A letter on an aerogram (airmail letter sheet), with all parts, designated for the letter’s content, filled in (recto side - text in 3 columns, verso side – continuation of the text on both flaps). On the portion of the card for the recipient's details is the address of the editorial office of Nowa Wieś at ul. Wiejska 17. On the section with the sender’s details – the address of Ozjasz Hofstätter (surname spelled with an “a”) in Holon.
The complete content:
Dear and beloved Irena!
In a month, it will be two years since we said goodbye. Ania, my wife, keeps reminding me that it is an embarrassment that I have not written to you. We have never forgotten how much we owe you — how much effort you and Irena Waniewiczowa exerted, during those difficult weeks, in order to help us. All that lives on in our hearts.
So today, I have finally overcome my laziness when it comes to writing, and I greet you, from across the seas and lands, with the same old, heartfelt friendship.
I suppose that you have already heard from Rysio as to how things are going for us. Emigration at our age and without dollars in our pockets is – clearly - a painful transformation. We finally achieved a normal life just three weeks ago - a home, work and (our latest gain) [illegible] one day off each week. I earned that last one myself - after working for seven months without a single day off.
Through Ignacy Isserles, editor of “OD Nowa”, I met the Einsteins (he is an actor, she is an activist with [illegible organisation]), to whom we owe almost everything.
Thanks to my own exhibition, I have become a fairly well-known artist - but that is far from material success. The fact that there are people in Israel, who buy my modest, black-and-white, sombre works, is astonishing. The Einsteins know how to persuade them to do it.
That is how, so far, we have been able to pay off our housing debts quite easily [illegible] (we have them for five years!). I have only one commercial contact. He is an art dealer in Tel Aviv, who buys very rarely and pays very poorly.
But my creative work has not come to a standstill.
In the evenings, I have plenty of time to read – it is possible to buy books in German very cheaply at second-hand bookstores: Rilke, Bialik, Rabindranath Tagore, Homer, Plato, Martin Buber, Thomas Mann, Kurt Tucholsky, Faulkner, Hemingway, Jean Paul (a forgotten German), Rimbaud, Perec. With this mix, I feel wonderful.
After seven in the morning, I return home to a large room. That is my painting studio, where I work almost every day.
Around three, I get back on the bus to go to the institute, where I earn our living (about 200 pounds a month) as a night watchman. There, I water some flowers (three hours a day), feed the dog and so on.
I can sleep about 5–6 hours. When I still did not have a day off, I would sometimes curse the conditions here and think that Polish workers do not realise what they have. But I have not become a communist again. Everywhere in the world the masses are deceived - and I am among them.
The local weekly “Od Nowa” reflects the situation here quite well.
Ania is sitting next to me and is happy that I am finally writing to you.
She is generally happy and really looks very well. My dear and [?] Czech wife (my good wife) naturally also finds things to complain about here. They play the radio so loud you need to plug your ears, because the walls are so thin, that you can hear everything as if it were in your own room. And not everyone is disciplined or clean the way it should be according to her ideals.
In this country, if you are not feeling down, there really is [?] to enjoy - wonderful [?] nonstop, very lively people, lots of beautiful people, and all sorts of types from all over the world with a babble of every language.
In my opinion, one should work during the day (you all work too little). –[?] I have been rarely depressed during these two years and, as soon as things get a little better, you tend to forget about it. I am already starting to forget some of the flaws of “socialism” (though I will never convince my wife).
I really liked the honest report by Barbara Trytan in “Nowa Wieś” from England and, in the literary supplement, Zoshchenko’s “Happiness” translated by L. Swid. I was very happy with the interview with L.S. and his photograph.
Please send the “Nowa Wieś” to my new address.
Special greetings to my beloved Jadwiga Złochowska, Stecowa, Irena Waniewicz, Marysia Bartnik, Gilda, B. Tryfan, Byjak Jaś, Żołędowski, Susid, [illegible], Ozonek, Rysio Zbrzeżny, Irenka Dąbrowska, Korn Rikardo, Jakolm Stepan, Markowicz - to all of them - to everyone.
To you, Heńka, and to you, dear Irenka! Stay well!
Hofek and Ania
[Note on the left side of the page, i.e., on the left flap of the aerogram:]
P.S. Warm greetings to our benefactor Józef Muszkat from “Expr.”!!!
Transcribed by: Michał Miszczuk
