NAWSA GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE Genthe, Wilhelm Chemnitz Heimgarten 64. July 21st 1947. My dear Miss Blackwell: I just was going to write to you when your letter came this morning announcing me a package of food. I thank you ever so much. It will be very welcome, indeed, for we are suffering really. We are short of food, of soap, of almost everything, of all the necessities of life. I only hope your package will not be delayed too long by the shipping strike. Meanwhile I have the pleasure of looking forward to that repeated proof & token of your kindness & friendship for me. It is strange that your letter was mailed on July 1st & although it is an "air letter", that it took three weeks for it to get here. You ask about my giving lessons. Of course I had to retire from active service quite a number of years ago, but I give private lessons whenever I get a chance & I enjoy it for it keeps me in touch with younger people & I remain myself fresh & young as it were. I give lessons in biology & chemistry, in English & Latin & one young boy I helped along with his Greek. You are 89 almost 90 you say, I knew it & I hope & wish you to attain the one hundred. As to myself, I am 76 now but, unfortunately, not very well. My legs & feet are swollen, my face bloated. Hunger-oedema that is what the physician calls it. What I was going to write you about is this. Some little time ago I got some American stamps. I am collecting stamps. Among those stamps was one with Susan B. Anthony. I was delighted. If Martha had lived to see this! but now I think it is high time to issue another set with Lucy Stone, Alice St. Blackwell & Mr. Blackwell. Hoping that it will be done I am with the best wishes for you Your old Wilhelm. Chemnitz Heimgarten 64. Oct 29th 1947. My dear motherly friend, my dear Miss Blackwell: In the first place I want to congratulate you most heartily upon your birthday. Ninety years of hard work! You have been working all the time up to and beyond the biblical age & are still working incessantly. I wish you to reach the one hundred. Then I want to thank you for all your kindness to myself. In your letters you speak to me really as to your friend not only that you call me so. I am always delighted to receive one of your dear letters. I thank you & your secretary for them. Since I first met you in Leipzig & we, you, Aunt Isabel & I went together to [?Ohannes'?] grave at the great cemetery, you have kept up your friendship to me. Ninety years! What have you seen in all that time going on in America & in Europe, nay in the whole world! Your keen interest has embraced the happenings in all the world. And your work for woman's suffrage. You are intimately connected with its history. To-day now, was a grand day of joy & happiness for me. I got notified last night, that a care packet has been received for me & this morning I went to the main post-office to get it. How delighted I was, when I opened it. Ten tin-cans of wonderful things which had become almost unknown to us in our distress. Butter which we hardly ever get; honey, quite unknown to us; powdered eggs, bacon, tea, one of the finest brands; and plum pudding that puts me right back to America. Sardines, sausages, chicken meat, dried peaches complete the package. So, now, in this place I thank you from the bottom of my heart. And that is not all yet. You announce me another package of food stamps. I am sure it will arrive in due time. Further on you promise me a package of useful things such as soap of which we are in great need, cotton thread, cotton & wool mending yarn, and you asked me for a list of things we are in need of. My housekeeper, Mrs. Mende, is quite disconsolate, because a package with old shoes for her was lost in the mails & she urged me to mention it to you. I thank you, thank you ever so much. With most cordial greetings Your 76 years old friend Karl Wilhelm Genthe. Chemnitz Dec. 21st 1947. Dear Miss Blackwell: I wish you a merry Xmas & a very happy new year! As to myself, I shall have a very lonely Christmas. Irmgard cannot come home. There are very few trains & a permit will be granted only for urgent official or business trips. Visiting relatives, even parents, is not considered enough unless they are very sick & a physician's certificate can be shown. On the 29th of October I received a care packet from you which I acknowledged to you. You spoke of two more parcels which you were going to have sent to me, but I have not received them yet. I hope they were not lost in the mails nor stolen as is said to happen quite often nowadays but simply delayed. With kindest regards Your old friend Wilhelm. Chemnitz Aug. 31th 48. My dear Aunt Alice: This is to convey to you my heartfelt congratulations to your birthday. May you keep up your interests, your sympathies, your activity in many directions & lines of work. I hope you are still well & I presume, you are just as busy as ever, your work being a blessing to many. Since there is no air mail from here to you, I do not know, when you will get these greetings, though I am sorry, that it will be somewhat belated. Yesterday I got notice from Copenhagen, that a food parcel is on its way to me. Although no giver was mentioned, I presume, it was ordered by you & I want to thank you for it. Perhaps it is a mistake. It would come in very handy at a time, when my housekeeper declares almost every day, she does not know, what she should cook anymore. Just a week ago I wrote you about those American stamps doing homage to American women & I expressed my sympathy with that act of the American government. I hope you got that letter of mine. With the kindest regards Yours as ever Wilhelm. Chemnitz Nov. 17th 48. My dear Aunt Alice: Your air mail letter of Nov. 4th was duly received. You speak of many parcels which you have sent me & that on Nov.3d you had another one ordered for me. I thank you ever so much for your really motherly care for me & I am looking forward to your gift parcels. It is true, packages sent from abroad to the Russian Zone get sometimes lost & never arrive. So far, I have received three packages from you, one in Oct. 1947, one in March 1948 & one in July '48. They all came by the way of Copenhagen & were forwarded by the British-American