Opoczno, 15 February 1929 Beloved and precious brother, as well as nephew, with your worthy name of S. Zissman, You will surely wonder, my devoted one, "How come there is once again a letter from Uncle Wolf with an Opoczno postmark?"... So, my devoted and precious brother, don't be at all astonished because it's trouble, trouble, trouble. We and our whole family are encircled in and enmeshed with many problems, G-d forbid. That's it... Pay attention, Sol, and read carefully what I am now writing. I will relate as much as I (can) in a letter so you will be able to picture (everything) just as if you had witnessed the scene yourself here on the spot... Tuesday, February 12, I received a telegraphic request from Uncle Lazer to come to Opoczno immediately. I laid everything aside and went or, better said, I flew to Opoczno. Arriving in Opoczno, I inquired at the railway station what had occurred and was immediately informed that Uncle Lazer's bakery had been closed down... So, devoted and dear Sol, you can imagine my arrival at my sister's home...what was going on there. My sister was wandering around as if she were confused. She said that she had had enought bread to eat for sixteen years and now they were going to tear it away from her. There was no way that I could calm her. She was so choked with tears that she collapsed on me and started with these words, "Devoted and only brother, behold what sort of catastrophe has befallen me. Where will I go with my six small children? Who will watch over us?" And on and on. My heart became so numb that I simply didn't know what had come over me. Briefly, after several hours of soothing, I called Uncle Lazer aside so that he could tell me in detail how the closing down of the bakery had taken place. So he told me that they started hounding him a year ago to mechanize his oven, bring in new machines, modernize, etc. But he didn't give it a great deal of attention because this involves a great deal of cost. However, it recently assumed a more serious, catastrophic character. Surely you're familiar with this from the newspapers which have written about the Jewish bakers in Poland. I too wrote to you about it in my last letter, and Uncle Lazer says that he also wrote you a letter about it last week. In any event, Sol, when a disaster occurs, G-d forbid, it is my nature to be calm and to keep my head until the very end. I left my sister weeping. I went out into the street to seek advice as to what could be done and what should be done. I went up the millers, my former partners, organized a delegation to the District Governor, headed by the Rabbi, and I myself went with them. In short, we pleaded, wept, protested. The result was that all that we were able to obtain is a stay of the order until June, i.e., 3 1/2 months. So, today the bakery was reopened and they're baking again, may it be well. However, everything is temporary because Uncle Lazer had to sign a document that he undertakes to build a bakery conforming to the most modern format and with the proper, modern mechanization. Returning home from the District Governor, we were able to breathe a bit more freely, and we all sat down, i.e., I, my sister, Uncle Lazer and his mother to figure out what we should do next because we know with a certainty that, after this, we won't be able to secure another stay. So, having familiarized myself with all the information, I concluded that it is an impossibility for one person to establish such a bakery. So, Uncle Lazer contacted another baker who is going into a partnership with him. Each of them is investing 10,000 zlotys, i.e., $1,100. However, since the building alone will cost 30,000-40,000 zlotys, Uncle Lazer wants me to join as a third partner. First of all, they need me as a worker. Secondly, they figure that I will also invest a like sum. Thirdly, Uncle Lazer is interested in my having a steady living, an existence in order to live. The business has good prospects, i.e., there's a living to be made from it, particularly now it will be 50% better because the small bakeries are going to disappear and are not going to be able to manage (to pay for) such a bakery. However, the plan depends on me. Before I start to write to you, dear brother, I ask you not to take this letter lightly because, dear Sol, it's possible that you may read our letters there and think about it in this way: "What do you have to say about my shnorrers in Poland?...they have fantasies about thousands of dollars. They think there that Sol sweeps up dollars with shovels, like snow." So, my most devoted and beloved one, as long as you know your Uncle Wolf and as much as you have learned about him, he has never written to you unless he was in a crisis. And it's the same thing in the present situation. Don't think, Sol, that your uncle doesn't know how hard one has to work in order to earn $1,000. In fact, you have just written to me that for all of 1927 you cleared $2,000, while in 1926 you cleared $5,000. This alone gives me the feeling that you don't have such successful enterprises there. Sol, it's simply that since I am aware that you have always helped me when I was in a crisis and have more than once saved me from coming to grief, I hope that this time as well you will not be unresponsive to my, and to Uncle Lazer's, letters. I don't want to indicate an amount because if I am to enter as a partner, I will have to invest 10,000 zlotys immediately, just like Lazer. Now then, devoted Sol, in order to secure your capital, there are many approaches to making you secure. So, for example, the District Governor promised us that as soon as the building is finished, without any machinery, we will immediately receive a loan with his cooperation, i.e., a credit in the Gospodarstwa Krajowa Bank at a very low rate of interest, so that our plan is to send your amount back right away. A second plan is that, as soon as 100 bags of flour a week are being baked, we should not sell the empty bags until there are several thousand bags and then sell them at one time and return your money. The cheapest bag costs from 1 to 1.10 zlotys. There are many other things that can be done. So, for example, we can save several thousand zlotys merely in the way we operate the business; instead of burning coal as we do today, we can burn wood. In a word, devoted and dear Sol, your most recent letter to me in Lodz convinces me that you are devoted to me and want to help me with all your strength. You mention going to Canada and portray for me how one lives in general and, in particular, in America. My devoted one, I must write openly that I will never be agreeable to break you with the sort of colossal sum that it would cost for me and my family to go to Canada, because my wife won't let me go alone but insists that we should all go together