Letter on a postcard, handwritten and signed by David Vogel. Sent to Shimon Pollack in New-York. Vienna, June 9, 1924.
In the letter, Vogel asks his childhood friend whether he succeeded in selling copies of his book ["Lifnei HaSha'ar Ha'Afel" (Before the Dark Gate) which was published in Vienna approx. a year earlier] in the USA. And then describes his poverty and sickness: "This postcard of mine, which I wanted to write to you a long time ago, there was simply no money to buy it… health is failing to its core and my wife is lying in bed, and we are at the end of our rope. We can bear this no longer!" (Hebrew).
The poet and writer David Vogel (1891-1944) lived alternately in Vienna, Paris, Warsaw and elsewhere. In 1919, he married his wife, Ilka, and that year, they were both diagnosed with tuberculosis. In 1929, he visited Palestine, yet did not settle in it and after a year, returned to Europe. During World War II, he lived in occupied France and in February 1944 was transferred to Germany, where he was murdered by the Nazis.
Shimon Pollack was Vogel's childhood friend; eventually he became one of the prominent figures in the field of Jewish education in the USA.
9X14 cm. Good condition. Open tears to corners of postcard.