Three envelopes with letters sent by the Jewish soldier who served in the U.S. Army OTTO-KARL GRUENBAUM to his father in the years 1944-1945 while serving in France and southern Germany, and they deal with personal matters as well as trying to predict how the United States would emerge from the war, Gruenbaum is interested in the fate of his father and family, as well as news about the development of the war in Nice, and more. In a letter sent in December 1944, two words were cut out by the censor. At the end of the war, Otto was stationed in Germany, but the day before he was supposed to return to the United States he was killed, the cause of his death has not been clarified to this day. (See below).
Otto-Karl Gruenbaum was born to a Jewish father and a Catholic mother in Vienna in 1918. The younger of two brothers, Otto began studying piano at the age of 10. After entering the Vienna Conservatory of Music, he gave his first concert at the age of 14. At the encouragement of maestro Bruno Walter, he hoped to become a conductor and concert pianist. After the annexation of Austria to Germany in March 1938, Otto was expelled from the Vienna Conservatory. One night, two men ordered him to go with them to the basement, where they forced other people to wipe and scrub. They told Otto to wait his turn, but in the midst of the confusion he managed to escape. In order to leave the borders of Austria, he registered to participate in a piano competition in Belgium. From Belgium he fled to France, and then sailed to America on August 11, 1939. He spent the first years of the war in America and it seemed that the war was behind him. He gave piano lessons, and also performed in front of Austrian resistance groups and Jewish refugees from Europe who managed to escape to the United States. With the entry of the United States into the war, Otto decided to return to Europe and join the fight. In October 1944 he was sent to battle in France and southern Germany. His job was to interrogate German prisoners, who denied to him that they knew anything about the concentration camps. Otto was stationed in Germany at the end of the war. The day before he was supposed to return to America he was killed. The cause of his death is still unknown to this day.
The letters before us were written while he was serving in the United States Army, and were sent in official U.S. Army mail envelopes.
We found the information about Otto at the Holocaust Museum in Washington. In 2023, the book Almost Home, The story of Otto Gruenbaum by Irene Wittig was written about him.
Three envelopes, each envelope contains a long letter of several pages. Overall very good condition.
