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Dear Ursula,
Following your suggestion during today's
telephone conversation I'm jotting down some observations about
the translations and issues flowing through them.
1.
My first problem was to manage to place the letters
in chronological order which proved rather complex. Whilst some
letters were clearly dated, a substantial number of them carried
the Hebrew day and month but not the Jewish year. Some only
referred to the parsha of the week as the only time post and as the
Torah portions are repeating every year I managed to approximate
the corresponding month of the general calendar, but [was] unable
to pinpoint the year unless the text hinted on it. A considerable
number of letters are not dated and I had to divine from the text
where possible, some approximation of time. Considering that many
letters are repetitive in their content, the undating does not
materially affect the story.
2.
For the discerning reader the letters convey a
reasonable insight into the state of mind of the individual writer
and can serve as a reliable sample for understanding the process
of gradual decline of the socio-economic canvas of Szczuczyn
Jewry during 1937-41. Keeping in mind that it starts off from a
low point to begin with. Furthermore, this particularity can
confidently be translated into the generality of the state of
Polish Jewry in the eastern part of the country.
3.
The main character of the epic is undoubtedly Wolf
Kayman, about whom some observations are in order. To start with
he is the main letter writer and bears witness to the drama of the
Kayman family, the portrait that unfolds from the correspondence
is of a typical religious Jew living in a small town between the
two World Wars. His devotion to his children and grandchildren is
paramount. He can't help himself but wear his heart on his sleeve.
The departure of Lozer and family hit him very hard and he is
unable to shake himself out from the sense of loss and his
intuitive knowledge that he will never see them again, even if
outwardly he never gives up hope. The hardest part is the absence
of the grandchildren. In his emotional references to their
departure he uses expressions that repeatedly confirm his
inability to make peace with this reality even if he knows in his
heart that they are all so lucky having left. He is a tragic figure, as a human being, as a family man
and provider and the reader can't help but have empathy for the
hopelessness of his existence.
4.
An outstanding aspect of the letters is the
revelation of the degree of Jewish learning of Wolf, his son-in-law Yedidi and his younger son Nison. The number of quotations
taken from Hebrew texts is impressive, always hitting their mark
and are faultless in their spelling. One can't help but reflect,
how in a small community like Szczuczyn, and such towns could be
counted in the hundreds on the eastern rim of Poland, with such
limited resources, such a standard of Jewish learning was the norm
rather than the exception. The Kayman family has every reason to
be proud of the background of their forefathers.
5.
The general introductory information regarding the
family as contained in Selina's letter to you are on the whole
correct. However, one historical aspect has to be added to the
above outline. The Germans occupied Poland twice, not once. The
war started on 1-9-39 and Poland was totally occupied within three
weeks. However, his occupation was of only ten days duration,
because according to the Molotov-Ribbentrop dismemberment of
Poland, its eastern part which included Bialystok, Lomza,
Szczuczyn etc. belonged to the USSR and the Germans had to vacate
the territories, which they did in early October 1939. Thus began
the interlude of the Russian occupation of eastern Poland which
lasted until June 1941 when the Germans began their invasion of
Russia. In other words there was no ghetto in Szczuczyn during the
period of the letters in hand.
6.
Nison's letter dated March 1941 is seminal in the
sense that it confirms that Wolf died of natural causes not from
starvation as assumed.
7.
Finally, the chance of these letters ending up on my
desk which I gladly translated has an additional personal
dimension. It so happens that I knew Nochum's son Ben Rosenbaum
and his wife since my arrival here. The lived in a house in
Windsor and the next house to theirs belonged to Chaim and Moshe
Dorevitch, the latter was the one to bring me out from Shanghai to
Melbourne in May 1946. I remember him well and used to meet him
from time to time communally after he retired to his house in
Melbourne permanently.
Israel Kipen
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