The letter · about 20 minutes
A son writes to his mother to tell her she is still a person. Read the German, then Rabbi Dr. Esther Jilovsky’s English. Do not skip the credit.
For teachers · a 45-minute path
A letter, one day, and what the record will not say
Three rooms. A family letter from 26 November 1938. Three names that stop on 12 April 1942. Time left to sit with a single object. The archive does not invent the ending.
The hour
Move through three existing records
One day · about 15 minutes
12 April 1942. Kurt Reichenbach, Paula Wollenberg, and Hans Wollenberg are named for the Warsaw transport. The record stops there. Ask the class what it would mean to invent a last chapter.
One object · about 10 minutes
Choose one: the store hanger—the name that left the building—or Fritz’s 1938 forced-sale deed at Breite Straße 7, the instrument that says the seller is a Jew. Stay with that object’s own page.
Source boundaries
What not to ask the class
- Do not ask students to decide Martha Reichenbach’s place of death. The Stolperstein and the Berlin transport list do not agree.
- Do not ask them to name a camp for Kurt, Paula, or Hans.
- Living descendants are not a research assignment. Vernon Jacob is living; current American addresses are out of bounds.
How to cite
Keep the source with the sentence
Follow the archive’s editorial principles and use the finding aid to locate permanent object records. Sample citation: Reichenbach Family Archive. “Letter from St. Moritz.” 26 November 1938. DOC-LETTER-1938. https://www.reichenbacharchive.org/objects/doc-letter-1938. For classroom packets, email contact@reichenbacharchive.org.
What this page is not
A path, not a packaged lesson
There is no worksheet download or outcomes grid here, and no museum is presented as the sponsor of this lesson. The path stays with the archive’s existing pages and their evidence limits.