“Dear Mom, I am not ok”

In the “Last Letters from the Holocaust” activity, and during our discussion, I found it interesting how almost all of the letters held some sort of optimism or reassurance. Whether they were 11 years old or a mother missing her child’s birthday, they always had something positive to say. I cannot imagine being an 11 year old girl in this time and feeling able to tell my parents only good things instead of voicing all of my worries. During our discussion in class, I often wondered how these people kept such a good spirit in times of fear and hurt. Similarly, I wonder how much pain they would’ve had to have been accustomed to in their lives to still be so positive.

Another thing I found interesting from the class discussion was the topic of censorship in the letters. Until one of my classmates pointed it out, I had not thought about the possibility that the letters were only positive because they were not allowed to be something else. If this is true and many of these letters were censored, I wonder how it felt to not be able to communicate with your family in the way you wanted to. Especially in these times, I imagine it must’ve been devastating for people who just wanted to tell their families what was happening.

While reading these letters makes me sad, they also help me learn a lot more about the Holocaust and the things people went through. I think it is important that we read these letters and that we are able to have this inside look into specific people’s minds and experiences.