Lodz, 31 August 1931 To my beloved, devoted brother, as well as precious nephew, Sol Zissman, I received your letter several days ago. Yesterday, I also received $5 that you sent. Dear brother, although lately I have written to you infrequently and also receive few letters from you, since it's understandable that if one writes infrequently there are few answers, yet much can be read from our latest letters... So, e.g., I read in your latest letter a brief review of your whole life in America, how the crisis has captured the whole world in its clutches and is holding it in an iron grip. And G-d knows how long it will continue in this way. As to your writing me that, as it is, you were lucky not to have played around with speculative securities and real estate transactions, etc., I have to write you, devoted Sol, that you take after your uncle somewhat with your thinking ahead. While we have no significant good fortune in acquiring wealth, we are quite careful in our undertakings. I don't know exactly how you do business there. However, devoted Sol, here, with my sharp eye, I anticipated the crisis three years ago and immediately withdrew from business, although I was not engaged in any business with the general public. I borrowed on a small scale and loaned to others on weekly installment payments; nevertheless, I did not go bankrupt as hundreds of others did. I didn't have any outstanding debts to merchants, and if you ask me if I regret that, I will write you that I don't because I am aware of enough facts concerning relatives and strangers who went bankrupt, over their heads in debt. And today they don't have enough money to buy a one-pound bread. Many of them died of shame. Many of them committed suicide. Our own uncle, Yankel Lewin, of Kinsk, died last year choked with the shame of being forced to give up his position in Kinsk as a merchant for thirty years. In short, Sol, it's a widespread problem. The situation is bad in the world as a whole and in Poland in particular. From day to day, life becomes more difficult and unbearable... I don't understand why the world is not able to develop a means of improving the lot of the common people who are in a struggle between life and death... There is also the problem that, in a large city, it's not easy to recognize how widespread the need is... So, for example, along one street you can see a great deal of luxury, people are eating and drinking and having a good time, while on another street thousands of unemployed are marching in demonstrations demanding work and bread, and down a third street windows of Jewish stores and Jewish confectioneries are smashed, etc. Tell me, how can one remain calm when one is a witness to such events in the streets on a daily basis? I am happy on a day when I go to the factory to work. The machine and the twelve hours (of work) prevent me from thinking about what this will lead to. As the machine operates, I only have to keep up with it. As I have written to you, Sol, I work three days a week. This is the season for us (at the factory). I will have work, without an evil eye, until Succos. I don't earn much, but would be content if it were not for the collateral problems. I happen to be a person who can wage a battle with life; e.g., I can adapt to the times. One can adjust to anything, for example, to eat once a day or to wear a pair of tattered shoes or a suit acquired before the World War... However, however, there's one thing that it's difficult to do battle with, the fact that I have no respite from my family (cares). For example, while Aunt Malke returned from Kinsk last week where she stayed with a relative for about seven weeks to recover, I don't see any great improvement in her condition. She developed a weak heart with all the weeping that she did for our recently deceased daughter, Balcia. And now it's really difficult because I, an impoverished worker, am not in the position to tend to her all the time, to maintain a diet prescribed by the doctors. So, it's very difficult for me because, when I come home from work, I would like to find a healthy and lively wife, a bright, clean, neat home; and, when all is said and done, what do I find... Devoted Sol, this makes your uncle gray, and life becomes horrid and unbearable. In addition, my Rifkele is a sickly child. I don't know where to place the blame, the war or the inadequate nourishment which she has received. In a word, she is far from being well developed physically, has always been sickly, and doctors have always advised that it would be better for her to be out in the fresh air in a small town. She has been in Opoczno all summer, but I hear that she doesn't feel very good there in Opoczno either... Well, how can I, a poor, powerless father, help her? Other youngsters of her age are already learning a trade or going to work, helping at home, making lives for themselves. But in this case, one dare not say anything because I'm dealing with a frail person... My darling Yosef is healthy, thank G-d. He is entering the fifth grade in elementary school and is growing up nicely. What else shall I write to you, dear Sol? After all, a new year is approaching. Perhaps the Master of the Universe will have mercy on us at last so that the new year will bring us much good fortune and will ease our troubles... My wife and I and our children wish, devoted brother, that for the new year you will be inscribed for a healthy and happy year. May you and your wife and darling son, as well as your whole family, be inscribed in the Book of Life and the Book of Sustenance and Support so that this old year of curses may be ended and a year of blessings begin. May we hear of good news, of welfare and of comfort from each other, and may you all, without exception, be inscribed and sealed for a good year. I also thank you for the $5, and I wish that you will never be in need, chas v'cholilah, and may G-d not forget you as you do not forget your uncle who, in recent times, feels so demeaned and depressed. If (only) you knew, devoted Sol, how much encouragement you provide for your uncle with your letters even though, recently, our letters have been sorrowful because, after all, we unburden ourselves (to each other) in order to be comforted. Nevertheless, dear Sol, I so desire to read your sweet letters with all the details of all the things that take place there with you and your whole family, from A to Z. Heartfelt regards from me, from my wife and from the dear children. We also send regards to Ruchele and to Bryndl and her husband and son. We hope they will be inscribed and sealed for a good year. Further, regards to your father, in-laws, family, and we wish that they will all be inscribed and sealed for a good year. Aunt Estherl and Uncle Lazer send regards to you, your wife and child. They will surely write to you from Opoczno. This summer, they completed a remodeling of their bakery. He invested everything he has in the bakery in order to stay on as a baker in the same location. He now has a kosher bakery. I'm sure that he wrote to you about it. With respect, Wolf Lewkowicz All material Copyright 1995 by Marshall L. Zissman and Sol J. Zissman.