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Nany to Jean and Germaine Hausermann in Rosario in December 1939
Vierville 10 December 1939(EXTRACTS)
I am very anxious to hear from you, my dear children, and by an express fact, they are delaying this week, but they must tell me all your pain learned by the letters of Reims, perhaps even by the dispatch that Georges listening only his affection, addressed to you as soon as he knew the sad news (Yo Saillard's death, shot down with his plane in Nov. 39, Lorraine)I would regret that you did not have at the same time as the terrible blow, the strength that must bring you your letters, my little Maine. I think of them all, but more particularly your dear mother whose faith and piety I certainly know but whose terrible trial I feel.......I dare not say that he had chosen his own death!! and yet he was too intelligent to have accepted completely the risks of such a life! May God help you all, my dear children.
.... I told you that by chance I had Suzon near me - for a few days - when I received the letter from No. I don't know how in my complete loneliness I would have taken this bad news!Simon, you also know it was succeeded here to her sister; shen has left only Wednesday for Coutances after having been waiting for her husband in Bayeux. They had lunch with me passing by and at 2 o'clock resumed the way to Coutances. I saw them Friday, they had lunch with me, and I will see them again Wednesday. The good Suzon takes care of the children and the house to allow the younger woman to enjoy her husband well. This one is in a position for 10 days, I found him weightless (he has just had a slight flu) and I would like him to receive his appointment to the Ministry of Armaments.... Where will he be appointed? Rennes? Le Mans or in the Midi? Everywhere we build factories and we wait for the result, Jean C. declares that he will give up with regret to his present life, he is quite at the front, has charming comrades, gay and the time alone makes their internship very difficult; They are still staying at the house, because many of them refused to evacuate, made a lot of people between officers. The good mood, the ability of all his comrades for the good meals watered with schnapps make his admiration, but unfortunately not the affair of his stomach. From the point of view of war, even where he is, and it is in the midst of current activity, they see nothing, hear little or no and in 15 days their division has had 2 killed. It is very obvious that our great leaders are keeping our men.
Moreover, I had the good news of Phil that he had sewn the 2 woolly stripes on his sleeve, and that he was educating the recruits in Vernouillet (S & O).ir I don't know when he will be able to follow the EOR or prepare the newly restored aspiring rank. I think we will soon see him on leave.
Today the little colony of Cotançais is celebrating, it is Michel's 17th birthday; also born on a Sunday, do you remember, my John?To mark this with a white stone Jean C. takes everyone – in two cars – to lunch and hear Mass at Mount St. Michael. What a beautiful idea to go and pray for the young man's patron. With this it is a superb time after a horrible week of wind and rain. They must start early and return the same (there are only 85km of Coutances) because we are always very severe for the ignition of the headlights of our coastal departments.... where our friends (English) They have a nearby airfield, which is sometimes worth warning of the bosom planes, whose church bell warns them in time, but this is limited to warnings and so far these Pigs of Boches did not commit murders on the population.
We are kept here to the caution and four soldiers watch night and day on the coast, who have chosen to live at Pignolet's. I don't know if I told you that a couple of Boches whose windows were shining with light each evening in St. Lawrence were arrested and deported to a concentration camp. So it was necessary to put blue paper to the lamps difficult to hide, I put large curtains in the kitchen and in the small dining room. We were watered all week with the glass that our priest sounds 3 times a day and 4 days at least at each death. Father Leberruyer died, he was a deliverance for him and his family, he was a drunken man who paid horribly for his agaps; he also died.nd daughter of the Saillard, 19 1⁄2 years old, with typhoid fever, she was good in Bayeux, the mother waiting for her 12nd In two months, completely exhausted, she's Leon's sister.
.... Jean C. ms said he was going to write, it's almost impossible to make a front where censorship for correspondence is implacable and for cause, he will therefore write of Coutances and ask you to write through Simon....
