I found a letter from my Grandfather to my Mother

Written just after we arrived in Australia (I was ten) . He jokingly complains that since I left there is no one to work in his workshop with him and his tools are getting rusty.

I must have started early huh? I have his vice and some of his advice. And now that letter.

Mekon

Reply to
Mekon
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RE: Subject

My mother, who turned 103 on 04/21/08, has a letter written by her mother to her farther in about 1920.

It is written in a "HIgh German", a language fromat used in the 1800s but is now totally obsolete.

Although my mother was fluent in modern spoken German, she could not read this letter.

About 5 years ago, found a woman whose 80+ mother still lived in Germany and came to SoCal for the summers, and as a bonus, understood the old "High German".

She translated the letter for me.

As I read the translation, I was blown away.

It was as if I was reading a letter written by my mother, rather than my grandmother.

As they say, the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree.

My grand parents died several years before I was born, but somehow that letter opened on window on my grandmother for me.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

How cool is that?

We have little of our family history as it has been really fragmented over the generations. Being a history buff of sorts, it is really disappointing to me.

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

(snip)

High German is close to Old English, A language I studied at university. When I first started it shocked me how little I understood of it. Now when I meet Scandinavians and Germans I play a little linguistic game trying to find words which are most alike in their language and ours. Most simalarities are in farming tools and terms Spade, earth, fowl with a few religious ones thrown in God Christ and some basic 'human' words dream, live, hope, then a weapon sword, animals cow hen and so on. There are quite a lot when you look for them.

Mekon

Reply to
Mekon

You don't say how old you are but if you are interested in family history start working on it NOW. It is easier when the older members of the family are still living and you can asked questions and record stories of their lives.

Reply to
Keith nuttle

Keith nuttle wrote in news:7dEPj.9676$ snipped-for-privacy@nlpi070.nbdc.sbc.com:

I recommend to start YESTERDAY!! Some things need to be done very gently, because some of the things the previous generation went through are pretty disturbing. My parents lived through the German occupation of Holland, and now they are gone, I can't ask about it any more.

Reply to
Han

s=E5nd p=E5per is =F8ne of them.

Reply to
Robatoy
[snip for brevity]

Mine did as well, and are still alive. My dad is suffering from severe short-term memory loss, but at almost

87, healthy as a bear. He still gets riled about the 'verdomde rot-moffen'. I recently found a few copies of an verboten newspaper he printed and distributed while underground during WW2. He was a pretty brave young lad... to get caught would get you shot. He also had a radio hidden, one he used to get his info from Radio Oranje, broadcast from London, UK.

It was very emotional to read some of them. No letters to my mother, but a snapshot of his life during which time he was dating my mother. I found some food coupons in the same shoe-box as well, and a few fliers, air-dropped 'suggesting the Krauts surrender'. I also found the last copy he printed (Gestetnered) the one that announced it was the last issue..because they were free again.... consequently, he has always been grateful to a fault, as there is NO way that any American or Canadian or Brit could ever do anything wrong...ever. Suffice it to say that he and I had some disagreements.

r
Reply to
Robatoy

Robatoy wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.giganews.com:

It is a very tough thing to ask your parents to talk about things that they would (often) rather not talk about. For me one of the things was when my son (at around 8 years of age - he is now in his thirties) came home with stories from holocaust deniers. I had to set him straight about the facts. That made me want to talk more about my parents' war experiences. However, it was difficult, and I now regret that I didn't get more information. I did get quite a bit, but not for distribution on the net.

Reply to
Han

For my FIL, it was having to move forward 30 miles a day in WWII and what to do with prisoners.

Reply to
Doug Winterburn

When I was growing up, a fair number of people in town had numbers tattooed on their arms. They wore them proudly, but never talked about them.

Just another part of the vast conspiracy, no doubt.

-- Doug

Reply to
Douglas Johnson

Doug Winterburn wrote in news:jx0Qj.93697 $ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe14.phx:

Please send my thank you's to your FIL and all his buddies. That's from my sister and her kids, as well as my kids and grandkids too.

Reply to
Han

Douglas Johnson wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

That's one of the things I had to explain.

Reply to
Han

I would, but he departed in 1991 at age 66.

Reply to
Doug Winterburn

Doug Winterburn wrote in news:DR8Qj.172013$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe13.phx:

My belated condolances!!

Reply to
Han
[snipped very moving story for brevity's sake]

Oh man...... hang on to that thing for dear life....

r
Reply to
Robatoy
[snipped very moving story for brevity's sake]

SFWIW, I gave my mother a chromatic harmonica for Christmas 50 years ago.

At 103, she can no longer play it.

At her request, it's final resting place will be beside her.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

"Han" wrote

My youngest daughter writes articles/reviews on a weekly basis for her college newspaper. When the review she wrote about the novel "Night," by Elie Wiesel was published, I realized again just how important it is to raise your kids so that they can't be brainwashed, even by college professors:

formatting link
while she's still learning to wield words, I'm proud that her head, and heart, appear to be most definitely in the right place.

Reply to
Swingman

Atrocities happened. No doubt.

Why is it that someone can be sentenced to a jail term because he/she has evidence that it was, in fact 4.3 million Jews who were slaughtered instead of 6 million? The mere questioning of the numbers will have your ass thrown in jail!

4.3 vs 6.0?? It's an atrocity! Enough already!

*I* want to know ONE thing, and one thing only.

Why can the the Jews use the slaughter against them use that info to get a Home Land...and our native Americans cannot?

How many Native American Indians did we kill?

Why can't THEY use the victim card?

I guess it is because they don't own any banks. Or politicians.

Reply to
Robatoy

"Robatoy" wrote

As you already indicated, all you need to know is that greed and politics ultimately brings out the inhuman ...

Reply to
Swingman

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