Lodz, 4 November 1922

Devoted, Most Beloved Nephew, with the worthy name of Sol
Zissman,

I have received your valued letter and its greeting.  I
thank you, dear nephew, for your good wishes to us.

Dear, devoted nephew, in reading your short biography of the
last three or four years, I learn from your wise writing of
your great ability--your enterprising talent, business acu-
men and so forth.  Someone else of your age would either
still be studying or hanging on to his father's coat tails,
and you are already self-supporting. I kiss your letters
which are consistently wisely written, much as one would
expect from an experienced, educated businessman.

I simply can't understand where you learned all this and how
you learned it so quickly. After all, you left here as a
young boy with a young boy's mind, and after such a short
time you have matured. Indeed, I believe that only where
you are, in America, can one be in a position to mature so
quickly, physically (materially) as well as spiritually.
Here in Poland, however, one remains backward.

You wrote in your last letter that you are business partners
with (Aaron) Isaac Anker. Your letter is so well written
that I read in it the answers to the questions that you ask.
Plainly speaking, I mean that I don't have any advice for
you. I can only wish that your undertaking proceed with
luck, and that it should bloom like a blossom in springtime.
You should deal with each other honestly and devotedly.  I
know (Aaron) Isaac Anker personally--from before he left
Europe, and I believe that you will find in him a suitable
partner. He was a fine man.

Above all, dear nephew, try to avoid arguments and squab-
bles.  Only then will the partnership be able to exist. In
the last years of the war, I had occasion to deal with vari-
ous partners.  Let me tell you (and may your lot be dif-
ferent), one was worse than the other. One was too lazy,
the other too crazy, the third stingy, the fourth too mild.
And I had to accomodate all their idiosyncrasies.  Very
often, I realized that I had gotten involved in the wrong
thing, but wanting to avoid disputes, I overlooked every-
thing.  There are partners who, when they have to do some-
thing, let's say lift a heavy carton, would rather wait
until the other partner can help before they lift a finger.
Such a partner isn't worth much.  And when it comes to
expenses, this kind of partner figures that only half of the
money is his, so why be thrifty?

Know this, dear nephew, that in being partners with someone,

you should not stop to think if you are doing something for
your partner's benefit or your own. Think only about how to
improve and expand the common business, how to exploit the
business opportunity at hand, and how to increase profits.
Work with all your might, until the business becomes esta-
blished. Then you can relax and let people work for you.
Of course, to achieve all this one must have a measure of
luck. Dear nephew, I know something of the reason for your
present partnership.  Chaiml Marianka (Hyman Marcus) told
me, and you yourself once wrote something about your inten-
tions of getting married. Why not! I am very glad. When
the joyous time comes, may it bring you the happiness you so
richly deserve your whole life long. You have suffered
enough from your childhood on. But let me leave further
discussion of this matter for the next letter.

To continue--you write that if you go to work for someone,
you could earn $35 a week, but that you'd rather earn $25
and be your own boss. When I read those words, dear child,
I stopped and cried. I thought to myself that you, only a
boy of twenty, without a wife, without three children, say
this.  What then should I, your uncle, say, who worked for
himself for ten years, and after all his speculation and all
his wheeling and dealing had to take a job as an employee
for 15,000 marks a week. This is, for us, the equivalent of
$1.00 a week. When, this Succos, I started to mention that
in no way could I manage on such a small salary, I was
fired.  They said that it didn't pay them to keep such an
"expensive" employee. They could do just as well with a
young boy--and all this, not from a stranger, but from one's
own brother-in-law. I don't think that your father would
have spoken like this to me. But what can I do? I have no
choice. When I complain that the inflation grows worse
every day--for example, bread already costs 900 marks for 4
pounds; one pound of sugar costs 800 marks; a pound of wheat
flour, 500 marks; one pound of meat, 700 marks and so on--I
am told that I shouldn't eat so much.

So I know, dear Shloymele, how wise your words are when you
write that for someone else 8 hours of work is bitter and
for oneself 18 hours of work sweet. You are right, but what
can one do who does not have the choice? There comes a time
when the lion must bow to the fox.

