Sent to me yesterday by reader Randy Daitch:
I discovered this morning, on Memorial Day, a letter sent by my father to my mother, when he was serving in an army medical detachment in British Guiana, in April 1943. My father's Yahrzeit is next Sunday. His words would surely resonate with our soldiers overseas today:
LETTER DATED APRIL 1943, FROM MAURICE DAITCH, IN BRITISH GUIANA, TO SELMA ROSENBERG, IN WINDSOR ONTARIO, SEVEN MONTHS BEFORE THEIR MARRIAGE:
Our countries are fighting a war, and I am a soldier - a fighter for the common cause. At present my leaders have seen fit to place me in a position of comparatively little danger. I'll not complain, but accept the verdict of my commanders as to the best place in the scheme of things for me.
I've heard men say that they would rather be a live coward than a dead hero. I would rather be neither. I believe that while it is great to die for one's country, it is even greater to live for it. But if it ever comes to the choice of losing, to the Nazi hordes, our way of life, or dying in the attempt to maintain that way of life, I'll choose the latter.
Sweetheart, I miss you much, but whether I see you soon or later does not really matter. The important thing is that there is a job to be done, and if there is to be any of peace, freedom and security in the future - do it, and do it well, we must.
Until I return then, my love, keep me close to your heart, and I will remain happy in the knowledge that some day, soon I hope, I'll return and there will be no more waiting, wondering, worrying, for either of us, and we will be eternally happy in one another's arms.
With all my love,
Maury
LETTER DATED APRIL 1943, FROM MAURICE DAITCH, IN BRITISH GUIANA, TO SELMA ROSENBERG, IN WINDSOR ONTARIO, SEVEN MONTHS BEFORE THEIR MARRIAGE:
Our countries are fighting a war, and I am a soldier - a fighter for the common cause. At present my leaders have seen fit to place me in a position of comparatively little danger. I'll not complain, but accept the verdict of my commanders as to the best place in the scheme of things for me.
I've heard men say that they would rather be a live coward than a dead hero. I would rather be neither. I believe that while it is great to die for one's country, it is even greater to live for it. But if it ever comes to the choice of losing, to the Nazi hordes, our way of life, or dying in the attempt to maintain that way of life, I'll choose the latter.
Sweetheart, I miss you much, but whether I see you soon or later does not really matter. The important thing is that there is a job to be done, and if there is to be any of peace, freedom and security in the future - do it, and do it well, we must.
Until I return then, my love, keep me close to your heart, and I will remain happy in the knowledge that some day, soon I hope, I'll return and there will be no more waiting, wondering, worrying, for either of us, and we will be eternally happy in one another's arms.
With all my love,
Maury