since she feels that if I go alone I will not be able to bring her very quickly. In addition, my Balcia will be eighteen years old this Passover; there will be great difficulties at that time. And I can expect nothing from my brothers-in-law because my in-laws write that they are starving there, and they very much regret that they left. So, it's my conclusion, Sol, that I should enter as a third partner along with my brother-in-law, Lazer, and you should invest a sum of money in the partnership that you should not entrust to me but to Uncle Lazer, and he will secure it with a first mortgage so that your money will be the first amount that will have to be repaid. In addition, there are good prospects, and the outlook for the business is favorable, so I will be able to make a living and Uncle Lazer will remain a baker as he has been until now... Dear Sol, you will surely become agitated on reading my letter and will think to yourself there, "Why have my closest (relatives) there in Poland weighed me down and prevented me from prospering and letting me live with my wife and..." So, dear brother, don't be agitated and don't be angry with us here because you are not familiar with the circumstances of our life here in Poland. I am not speaking only of myself because I am accustomed to my trouble. I don't believe that it will ever be good for me. However, Uncle Lazer has never experienced hunger, G-d forbid. All his life it has been just the opposite; he has helped others, empathized with others. And now such a misfortune has been thrust upon him. And perhaps it's a good fortune. One doesn't know. He could become rich in such a business because as of now it appears there will not be more than two bakeries in all Opoczno, one Jewish and the second Christian. And, again, if you should be concerned about the money that you are investing, there is nothing to be concerned about because, first of all, your uncle wants to secure your money with a first mortgage. Second, you yourself wrote to me in your most recent letter that I should not take heed of how much money it would have to cost you to bring me over because you are prepared to do everything in order to improve my critical situation. And you yourself give me courage and inspiration so that I will not be depressed, but rather will request of you such a sum as may (even) be too difficult for you to withdraw from your business at one time. Dear brother, Sol, don't you know very well that, for the last three years, your Uncle Wolf has written you the untarnished truth in his letters? How fortunate I was at that time when you, as a devoted nephew, sent me $200, and I and my family were able to get along and didn't require anyone's (help). And until this very day, dear Sol, I am still living on that capital. So what's the problem? I live on deals made out of air. I swear to you on my life that I don't have 50 zlotys of my own. One merely deals; one gets some (money on) credit on the street and gives it to another to pay out over time. I don't have large expenses. My Balcia also earns something. This is the way we survive our few years. However, I as a businessman with a businessman's outlook, understand very well that my dealing isn't worth anything. To the contrary, it's possible that I'll end up in debt on the street and the money I am owed on the street won't have any value because I deal only with poor people, workers to whom I can't do anything if they are not able to pay. Well, is this a business? Besides that, I have no capital with which to deal. And the business is not a business because you can't get anywhere with the business. Women go into the business. You can imagine what it's like... So, devoted brother, Sol, I appeal to you now as to a brother to take account of what I am writing and to be of assistance to me in becoming a partner of Uncle Lazer because if he wants to accept me as a partner even though I am not a tradesman, I must accept his proposition eagerly. Don't forget that what's involved is a way of making a living. What good is Lodz with its beautiful multi-storied houses if I can't make a living in Lodz? In a small town, expenses are smaller and one can save a gulden more easily. Surely I must always keep in mind that the time will come when I will have to arrange a wedding for a child, and I have my calculation that it may be better in Opoczno than in Canada because you are aware of to whom and with whom I would be going in Canada. I can't stand hearing their names and know with certitude that not one true word comes out of their mouths. They are untrustworthy and their tongues are untrustworthy. The best sign of that is that they are angry with their only sister and don't write any letters to her for years at a time. So, dear and devoted Sol, I believe that I have already written everything to you. I am already planning, with the help of G-d, to go home today or tomorrow. I am waiting for a train because recently in Poland there have been severe frosts that people cannot remember experiencing for the last fifty years. Yesterday, the barometer (sic) measured -36 Celsius. The newspapers write that elsewhere it measured -44 and even reached -50 Celsius. Therefore, communications are interrupted, and I have been frozen in here for several days. Perhaps the weather will change today or tomorrow. Well, I end my writing with the hope that my letter will not be like a voice calling in the wilderness, but that you will answer my current letter promptly because time is short and as soon as the frosts permit, we have to purchase a site and begin work. Remember, devoted Sol, that with your letter you must determine the fate of your two uncles. With your loan you can save us both from going under, chas v'cholilah. I swear to you by my steel pen that your capital will be secured and repaid to the last cent. There is no risk involved. There would be more risk in your helping me to go to Canada because I would have to go there in search of a way to make a living, and here I already have prospects for making a living. Sol, demonstrate your benevolence at this time, and we on our side will know how to express our thanks to you. I would have written to your wife too, but I know that she cannot read Yiddish. My sister wanted to add something in writing, but she is so shattered and despondent that she really doesn't know what is going on... So, heartfelt regards for you and your beloved wife and sisters, Ruchele, Bryndl, Rifchele. Regards to your father, the family, et al. Uncle Lazer, Aunt Estherl and cousins send heartfelt regards to all. My wife and children send heartfelt regards to all of you. With respect, your uncle who is awaiting a prompt reply, Wolf Lewkowicz Lipowa 44 Lodz, Poland All material Copyright 1995 by Marshall L. Zissman and Sol J. Zissman.