When I first came to Lodz, one year ago, I brought with me
very little capital. It lasted barely three months. Seeing
that I had no money to invest in a business and no craft
with which to earn money, I thanked G-d that I found a job
which paid 10,000 marks a week, working for my brother-in-
law and his partner. But at that time bread cost only 300
marks, and everything else was also three hundred per cent
cheaper.  Nowadays, in order to make it through the week,
one must earn, at the very least 30,000 marks, that is $2.00

a week, but I earn hardly 15,000. This is not convincing
enough (to get a raise). Pleading also doesn't help.  One
must say, as the Polish peasant says: Even if you can't
accomplish anything, you have to give the appearance of try-
ing.

Now, dear nephew, there is another indescribable evil in
Poland. Since the war, a decree has been enforced that any-
one who lives in the same apartment since before the war
pays only minimal rent, and he can't be evicted. On the
other hand, if a new prospective tenant come looking for an
apartment, the landlord can ask for even five or ten million
marks if he wants to. You can therefore imagine how many
thousands of people left Lodz or, more plainly put, were
driven by their hunger to the small towns and villages where
hunger was not so rampant. These people are now returning
en masse to the big city, and for the most part, no new
building is going on.  Landowners want the decree, which
affects them adversely, revoked before they build. What do
our fellow Jews do? They make deals and arrangements. For
example, if someone lives in an apartment that has two rooms
and a kitchen, which costs him 20,000 marks per year, he
rents out one of the rooms for two million marks and he
lives in one room and the kitchen. This is how it is with
shop-keepers all over. A year ago, when I arrived here, I
couldn't get an apartment. My in-laws took me into their
apartment. I soon saw that it was not a good idea to live
together. I didn't officially apply to live in their apart-
ment, hoping that soon I could find an apartment of my own.
Unfortunately, I made a big mistake. However much the rent
was in apartments I looked at, I thought that it was too
much.  Finally, I had to stay where I was, still having no
money to really afford an apartment of my own. But now my
in-laws' landlord doesn't want to accept me as a tenant at
all. I have to pay him at least half a million marks if I
want to continue living here under any circumstances. To
make a long story short, I have already been to court with
him three times, and he says that even if his life depended
on it, he wouldn't accept me as a tenant. So my wife and
children are now sleeping at her parents' house and I sleep
in my brother-in-law's store on a hard straw mattress.
Lying on that straw mattress, my thoughts spin in my head,
and I wonder how much more must I endure? I am 36 years old
and have been married for 14 years. I am past my prime. I
have a wife and three children. Isn't it about time that I
had an apartment, a household, enough bread to eat, an
income and decent clothes? Yes, it is high time.  Believe
me, my dear Shloymele, you write in your last letter that
perhaps a way out for me will occur to you.  Dear nephew,
let me tell you that suicide is preferable to living the
miserable life I lead. If you could send me a boat ticket,
and if I could go, I would fly to you, even in the middle of
the night. I just don't see how I can exist here in Poland

with its inflation.  Here only millionaires can live, but
not such people as I. Please discuss my destiny with your
father.  All the money that I have received from you over
the years has been merely a drop in the bucket, used to keep
body and soul together, but I still seek some sort of decent
existence, some means of assistance, a redemption. Tell me,
dear Shloymele, where is this to be found? You are smart.
There is a Yiddish saying that states that even a slap from
a wise man is better than a kiss from a fool.

There is nothing more of importance to write. I send affec-
tionate regards to you, to your dear father and family, your
sisters, your partner (Aaron) Isaac Anker.  My wife and
children also send regards to you and to your father. Your
uncle wishes you a healthy winter and hopes to hear good
tidings soon.

        Wolf Lewkowicz

P.S. Your grandmother sends her regards. She was here in
Lodz for a wedding. Dina Raisel married off her daughter,
Rachel. My sister Esther and Uncle Lazer also send their
warmest regards.  Answer soon.  Write to the following
address: Wolf Lewkowicz, Lodz ul Wolczanska u Rotbergo #168


All material Copyright 1995 by Marshall L. Zissman and Sol J. Zissman.