Waiting for news

Letters that have been preserved are the basis of Regina Gottschalk´s research. By means of these letters, she reconstructs the fate of a Jewish family from the Bohemian Forest during the years of Nazi terror.

The Getreuers and their four children are the only Jewish family in the small village Schwanenbrückl. Due to the Munich Agreement in 1938, their homeland is annexed by the German Reich; the family is forced to flee to Prague, where they hope to be safe. The adult children manage to emigrate to the USA, their parents are to join them later. The family members that have been torn apart try to keep in touch by writing letters. From now on, waiting for news determines their life. Finally, the parents and almost all other relatives left behind in Hitler´s sphere of power are deported and killed. For a long time, the children keep waiting for news – in vain …

Based on the family´s correspondence and other contemporary documents, Regina Gottschalk describes in detail the humiliating living conditions and the emotional strain of people suffering under the anti-Jewish laws: their longing for their children abroad, their hope to survive «these hard times», their fears in the face of the imminent deportations, and their trust in God, which they keep up until the end.