Leigh Ronen

I Will Tell You All This Now

Between 1939 and 1941, Joseph Rosenthal, a German Jew who had fled to New York, exchanged a series of letters with his sister Paula, and Paula's daughter and son-in-law, Leoni and Albert Hirschfeld, who were trapped in Germany and desperately trying to escape. As a whole, the letters show an unsettling synthesis of familial pleasantries and urgent attempts to secure the family safe passage from Nazi Germany. This work features the original copy of the last known letter, its German transcription, and a rough English translation, accompanied by poetry written by the great granddaughter of Joseph and Paula's niece, Ada Rosenberg, who herself escaped to Palestine. Paula, Leoni and Albert's own attempts were unsuccessful and devastating. Paula was murdered in the concentration camp Theresienstadt, and Leoni and Albert in Auschwitz.

Letters and Poems, 2021