collection after its original owner, Dr. Frank Fox of Merion, Pa., consists of about 189 original documents, postcards, stamps, insignia and currency from the ghettos and camps of Nazi Europe.

In addition, various letters and postage stamps from our museum's own archive will he displayed as well.

The Faktor Collection came to us about two years ago. Stanley and Sally Factor (Faktor) lived in Naples, but had no children. When they passed away, the woman who bought their house found all this paperwork and brought it to the museum.

We've been able to trace a little bit about them. They met in Berlin, it seems, married in Czechoslovakia and came to the U.S. in 1936. Some family members were also able to be sponsored and got out, but Stanley's parents ended up in a ghetto in Romania and most likely died there.

In reading these letters, each person can begin to see the threads that hold humanity together. Once identified, those threads can become the building blocks for our shared existence.

The Holocaust Museum is an outgrowth of a Collier County middle school student exhibit and has just celebrated its first decade as an educational organization and is embarking upon its second. The community is invited to share in this next decade of accomplishment by visiting, showing support through membership or assisting us in achieving our future vision.

For more information, visit www.holocaustmuseumswfl.org or call 239-263-9200.