...the children work well. JP and Fr will pass the writing from l'X to Rennes, oral to Le Mans, all of which is simplified of course, because these great boys are rather poorly supported by current studies. .....the two little ones follow very well, Bison finally got from her father to leave the Latin where she was flirting, she is in B, she works Spanish and English and succeeds very well in science. (Yves) d) Children who follow the 6nd and just got the honor picture of their quarter.
... a quest for the mobilisations for Christmas, I saw our mayor for this and gave him my offering and your sisters too. I also spoke of the 500F I hold for you, but Dubois prefers that I reserve them again.
....I have instructed your sisters to send you books, I don't know what they will have found yet, the resources of the Cotançais are very limited, but at last you will have something of your Nany at Christmas.
(PS) Can you send me my mate, please?
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Nany to Jean and Germaine Hausermann in Rosario
Vierville 19 December 1939(EXTRACTS)
... I saw your two sisters who accompanied Jean C. to Bayeux yesterday, it was an idea of him who asked me to lunch before leaving. He had the greatest desire to read you, my John. Then immediately the lunch they took to Bayeux where Jean took the train at 1h1/2. It was not without a deep sadness that I saw him go back, I am glad that the great sister came with her younger sister to comfort her when she returned (there is a beautiful road between Caen and Coutances). John goes back to the North of the Saar, we fight! May God protect him, he is very useful to his three boys. He left, if not with great joy, at least with great calm... it necessarily gives others; I hope that my little Simon did not return too sad; she has a lot of courage. I will see all my cotançais on Sunday afternoon for the week, the children have a vacation, they need them, too. Jean took advantage of his stay in Coutances to see principal and teacher and had only praise on the work of our boys.... Provided JP takes the piece off, it is for him most important, because the others have time. Yves works very well... the girl takes all the first places...
... I'm sure your task in Argentina is not useless – you must have lived as we have just done, very intensely since the escape of the Graf Spee in Montevideo. The solution to stowage is not worthy of a war navy, but we must expect everything from the Boches.... I would like to know what they say about the Argentines....
...... John and the two sisters had come to lunch with me on Wednesday, and before leaving I had a little ride in the car; it changed my horizon.
We've been pounded. our This week, it went best in the world, and a 1400-litre barrel is waiting to be drilled at Easter to finish in 1940...
... our Phil is taking an exam today to get into the engineering school and prepare the EORs. I would like him to succeed, he is performing his duties as a corporal, since he has been trained to those of sergeant this week. He is also a chambre chief, but this one is rather simplified, and our brave little ones lie in the straw.
We always work for our soldiers – my wool supply, however respectable, exhausted – and your sisters do the greatest good by caring for poor or family soldiers, who do not receive a letter or package, if they do not care. The letters they receive in response are touching.
Wednesday, December 20th. I'll take your letters from the 1st.ir And of the 8, my John, this last so poignant of your sorrow to both. I understand your suffering to the obligation to warn your little Maine....I will therefore make say a Mass for you in our little church, I would like it to be during the stay of my cotançais here, so that they can attend, the morning hour and the current temperature do not allow me to go there; I will pray in my bed... I have read with emotion the letter of Lt Giers and I think it is he with the Red Devils Flight – whose lost profile of Yo – reviewed by Daladier who is in a number of " Match" that I will send you. It is a recent newspaper that this Match, much cheaper than the Illustration, and perhaps as well informed. Jean C. had to write and do everything possible to go to Phalsbourg (Yo's fall?) if he has the possibility; it's not in his area, he's no longer in the NE.
I'll write to him. (to Georges Chedal) I can't imagine how much his loneliness should weigh him, especially in these days...the so-called parties. Ours will be together, and I think that the chocolate and brioches I offer to the 75 kids who attend school will delight and warm up this whole year.
I hope that my books will soon arrive and that your two darlings will be interested in those whom Aunt Suzon has chosen; it is a war Christmas.
A year ago you were approaching Bordeaux, my Jean, in a Siberian atmosphere, as I was happy to see you again tonight when your big and the little ones had been joyfully waiting for you! Do you remember our chatter until 3:00 in the morning?... Goodbye my dears, good year, good health, I kiss you very tenderly.
