November 10, 1944
Epinal, France
No. 64 (conclusion)
Dear Folksies,
Busy today until just a little while ago. Mom, YOUR TYPING IS MARVELOUS!!!! Heck, you have many less mistakes than these letters of mine! Keep it up! I should think, however, that now you would be kicking yourself for not trying to type long ago!
I kind of thought my descriptions of this country would give all of you time to recollect times spent over here in good times. Alain’s letter on that subject I thought was really sort of a tribute – I quote: “Up to now I was under the impression that the letters from civilians to soldiers were good morale builders. Since you are in France, however, we came to the conclusion that your letters are at least as good for the morale as ours.”
I haven’t heard from George Davis, so do not know if he got around near Lilice, etc. or whether he has been ill or what.
I wish that I had a good week to get around with some sort of vehicle — I could undoubtedly locate most of our relatives with ease, now that I have all the information you sent me. Time is the essential factor — time to get around, but it looks as if we are going to be kept busy steadily for a good long time, so I shall have to contact all our cousins by postal card or thru others until the opportunity of visiting them arises. Did finally get postals off to Jeanne, Lilice, Sadie, Jean-Pierre, Monique, Josette and can only hope that I get an early and detailed answer from some of them.
Got good news from Alain, who wrote that as of the 21st of October he had seen Yehudi, who had spent a great deal of time with Jacqueline and Marcel and apparently knew that Jeanne and David are both in Nice and that they intend to stay there for the winter.
Loads of love,
.
René mentions a letter he received from his French cousin, Alain Dreyfus (residing in the US in 1944). René has written post cards (letters are not allowed) to a number of the French relatives, including Jean-Pierre Baumann (who is somewhere in France). Pictured above are Alain (left) and Jean-Pierre, in better times.
René also wrote a post card to Sadie Bine (his father’s first cousin). Unbeknownst to René, Sadie (who had been born in San Francisco in 1870, and who moved to Paris after marrying a Frenchman in 1892) had died in Auschwitz 4 months earlier — just a month short of her 74th birthday.