As mentioned at the New York conference, there are several large collections
of material relating to Lodz victims, one of which is certain to be of
interest to Gersig participants. It is a collection of thousands of
hand-written letters >from Germans, Czechs and Austrians to the Lodz Judenrat
asking to be excused >from shipment to the death camps, in effect, their last
letters, since almost all such requests were rejected. (There is a separate
collection of letters >from Polish Jews).

Unfortunately, the letters are organized chronologically and it is extremely
time consuming to search the collection for letters >from specific individuals.

I would be prepared to seek to provide this material by purchasing copies of
the film reels if I could be assured that Gersig participants, with access to
film readers, would be prepared to make a list of the persons who signed such
letters.

This would not involve translations of the letters themselves. Volunteers
would simply look at the signature line, and perhaps the city >from which they
came, which is usually mentioned. The cities involved are Prague, Vienna,
Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin and Frankfurt a/M, though I may have forgotten some
others. The index would then be placed on Jewishgen and greatly facilitate
requests for copies of such letters >from their relatives.

Would persons with interest in helping, with access to a film reader,
please reply direct to me at: pdlande@...

Peter Lande Washington, D.C.