Letter 377

In the East Sept 25th 1944

My Dear Parents.

Sending you greetings from here, Thank you for the letter # 25 and the writing paper and I also received some newspapers. Don’t send anymore Sherbert Powder , we don’t drink the local water unless it is boiled. I am writing this letter at 2 AM at a time, when everybody else is asleep. I wish I could sleep for a change in a good bed, we wear day and night our

uniforms, and seldom have a few hours uninterrupted sleep. I made myself a source of light, half a tin can, that I filled with axel grease with a wick in it. It burns well but it smokes a lot. We already have bad weather here, rain and storms, if it gets cold, we can heat up, at least we sit dry in the bunkers. I loved to be home now, I long for some fresh apples from home, there is nothing here. So the other Ketschau’s did not help much in the harvest, well, don’t give them anything than. Are their kids still so nasty to you? Maybe these Russian farm helpers feel too that we have taken a lot of beatings now and think they get the upper hand. Don’t let them do as they like, just be careful. We have lost our beloved Artur last July, now why should I be nice to any Russians after that? I just hope that the war is over soon so I can get home again. Dear Papa, yes I can imagine that you do not have much time now and you got to keep an eye on these foreign workers too or they just wont work. I had 2 photos from your new horse, maybe I did not get the older letters with the photos. How are they in Uderstedt? I don’t get much mail from them. Tell them to write to me even if it is only a post card. Anything new at home? It is now after 2 AM here, we are glad for a bit of day light here, because it gets dark early here. Well, for now I send you greetings and hope we see each other again.

Your Werner.

From: Pvt 1st Class werner Ketschau. FP 3 27658 = Grenadier Regt 6

To: Family Erich Ketschau, Kleinmölsen- Erfurt, Thurg.