March 9, 1944: “The skin breaks easily at the joints and it is unfortunately not always easy to work with mittens…”
See/read postcard written by French forced laborer on March 9, 1944 and mailed from Roxel, Germany.
Service du travail obligatoire, Roxel, WWII postcard, forced labor, Marcel's Letters: A Font and the Search for one Man's Fate, Carolyn Porter, handwritten postcard, handwriting
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March 9, 2019 In Germany, Handwriting, Service du Travail Obligatoire, World War II

March 9, 1944: “The skin breaks easily at the joints and it is unfortunately not always easy to work with mittens…”

Front and back of postcard written March 9, 1944 by WWII French forced laborer in Roxel, Germany. Paper is yellow and tiny cursive handwriting is in dark brown ink.

March 9, 1944

Dear all,
It wasn’t until last Sunday, March 5, that I received your letter of January 29. It had been censored!

Actually, what gave me the most good for my hands was the Vasoderme. The Reclus pomade is perfect for cuts, but for badly cracked skin, nothing is as good as Vasoderme, which is very useful for me right now; with these late cold spells, the skin breaks easily at the joints and it is unfortunately not always easy to work with mittens in this unfortunate work! I really hope to leave this year, to finally get back to my little lively and very warm class, unless fate decides otherwise: I greatly fear movement in the heart of our country.

Thank you very much for asking me what I need! We have what is necessary. What we often lack is the extras; but that’s another story!

New rules for correspondence. We are now allowed to write only two letters per month. There is no limit to cards. I will do what’s possible to write a letter to you from time to time.

I hope that you received the letter that I wrote several days after receiving your package.

Hoping soon to have the pleasure of hearing from you, and [wishing you] good health.

Affectionately to all of you,
Freddy

———

Notes from the translator, Janet:
1. This writer likes to use a variety of punctuation.
2. The message on the address side of the postcard, according to Google translation is “The Fuhrer knows only struggle, work and worry. We want to remove from him the part that we can.”