Letter written in blue pen to Tadeusz Perl from Pesa Frydlender (later: Paulina Kern, see note to letter MPOLIN-A50.1.4), on a single blank card. Text written on both sides, no conclusion. The letter's content depicts a moral story concerning an acquaintance of Pesa Frydlender (“person x”): an affair and, as a result, an awkward financial issue. There is no date and place of writing, but we can assume that it was written in Warsaw, on 15 March 1939 (at the beginning of the letter the entry of the Third Reich's army into Bohemia and Moravia is mentioned). Content: Dear Tadzik! Thank you very much for your letter. I needed it very much and it cheered me up a bit. My “humour” is gone, even though today Hitler carried out the final partition of Prague and even though there is no telling what “tomorrow” might bring. My epistles previously stemmed from my stupidity, which you probably don't question. I sense Tad that you're smiling and waving your hand because “she's an idiot”[,] foreseeing in your own way what this is about. But as I don't like to shroud myself in secrecy from you, I'd prefer to communicate to you verbally, but as that's impossible, so listen Tad, to the “tale from one thousand and one nights”. There was an x – who loves adventure, besides, she was looking for an antidote [?], thinking that it'd be possible to quit [?] – once it becomes superfluous. The “antidote” [?] itself offered its services [?], realising its role, attacked and, at a certain point, because it possessed to a high degree the ability to portray itself in an interesting light, attracted to a rather considerable[,] to be precise to a very considerable degree – person x. Person x at a certain point, despite warnings about the “antidote” [?] (apparently because she became “emotionally involved” with this party) started to have great trust in the “antidote”[?], shared [with] him every grosz (at a certain point the balance on person x's side was 70 zlotys – he “owes her”) etc. After a while, something began to deteriorate. After a while, something began to deteriorate. Person x got a bit bored with the affair and slowly quite often started to catch little lies, so-called unethical [?] behaviour towards people, and because she doesn't like to stay silent, although it seemed to her that this was a persona that was important to her, she made it clear to him. At one point, on New Year's Eve, she said[:] “don't come today, and enough of the fun in general[”]. Because person x in this case developed a whole present emotional complicated attachment and when this [?] passed – the effects in [word illegible] days were overly complicated. Nevertheless, she terminated this “friendship”, which was really beautiful in the beginning, and she believed that the 70 zlotys should be returned to her, because they were a loan, and were treated as such by this person from the beginning, she needed them very much, and she didn't want to be in the role of a “servant” whose “lover” extorted the money. After many phone calls, she collected 22 zlotys in small instalments. At one point, a mutual friend received whole 17.50 zlotys on behalf of the “antidote“ [?], and because he knew that this sum would actually help person x, and he knew the other party, he handed the money to person x[,] for her to seize it. As person x is of the honest or idiotic type, she notified the debtor by phone that she had received zlotys from a mutual friend.... [the next sentence has been interpreted, it seems, correctly, nevertheless it is not very clear:] waiting for a reply, seize this sum [?] for yourself, because she called him yesterday that she is without money and must have 10 zlotys. But the person is apparently so devoid of any sense of tact, as person x has too much of it, he demanded the money. When it was pointed out to him in a relatively firm tone that person x would like to keep them [?], because and [illegible], he stated[:] , “I'm under duress because 47.30 zlotys are in your possession”[,] person didn't exercise her right of “seizing” and gave him the money. Tad! Forgive the story - it's not a fairy tale from a thousand and one nights, I described the story of Mrs x accurately but without flair, that's why it looks so boring. If you personally knew the people involved in the story, their social position, their attitudes and world view - the story would become interesting. This isn't the finis of the story, but Mrs x - in one fell swoop returned to her former form [here the letter ends]
