Editor’s note: On April 5, 1939, Nazi Germany makes it mandatory for all children over age 14 to become members of the Hitler Youth.
4/5/39
Dear Little Girl:
You’re a bad girl and you know it. Yes your Father is going to die one of these days, and the house will be full of relatives, and you will be there. But my Father is also going to die one of these days, and there also will be the relatives and you. And, yes, Darling, I may be the feature event in such a procedure. So you see, your dream was marvelously general and might apply to anyone. From this standpoint, let’s forget it.
While I am yet in a nasty mood, let us take up another point. It takes a certain natural congeniality and a continual effort of two people to make a successful married life. We have more than our share of congeniality. We have a rich background of mutual experiences. And we usually have the efforts of two people to keep us together. So let’s outlaw completely the idea of one of us having to someday tell the other that love has died etc. It isn’t at all probable that there is any obstacle which could keep us apart; not after all of those which we have already passed over, and those which we are planning to surmount in the near future. We’re going to be together, it may not be within a few months, but you and I both know that we’re going to make the grade.
But this is all silly, for I’m not the least mad. I know that if I could hold that beautifully formed little body in my arms, and kiss those precious lips, and play with my baby’s fine, silky hair, that I could soon have lots of those swelegant giggles of mine. Looking at your picture, precious and thinking over all that I know of you, I realize that there isn’t but one thing about you that is really extra special. And that one thing is the wonderful loyalty which you have repeatedly shown for all of your friends, and especially for me. This one trait of yours makes me feel that no matter how far down I should get, I shall always have one darling pulling for me, and one very much worthwhile fighting for. Add to this your other fine characteristics, and I truly have something. Your mind functions wonderfully when someone else needs help. Never shall an adoring husband have seen such beauty or experienced such ecstasy as I shall perceive in your features and feel in your warm, young body when we are finally together. And your cheery company is unsurpassed for sheer enjoyment.
If you’ll only continue to believe in me and continue building fires under me, we’ll make the grade in great style.
I walked across the bridge over the Delaware last night, a good mile over, and I know you walked back with me and looked at that big moon with me. I could look downstream on the dark, solid expanse of the river, and except for occasional lights on the Jersey shore, almost imagine myself off in the wilds. And then I could glance back at the busy life of Philadelphia, at the ferry boats, and at the upstream factories of Jersey, and realize that I was back in the most industrial town of the section. The big, full moon shown down through the suspension cables of the bridge, and the cold wind shrieked past the other lighter members, and I was proud that I was an engineer, and that engineers had built this mile-long expanse of steel and paving which could defy everything but the destructive power of other engineers. All the way back I could feel your arm on mine and sense the fine rhythm of companionship as you kept step with me across the bridge. It didn’t seem strange that you didn’t talk to me, for I knew that you were enjoying the beauty of this scene in the same way that I did. I didn’t have to talk to you, because you knew what I could have said, and I couldn’t have said them as well as I could make you feel them anyhow.
I suppose I should tell you that I am terrifically happy out here and that I can lose my empty feeling in my work and my books. But I don’t feel “complete,” as I did during those enlightening eight months with you.
It is really time for bed, and I am determined to take a bath tonight. So settle down and go to sleep, darling, and I shall be with you in an hour, and try to imagine that I am really there to give you that indescribable joy which we both so fervently desire.
Your husband, Cy.