Transcription of the letter from Paul to Hedwig Lefmann on 15 October 1918:
“15 Oct. 18.
Dear Heti!
In your dear letter of the 10th you wrote that Mother had told me of your Vosges plans. That is not the case. Could the letter have been lost? Stay quietly at home, for there is no pleasure here in the Etappe sitting every evening in an air raid and even having bombs fall on one’s fingers. It is surely enough if one member of the family must expose himself to this danger. You are now earning quite nice money in Bremen. 150 marks is certainly something for a young girl, and you can save quite a bit.
Unfortunately I am at present earning nothing, for in the foreseeable time no concerts are taking place. So that we do not wander about here completely without occupation, the captain has assigned Lang, Racky, and me a post—namely, in the theatre we do evening supervisory duty. This is only pro forma, so that we have something to do. I find it really very decent of the captain, for he could just as well have sent us back to the troop.
The day after tomorrow is the opening performance. We have now been in Charleville for 10 days and have done nothing but eat well and sleep in a fine bed in the hotel.
I am glad that my parcels are all arriving. In the next days the box with soap powder should arrive. I think you will have enough of it for half a year. How are the soap bars at 1 mark each, which I sent you? And how is the pudding powder? I would like very much to know.
Did you read in this morning’s communiqué that Asfeld has already been occupied by the French? Follow the army reports carefully, then you will come across all sorts of familiar names. Our theatre in Rethel has already been blown up. Thank God we are out of that area.
I now firmly believe that we shall have peace by Christmas. Hopefully in the next weeks there will be an armistice, so that the killing stops for now. Here in Charleville one can buy everything. Mother should tell me what she still wants.
With many warm greetings also to Papa and Mother, from your brother
Paul.”
Transcription of the letter from Hedwig to Paul Lefmann on 6 November 1918:
“Bremen, 6 Nov. 1918
Dear Paul!
With your birthday parcel you gave Papa great joy. We were all very curious when the exciting moment came, and afterward each of us took a turn smelling the cocoa. It was fine that the birthday fell on a Sunday, so that I could at least help celebrate the whole day. On that occasion I made a pudding which, in the beating, took on such enormous proportions that I barely managed to fit it into 5 bowls. But all the guests were delighted with it and ate it with the greatest appetite; I believe Meyer junior ate the most.
Dear Paul! For Christmas I would like to give you something really beautiful. Tell me, do you not have a special wish, I mean a really quite special wish, which you could tell me? It would give me immense joy to give you a true pleasure. So, please think about it and write me soon.
Here in Bremen things at present look rather revolutionary. It is to be feared that we too will yet have unpleasant outbreaks. Liebknecht is to speak here this evening—what consequences will that have? Just now someone brought into the office the news that the workers at the Hansa-Lloyd works had downed tools and were joining together in large crowds. You know, Paul, the one who is best off now is he who has no earthly goods to lose. At the office we intend from now on to work through until 4 o’clock, so that the staff will not have to go through the dark streets in the evening. What stirring times these are! Well, you surely also follow everything in the newspapers and are thus well informed of the general mood now prevailing.
With our company it is now rather shaky. We are involved with about 3 million marks in a tobacco affair in the region of Constantinople–Braila. If that goes under, then we are finished, for we have only 5 million in share capital. In addition, the Deutsche still has some ships afloat in the Black Sea. Should those vessels be seized, then we will have to pay dearly.
You surely already know too that in Kiel there was recently a kind of revolution. The ships returned to harbor flying the red flag. Today 1000 seamen from Kiel have arrived here and are holding our station occupied. No soldier goes to the front. The transport that was to depart here this morning did not leave at all. The next days will surely bring much that is interesting. Papa says that if things should break out here today, he will come and fetch me from the office.
That is all for today!
Warm greetings
Your sister Heti.”