Trading Corp. 135 Broadway New York City or The Prince Company 568 Broadway New York City. They were a great help to me & contained just the things which we need most to strengthen body & soul. Yes, we too have followed the American elections with keen interest & we feel greatly relieved by the outcome. President Truman means peace. We were afraid of Dewey & especially of that horrid man Foster Dulles. This election would surely have meant war. The Lord may guard us against a third war! With heartfelt thanks & kindest greetings & regards Yours as ever Wilhelm. Chemnitz March 13th 49. My dear Aunt Alice: This is meant for an Easter Greeting to you. The invigorating influence of spring will do you good. We had a mild winter with very little snow, but March set in with cold & much snow. Since we have very little heating material I have had to suffer quite a good deal. Our food is poor, especially our bread & our nourishment is insufficient. We are hungering, not exactly starving, for we have enough potatoes, but we are lacking good substantial food. We have no meat. This week we had instead of meat five thin slices of sausage, no butter, no fatstuffs, no sugar, no milk, nor cream. I feel pretty miserable, my face & my ankles are swollen. The doctor calls it "Hungeroedema" & says, there is but one remedy: "coffee, coffee, & again coffee". I guess, he is right about it, but where to get coffee? If you could help me, I should appreciate it very much indeed. Coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate, milk powder or condensed milk, egg powder, to improve my bill of fair. I am confined to the house & cannot even go to Martha's grave who died on March 26th four years ago, a victim of a terrible attack from the air which laid our city into ruins & burnt it. I have been rather feeble since then & not yet recovered my old self. The constant cries of war are annoying me. We have had enough of it, really. No peace treaty yet! People should devote themselves to the works of peace. We need peace, peace to recover & improve our conditions & the same is the case with the other nations. With kindest regards Yours as ever Wilhelm. [*Genthe*] MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE SOUTH HADLEY, MASSACHUSETTS Chemnitz Aug. 18th 49. My Dear Aunt Alice: A few days ago I received a parcel that was a great surprise to me. It contained a can of margarine, one of lard, one of beef in its own juice, & a big piece of smoked bacon (2 kg.). The labels were all in German. It came from Danmark & was forwarded by a Berlin agent. No donor was mentioned, no name given. You must be the kind donor, for I do not know, who else should send me such a splendid gift. I want to express to you my most heartfelt thanks. Our victuals are still rationed & the rations are small & hardly sufficient. We have enough bread & potatoes, but meat, fatstuffs, sugar are lacking. So your kind gift comes in just right & is a great aid in our difficult situation. It is a wonderful thing to feel, that far away across the ocean there are kind people who want to show their sympathy with us. One great human community! Let us hope, that idea will supersede all the war clamour, that resounds through our civilized world to-day again. As to myself, I am improving & can walk about much better now. Our summer has been rather cool so far, but now it seems summer weather will set in. With kindest regards & many thanks I remain Yours as ever Wilhelm. [*Genthe*] Chemnitz July 25th 48. My dear Aunt Alice: Yesterday! a wonderful day: I got your Paket [Lun?] Neü ordered for me by you. It came from Copenhagen by the way of Warmemünde as former such packets did. Receive my most cordial thanks. How good you are to me! It came here just at a time of great need & distress, when my housekeeper repeatedly had declared, she did not know what she should give me to eat. The main difficulty she had was with the breakfasts & suppers. A few slices of dry bread seemed all that was possible. And now: What splendid array of good things this list Lun Neu enumerates! They are all first rate & in best condition. Unfortunately the first item "Ham & Bacon" was missing. The margarine is as good as real butter. I enjoy especially the milk & milk products, the sweetened condensed milk, the most delicious cream, the milk powder, all these are things which we never get here. The marmalade, the sugar, the coffee are all excellent & the 1800 g of wheat flour solves the question of providing me with good substantial meals for my housekeeper for quite a time to come. There are oats enough to last quite a time &, last not least, four cakes of soap, real soap, not that clay mixture which is sold to us here. You see I am in high spirits & can only say: I thank you most heartily. The package is most carefully put up & even an envelope is provided for to notify the kind sender & thank her. We are still passing through exciting times connected with the rearrangement of our currency. The turmoil in Berlin makes me feel quite uneasy about Irmgard. I hope, though, she will get through all right. With thanks & the kindest regards Yours as ever Wilhelm. [*Genthe*] Herzliche Weihnachtsgrüße [*Genthe*] Chemnitz Nov. 25th 49. My dear Aunt Alice: I am sending you herewith my best wishes for a merry Xmas & a happy new year. I am sure you will keep up your manyfold interests in human affairs all over the world & Germany & German affairs will be among them. We are still longing for a peace treaty which has not been granted to us as yet. We want an undivided empire, that is to say the reunion of Western Germany which has been torn away from us without the consent of the people & we want the withdrawal of the different occupation armies, so that we may manage our own affairs ourselves which we are perfectly able to do. You may have heard or read of the instalment of our new government, but that cannot be the final settlement of the whole German question. A just solution of this problem will mean peace for the whole of Europe. We hope that by and by our nourishment will be better & the new year will bring to us some improvements which we need badly. With the kindest regards & all good wishes to you I remain Yours as ever Wilhelm. Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.