A touching letter with dotted text by child named David Spielman from the Lodz Ghetto to a "child in Eretz Israel", Lodz Ghetto December 23, 1940. Two notebook pages - the first "Letter to the child in Eretz Yisrael" handwriting in Hebrew, dated: Kislev 23 1940. On the following page, a hand drawing of a map of the Land of Israel with the settlements and the main cities in Polish which David drew. An extremely rare find from the Lodz ghetto. Museum item.
The letter reads:
"Letter to the child in Eretz Israel. Shalom to you child! My name is David Spielman from 6 Stefana Jaracza Street from crowded Litzmannstadt. We are learning to speak Hebrew and also to write. And also learning to sing in Hebrew. Tomorrow is Hanukkah and we are singing Hanukkah songs. I prepared a nice map of Eretz Israel for you. What's new in Eretz Israel? And what's new with you? I am waiting for you to write to me and to receive a letter from you, and so I will be happy. And also write to me from which city or moshava you are and what the weather is like in Eretz Israel and your name. Here the weather is very cold and crowded on the street. Soon we will make aliyah to Eretz Israel and there will be enough room for everyone. Write to me also about Eretz Israel and about Hanukkah celebrations. See you in Eretz Israel David Spielman". Below the letter is an illustration of a ship sailing on the waves of the sea and the caption "To Eretz Israel". On the following page, David illustrated the map of the Land of Israel and the title: "Eretz Israel" and PALASTINA" that David drew for the child in Israel.
According to the German order, with the establishment of the Lodz Ghetto, all the Hebrew schools in Lodz, in which 90% of the Jewish students studied, were moved into the ghetto. In the first school year about 11,000 students studied in the ghetto schools, but over time there was a significant decrease, and by mid-1940 only about 7,300 students were studying. The education system included an orphanage, a vocational school, two high schools, a religious school, day camps and elementary schools. Initially there was an attempt to maintain the education system as it was before the war, but very quickly feeding the children became one of its main goals. Already at the beginning of 1941 some of the schools in the ghetto were closed due to the shortage of buildings in the ghetto, and after the summer vacation all the schools were closed. Additional educational programs were held in the ghetto, including programs that tried to combine work with classes. The ghetto youth established a number of educational and cultural frameworks, including the "Mlodo Zydowski Front" (The Desert sons Generation Front), which engaged in the education of youth and even celebrated holidays in the ghetto.
We do not know what became of the child David Spielman and whether he survived the war. From the content it is evident that he is a child apparently in the first grade who has just begun to learn to write, as part of an assignment the students received to write letters to children in Eretz Israel. The way he describes the ghetto as a crowded place was quite appropriate for the time the letter was written - when close to 200,000 Jews were crowded into the ghetto. According to the ghetto map Stefana Jaracza Street was one of the main streets in the Lodz Ghetto.
[2] Notebook pages. 23x18 cm. Very good condition.
