My dear, cute little Fred!

We received your dear letter and you will have received our card.  We sent your letter to Lorle, she will surely do her best.  In the meantime you should be well settled down and should like the new place.  Already when you were a very little child you appreciated beautiful scenery, so now you must do the same there, now that Mother Nature adorns herself with a new dress.  The main thing is that you eat your fill at mealtime and that is hopefully the case, isn’t it?  Write to me about the food that you get and if you are full.  Do you go to school?  There is nothing wrong with just speaking French.  How about the laundry?  Make sure to watch everything, most of all yourself.  You will probably have drawn a few pictures by your next letter.  I can’t wait to see them.

Albert wrote a very friendly letter with a picture of his family.  He wants to invite you and pay your fare or to visit you.  I wrote him your address.  Uncle Sally visited Lis. W. who wants to come back here.  What do you think of that?  On Saturday, at the Oneg which is now taking place without N., we got fig paste sticks.  Tomorrow is Purim, I will write you about it.  Papa was taken to Perpignan on Tuesday, he was doing pretty well but the doctor thought that they may have different medication there, you don’t need to worry, dear child.  He already wrote twice and asked for mail from you.  He’ll be happy when I send him your letter.  Right now I went to J for tobacco for him, from there with a voucher to Q, had to wait a while till 4 o’clock.  Am sitting in Q Cantine where I am waiting 1 1/2 hours and am chatting with my little Fred, if he could only be close to me now to tell me things.  I would like to know everything, even how often you need to get up at night.  As things are, I have to wait for the next letter. We will only write to you once a week in order to save postage.  Since that last time, no more children got out.  Things remain the same in the refectoire [1].  I still don’t have your little bottle.  The others also want some room.  Therefore my heartfelt regards and kisses from your

MAMA whose thoughts are often with you.

Dear Manfred,

We all enjoyed your letter.  At least you have more food now.  You ask if my face is still swollen.  Not the face but my feet.  They are already much better.  I am lying in the infirmary as one is not allowed to lie down in the barrack in the day.  Margot is sewing my straw bag.  Write again real soon.  Many regards and kisses from your brother

HUGO

My sweet little Fritz,

Now it is Wednesday.  Yesterday we got a letter from Lorle.  Want to send the letter to Papa.  He writes that everything is OK.  Yesterday’s celebration came off well.  Each child got some sweets and a toy.  Some of the old toys were raffled off.  As favors we received two fig paste sticks.  In (Barrack #) 23 they cook like at the Secours Suisse.  Every day 6 from our barrack get a turn.  Yesterday they had barley soup.  A package came from Grenade with potatoes, beans and some cream cheese.  For Margot a completely filled out work contract with a farmer sent by Aunt Vita.  I am taking it to H.I.C.E.M[2]. and the letter to (îlot). Q.   Margot is at ORT.  You will have to wait until the next letter to get a note from her.  Again, regards from me and I kiss you with all my heart.

Your MAMA

Albert’s address is:

Albert Rosenfeld

8, rue de Castries

Lyon (Rhône)

[2] Contraction of HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid and Sheltering Society), JCA (Jewish Colonization Association) and EMIGDIRECT, an organization helping emigration to Palestine.