Dear Frederle,

From now on, you won’t receive as much mail from us because Mama and I have agreed that she will write to you one week and I the next. Mama sent me your letter of June 23.  She will have answered it already.  You don’t ask me for anything in that letter which I just re-read.  However, you want to know what kind of food we are getting.   Right now  we are getting more noodles and potatoes, fewer turnips and cabbage with most everything.  It even happened this week when there were two kinds of soups that I got seconds both times.  One could use this every day but unfortunately it happens rarely.  One can buy apricots  right now (5.50 – 10.50 per Kg.) peaches the same, tomatoes (4.10  per Kg).  One could eat about 2 – 3 Kg of this every day, but I don’t have the money for this, neither do many others.  A lot of fruit is coming in every day.  In our ward of about 30 men I estimate an average of 50 Kg. a day.  It is the same in the other wards.  However, the inmates have lost weight lately.

Some Spaniards were sent to work, other Jews and Spaniards were sent to Récébédou.  As one heard later, they ended up in the Rivesaltes Camp again so that they only spent a few days in Récébédou.  At first they were supposed to go to Noé.  Nobody ever knows ahead of time what will happen.  If somebody is sent away, it is always in a hurry.  Mrs. Maier (Bertl Maier’s mother) is also here.  She is supposed to be sent to a Swiss convalescence home, close by, 30 minutes by bus.  Mrs. Kirchheimer is also there.  It should be good and very nice.  Unfortunately, there is no such convalescence home for men.   We just have to wait if Uncle Sally’s efforts will succeed so that we can get out of here.  Mama has registered several times and filled out applications.  Because I am unable to work right now, an amount of money has to be deposited as a guaranty.  If this is feasible, then it is easier to get out.  Margot is a live-in help at a general’s residence.  Bread and board and 300 Frs. per month.  I haven’t heard from her since she started there.  Hugo visited Mama again Saturday/Sunday.  He came here first, was not allowed to enter due to a new regulation.  I therefore requested an authorization for him.  He arrived from Barcarès by bus.  He also took the bus that goes to Salses to get to the Camp.  One can get off in Byrrh.  Mama went the same way.  Due to a thunderstorm with rain she got all wet because the bus was not watertight.  If one can take the bus to Byrrh, it is not quite as far as from the Rivesaltes station and one arrives in Camp at the same time.  Lorle writes that all is well.  It is really too bad that you cannot join her.

You write that because there is no school you are now working in the fields.  What kind of work do you do and are there other boys working with you?  You will get tanned and sunburned.  Are you able to learn how to swim?  Margot and Lorle wrote that they are able to go swimming.  Lorle writes that only those who know how to swim are allowed in the water.

I am sending a letter to Opa today.  I received a package from him last week.  Thanks to the committee, we may send a domestic letter both on Wednesday and on Saturday, or a foreign letter once a week.  I will take advantage of this as needed.

In the coming week (15th) it will be five months that I am here.  The time goes by quite fast even if it is pretty boring at times as there is nothing substantial to keep busy with.  At noontime it is quite hot so that one cannot stay in the sun.  But by now there are a few benches under the trees.  In the evening, after the meal, I go down again until 8 or 8:30, then to bed to the bedbugs.  Mama wrote that she is sleeping outdoors because of the bedbugs.  It is not so easy to do that here or one would probably do it too.

Dear Manfred, I believe that you have quite a job until you have read my letter.  In any case you have a lot of time to do it.  My health is relatively satisfactory.  I hope that you are well and that this letter finds you in good health.

Looking forward to getting good news from you soon, greetings and kisses from

Your PAPA

Uncle Sally announced himself again for beginning or middle July.  Up to now he has not been here. Enclosed the character analysis which I haven’t sent you yet.  You can keep it.

Today I received a very long letter from Margot about her job with a médecin général [1].  Altogether she writes satisfactorily.  She probably has good food.  She has to cook and to clean.  I hope that she will hold out because the Home’s cook had said to her that the girls don’t stay very long in this job.  On Sunday she was supposed to go to Beaulieu to the Home.  Her masters drove her there by car and picked her up again in the evening.