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This
small postcard - decorated with a dove, symbol of freedom and good
wishes -was written by Sonia Czerni’s mother Paula and her sister
Nadia. They wrote the
postcard while in the Kovno ghetto, and smuggled it out to Sonia,
who was being hidden by a Lithuanian woman living outside the
ghetto. Jews who
worked in forced labor outside the ghetto were the inmates’ link
with the outside world. Lithuanian locals would offer to sell food to the Jewish
laborers. (The German
guard would turn a blind eye once he had been bribed).
The housemaid from Sonia's hideout would also approach the
laborers, and receive a loaf of bread from Sonia's mother who hid
letters inside the loaf and smuggled it out of the ghetto.
This postcard was written in May 1944, and initialed by Paula
and Nadia, who did not write their full names for fear of being
caught. They had hoped to be reunited with Sonia, but tragically,
they perished in the final liquidation of the ghetto in July 1944.
Sonia (Czerni) Preminger gave the postcard to the Museum
staff at the gathering of Kovno ghetto survivors in February 2001.
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