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Nany to Jean and Germaine Hausermann in Rosario
Vierville Tuesday, December 26, 1939(EXTRACTS))
....I just received a letter from Suzon This morning We spent a day with your two sisters and the five little ones shaking their elbows so as not to see empty places and thinking of the absent. It is hardly possible to celebrate the year that dies and the one that arrives, we have too much heart without joy; then we pray God to protect us and to have mercy on France....The great sisters had wanted to bring me some sweets and even a black and white silk square to put in my coat in the spring!! But our thought was going to the Vosges, Argentina, Tunisia and a cantonment of S & O where our elder spent for the first time a lonely Christmas. .... I received a good letter from your mother that I feel deeply pained, but how brave to give it to all.
All health is good here, my boys have arrived a little bit pale because they are saturated with math and study. So they are put in bed at 81/2 am until morning 10 am, diet a little forced and good drunkenness. .... the two little ones are in excellent condition, but the two sisters are a little bit upset and restless; Simone especially who has lost 6 kilos. It's about catching up, we will use it. I don't talk about me; I'm now better... for how long... and then this family reunion gives me strength to heart.
I got your letter from B.A. on Friday, 12th, it's beautiful! It was full of details about your trip to Uruguay and the Graf Spee....
Good news of the absences. Jean C. returned very close to the Boches with his same quiet and strong. He replaced his captain and took his task to heart, he went to visit the small posts of the front and said that we worked well to strengthen the lines, he was also busy providing the men with a copious if not comfortable Christmas...... there were millions of packages sent from the back....
Our corporal still serves as sergeant in Vernouillet, and does not think he will come here until January 15. If he does not enter the School of Engineering in Versailles he will leave in March, he accepts this very well.
A parcel of stuffed dates came to participate in our agaps, and you will recognize there the great Georges who always thinks about joying the stomachs and hearts; his last letters are less melancholy... The poor children are obviously well to complain about being still separated, and for how long? ...
Nothing new in our village, there were permissionaries and a Christmas tree for 75 children that I then enjoyed with a rich taste. There was even a Santa Claus, in this case one of our maritime guards – a teacher who was able to say some good advice, the great ones laughed and the little ones ... were a little afraid then... realized that the shoes of Father Christmas were strangely similar to those of the soldiers who were walking on our coasts.
Dr. Artaud, wishing me the good year of Royan, where he is doing medicine, tells me that his son was sent back to his factory and sends you his friendships and wishes. He has a heavy burden with his daughter-in-law, his little daughter (the son-in-law is reformed).
A letter from Mrs. Batifolorent in Paris, they are all fine and soon await their two soldiers who do not seem to be on the immediate front. She tells me that Paris is very quiet, but that life is easy there, evenings are in the dark.
I don't know if I told you that I had a Bousquet letter of business. Sidi Bou Aouane's 25 shares went up from 3F50 to 455F. He said that if the war came it would become a gold value; it is a lead mine. It may be true but it disgusts me, so I will sell them and buy weapons in order to participate in the financial balance of our budget. I don't think Bousquet does the same. Naturally Truss takes advantage of her husband's letter to wish me and my children....
Women knit all day long for soldiers, I give up telling you the kilos of wool that your sisters use! They made many happy socks, sweaters, hide-nose, mountain pass with poor, poor, poor soldiers. The letters of thanks they receive are so touching. A soldier written to Sim "I asked permission to work during my permission to make you a little surprise that You'll be happy. »
Our boys have read with emotion and in the deepest silence the letters of Lt. Giens and we feel all the pain they had to see the comrade disappear. They do every day at Coutances de la PMS Superior, which prepares them well for what will follow. I don't think JP is called before September. Provided he is received at l'X. It's equal, what agitated youth for these poor kids.
Will you send me the maté, I have to settle a lot of things, and I get today the note from Artaud, 950F, which seems a little exaggerated; with what I'm going to have to settle to my doctor here it will count.
Where are you going to spend the day of the year?
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