Lot 269
Letter Requesting Chalitzah from a Holocaust Survivor in Germany, 1946
A long letter from Holocaust survivor Sara Rudney, to her deceased husband’s brother - asking him for a chalitzah (in Halakhic law, the release of a widow from the obligation to marry her husband’s brother) following her husband’s death. St. Ottilien, near Landsberg (Germany), May 1946. English.
In the letter the writer tells of the death of her family members in the ghettoes and concentration camps, including her husband (brother of the letter’s addressee), who perished in a camp near Landsberg in 1944, and their son, who died at the Kovno ghetto. She goes on to ask her brother-in-law for a chalitzah, writing: “It was very difficult and painful to write you about that, but from the Din-Torah I must do it and inform you about that and please ask there in Baltimore how I can get from you a chlice [chalitzah]…”. She also asks her brother-in-law whether he has the graduation certificate confirming she has a degree in philology (he was supposed to receive the certificate from her husband), and writes that if she wishes to go to Palestine or anywhere else, she will need the certificate in order to find work.
[3] leaves (5 written pp) - notebook paper, 21 cm. Good condition. Folding marks, tears and slight defects.
