Letter to Aunt AlmaMme. Sabatier acted as our mailman, picking up and delivering our mail.

Our aunt Alma, using the "nom de plume" of Lotti, wrote to us in care of "UGIF-3ème Bureau." Little did our aunt, or we, know that we were inside the wolf's very lair, as the acronym UGIF stood for the innocent-sounding "General Union of Israelites in France," a German-controlled front, similar to the "Judenrate" of the Polish ghettos.

This Nazi control was not, initially, known to the courageous operatives of OSE, whose activities, including the names and exact whereabouts of their wards, were available to the killers.

By 1943, as this choking control had become more ominous, OSE went completely underground and smuggled most of its personnel and many children out of France, mostly to Switzerland.

Someone at OSE must have felt that, either the cover for the Mauricet brothers was deep and safe enough, or that we were too far away. Thus, we stayed on our remote hillside.

The letter reads:

May 29, 1943

Dear aunt,

We were happy to receive your letter. We are very well. Both of us are in good health. We are very happy. We are on a small farm. There are two cows and some goats. How are you? I go to school, as does Ernest. I'll be 13 soon and then I'll be a big boy. I have a lot of friends here. I close my little letter with many kisses.

Alfred

Dear aunt!

We were happy to receive your letter. We are very well. How are you? We go to school. I am ****? tall. I grew by 5cm. We work some on the farm. I send you many kisses.

Ernest

Madame Alma Meyer
Sainte Lizaigne (Indre)

Added in another hand, presumably that of Mrs. Sabatier, in the lower right corner …

Please send answer to:

UGIF 3ème Direction Santé
10 rue de l'Equerre. VALENCE (Drôme)

(UGIF = Union Générale des Israélites de France)