Letter Read During Ceremony

Excerpt from the last letter of Ida Goldish of Romania, written prior to her deportation to Transnistria.

Dear Clara,

For several days now, the threat of terrible danger has been hanging over us - we are about to be sent on foot to the Ukraine (“for resettlement”, or so they say). You can imagine our situation when we must go such a long way on foot, the weather being so cold, with a small child and with the few things that we will be able to drag along.

We are apparently being deported in groups of 2,500, so that within four days nobody will remain here. The first group left yesterday, among them Rosa with the children, may God protect them …
My darling, from the wool you sent me I made a thick shawl for Vily's neck, because who knows how many days we will be on the way.
My dear sister, I entreat you, look after mother, for you are all that she has now.  Never leave her....

I am only sorry that I will never see you all again.  I am suffering so much. I had hoped that we would still meet once more, but that hope is now gone. 
Goodbye my dear ones, my beloved mother, my dear father.  You were the first ray of sunshine to warm my life....

I am looking back in vain, it is hopeless, since fate has struck a cruel blow at our lives; try as I might to get closer to you, we are being dragged away relentlessly, farther and farther.

Doba and Vily send you thousands of kisses and a fond farewell.

Goodbye forever, all my thoughts are with you.

Ida

Ida Goldish of Romania was deported with her young son, Vily, and her sister, Doba, to Transnistria in November 1941. In the severe cold the child froze to death.  His mother died a few days later. She was twenty-two. (Doba survived).