Postcards From German Citizen to American Family Friend

Authors

Object ID

2021.1.4ab

Object Name

Postcards

Date

1936

Files

Content Warning

The Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection consists of images, documents, and artifacts related to the Holocaust. The collection contains materials that depict a number of topics that may be difficult for viewers to engage with, including: antisemitic descriptions, caricatures, and representation of Jewish people; Nazi imagery and ideology; descriptions and images of German ghettos; graphic images of the violence of the Holocaust; and the creation of the State of Israel. For more information, see our policy page.

Description

[a]: postmarked 8.1.36; burgundy pre-printed lines and stamp; handwritten message on front and back

[b]: postmarked 8.1.37; green pre-printed lines and stamp along with added brown postage stamp; handwritten message on front and back

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

Two postcards written by Carl Roeder on the same day one year apart during the early years of the Nazification of Germany. Mr. Roeder lives in Dresden, is an “old friend” of the recipient Walter Meyer of North Bergen, New Jersey, who is possibly a German émigré. He hopes Mr. Meyer had a “good time” over the holidays - Christmas and New Year’s. He keeps Mr. Meyer up to date about his family. He reminisces about the holidays they have celebrated together. He then states: “I cannot report any news. Life for us here always the same. But you can read the newspapers and you can understand all the better than if I would write it down. It is too long of a story for a letter, and may not do me any good, when I write too much, because I am getting now slowly an old man with a feeble hand so that I do not dare write too much. I hope you take notice of the circumstances, and you understand me and you will excuse me, that I send only this post card.”

Mr. Roeder continues with reporting the weather and wishing his best regards to his old friend Mr. Meyer and his wife. Finally, Ulrike Roeder sends her best wishes.

One year later, postmarked on the same day, Mr. Roeder writes Mr. Meyer again. He states that he does not want to be late in sending best wishes and hoping for a prosperous year for Mr. Meyer. He and Ulrike were happy to hear that Mr. Meyer and Katie were doing well. He then states: “The goddess of justice is blind, but in these hard times we must be content, if we can make an honest livelihood, even if it is a modest one…I do not come to Berlin, as I have no friends there anymore. One often thinks it could not be otherwise. Out fate and destiny then seems to be determined by another heart than our own...We did not expect such a great success for Mr. Roosevelt, but we consider him here always the next President. Sometimes we see a thing from a distance better from a near stand...I do not know yet when I will be able to make the trip to N.Y. because it depends on so many circumstances…”

Dimensions

6 x 4 1/4"

Keywords

Carl Roeder, Walter Meyer, Dresden

Subcollection

Early, Personal

Recommended Citation

"Postcards From German Citizen to American Family Friend" (1936). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2021.1.4ab.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1706