Letter from Nacha Rutkowska

Letter sent by Nacha Rutkowska to Mme Bousson, July 1942, before her deportation to Auschwitz. She was deported on 29 July 1942. Although her letter says that she was sure she would soon return, Nacha never came back to her child. She was probably killed as soon as she arrived in Auschwitz.

Nacha Rutkowski's husband Hillel was deported a month earlier, on 22 June 1942. He survived the initial selection on arrival in Auschwitz and managed to stay alive for a little over a month before he succumbed to the camp’s conditions. His name is listed in the Auschwitz death book as having died on 28 July 1942. It was three days before his wife arrived in the camp. Nacha was not granted the wish she had expressed in her letter and never again met her husband.  

Dear Mrs. Bousson,
As you probably know, I am at the moment in Drancy [the transit camp near Paris from which transports left for Auschwitz and other camps in the east], and by the time you will be reading these lines, I will already be on the way of being deported – probably to Poland. However don't think that I am in a state of despair. On the contrary, I am more confident about the future than ever before. I know, I feel, that the misery in which I find myself at the moment will not last long, and that I will soon return in good health. If it is indeed Poland, where I will be going, I will try to find my husband and the friends I have told you about. I have one request from you: watch over and take care of my child as if it were you own. I have great confidence in you. I ask you not to give my little one to anybody except my mother. I have sent money to you. You have probably already received it. I may also send a package with clothes, but this is not certain. If I do, you will be notified so that you can go and get it. I ask you to go to the address I have given you, even though I know that you have much to do. Now I have to leave you. I ask you once again to take care of my little one so that he will lack nothing. I have asked someone to write this letter for me, because I am not in a state to write. Excuse me.
Mme Rutkowska
In order to obtain my address, please ask the French Red Cross. I will write to you as soon as possible. Mr. Max Bedouet will come and see you. Welcome him – he is a good man.