Last letter from a mother and sister

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.