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Letter exchanges between
brothers, Georg and Valentin Märzluft,
my great uncles.
Georg Märzluft of Temerin,
Batschka
From a third great uncle's family in
Sao Paulo to his brother in the
US (who first lived in Gladstone, ND
and then moved to the Saginaw, MI
area)
From the scanned copies I
received from my American
cousin, I could only decipher
fragments of the letters . . .
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Below are the translated letters
and to the right are the originals in German,
my comments are in
italics.
Letter from Georg
Märzluft of Temerin, Batschka, to his brother,
Valentin Märzluft, in the US
February 20, 1924
Dear brother, sister-in-law and family,
Thank God we are all well and we sincerely wish
you the same. Dear brother, we were happy to
receive your letter of January 20 and are glad
that you are all healthy. Dear brother, the sad
news is that Eugen Vecsey's
(Valentine's sister
Anna's son) wife died. Jakob Märzluft has gone
to Argentina, South America with his family
because he can't get a visa for North America.
I don’t know his address. Our brother Mathias
is going to Sao Paulo, Brazil with his
family. There they have to work on the harbor
docks for two years, and then they are free.
They are all leaving, but we have to stay here
because I don't have that much money to pay for
the trip to America…And I'm not going to sell my
skin to the American millionaire before I get
there. (Georg could be referring to agents
canvassing people to emigrate to the US to work
for large companies. Maybe he was asked to pay
money up front?) I would rather go and work as a
day laborer again and scrape out a meager
living. Brother Mathias does not really want to
go (to Brazil), but he has to go somewhere. He
can't afford to buy a house and he can't find a
place to rent; nobody wants to take him with all
the children. And the biggest problem is with
Kati, because she is insane
(mentally
handicapped?) and he would not be able to go to
America with her.
Our Mother and sister Kati are well. Our
brothers and their families are well. Our
cousin Simon and family are well. His son Simon
is still in prisoner of war camp in Russia.
Dear brother, you can come.....? I have bought 3
pigs for 4,500 Florint to fatten up. And I
bought one from Mother, 80 kg for 3,000
Florint. Now I bought one, 79 kg for 4,000
Florint, but that's live weight. You can
imagine how much fat I’ll be able to get.
There are poor people everywhere. Life is hard,
because the government…? I have been working in
the vineyards and wine cellars for two years.
Best regards to you all until we see each other
again!
Georg and Rosa Märzluft
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Easter Wishes from daughter, Agnes Märzluft of
Sao Paulo, to godparents Valentin and Agnes
Märzluft in the US
Dear godmother and
godfather and cousins,
We wish you a
happy Easter holiday and an enjoyable holiday.
Agnes Märzluft
Closing message
from Anna Märzluft
Georg
(son) also
sends greetings to everybody. We close our
letter with many greetings and kisses until we
meet again. Please reply.
(signed)
Anna and Mathias Märzluft
(In different handwriting, probably Mathias
Märzluft)
Restaurant Otthon,
Märzluft Mathias
Rua da Mocca 413-A
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Note from Mathias Märzluft’s wife, Anna, from
Sao Paulo, Brazil. This could be the last page
of a letter written by Mathias, as she writes no
news of the family, only about the price of
food.
Letter not
dated (probably 1924)
Dear
brother-in-law and sister-in-law,
Here (in Sao
Paulo), 1000 Reis make 1 Mil (Brazilian
currency). When we arrived, we got 8 Mil
and 300 Reis for 1 Dollar. We are in Sao
Paulo. 1 kg lard costs 4 Mil. Bread costs 1
Mil 200 Reis. 1 kg beef costs 7 Mil 500 Reis.
1 kg pork costs 6 Mil. 1 kg potatoes cost 600
Reis. 1 liter milk costs 1 Mil. 1 kg butter
costs 12 Mil.
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