Headline: Letters from Russia
Denver, Colorado, 7 March
Valued friend L (Lorenz):
Enclosed is a letter from Russia. My mother-in-law, Mrs. Reisbich, asks you, through me, to publish it in Die Welt-Post so that her many friends who read the Welt-Post can read its contents.
David Kissler
Enclosed is a letter from Russia. My mother-in-law, Mrs. Reisbich, asks you, through me, to publish it in Die Welt-Post so that her many friends who read the Welt-Post can read its contents.
David Kissler
The Russian Letter
Norka, January 16, 1924
Dear brother-in-law and sister Kathrinlies Bihn and family:
Your brother, Ludwig Kaiser, wife and 6 children and also your aged and bent mother who is already in the 76th year of her life, turn to you with affectionate greetings.
Next we inform you that we received your gift of $25.00 with great joy and from our hearts we thank you for it. With this money we had our Backhaus (baking house) enlarged a bit and now we live in it. I am sorry, but I must complain that I receive few letters from you; the same is also true of brother-in-law Johannes and Annamaria Reisbich in Denver, who I have written but the letter was returned to me, for what reason I do not know. Sometimes mother tearfully says that you have forgotten us, but this is not the case because you have already helped us much and often when we were in need.
Our harvest was poor, so that in the future more help for us will be necessary. With rationing our bread supplies will last 6 months. With clothing it is so bad that I cannot describe it in words. Mother, often in tears, says: "Ach! What more do I have to live through in my old age? If I could only be in America with my daughters and eat with them!" It is not possible for us to provide the food that the older people should have and on this account we ask for more help. In the meantime we console ourselves with the comforting words spoken by the poet in Song Nr. 486, as follows:
"Gott sorgt fuer mich, was soll ich sorgen;
Er ist mein Vater, ich Sein Kind.
Er sorgt fuer heut, Er sorgt fuer morgen,
So, dass ich taeglich Spuren sind
Wie Gott die Seinen vaeterlich
Versorgt und schuetzt:
Gott sorgt fuer mich."
With the best of greetings from your mother and brother and family,
Ludwig Kaiser
Dear brother-in-law and sister Kathrinlies Bihn and family:
Your brother, Ludwig Kaiser, wife and 6 children and also your aged and bent mother who is already in the 76th year of her life, turn to you with affectionate greetings.
Next we inform you that we received your gift of $25.00 with great joy and from our hearts we thank you for it. With this money we had our Backhaus (baking house) enlarged a bit and now we live in it. I am sorry, but I must complain that I receive few letters from you; the same is also true of brother-in-law Johannes and Annamaria Reisbich in Denver, who I have written but the letter was returned to me, for what reason I do not know. Sometimes mother tearfully says that you have forgotten us, but this is not the case because you have already helped us much and often when we were in need.
Our harvest was poor, so that in the future more help for us will be necessary. With rationing our bread supplies will last 6 months. With clothing it is so bad that I cannot describe it in words. Mother, often in tears, says: "Ach! What more do I have to live through in my old age? If I could only be in America with my daughters and eat with them!" It is not possible for us to provide the food that the older people should have and on this account we ask for more help. In the meantime we console ourselves with the comforting words spoken by the poet in Song Nr. 486, as follows:
"Gott sorgt fuer mich, was soll ich sorgen;
Er ist mein Vater, ich Sein Kind.
Er sorgt fuer heut, Er sorgt fuer morgen,
So, dass ich taeglich Spuren sind
Wie Gott die Seinen vaeterlich
Versorgt und schuetzt:
Gott sorgt fuer mich."
With the best of greetings from your mother and brother and family,
Ludwig Kaiser
Sources
Die Welt-Post, March 20, 1924, page 3.
This translation provided courtesy of Hugh Lichtenwald.
This translation provided courtesy of Hugh Lichtenwald.
Last updated March 7, 2016.