1st May 1940

My dear Lore,

I have received your letter from the 22nd and the socks safely and I thank you very much for them. They suit me very well.  I am very happy that you were able to buy yourself a bike and I think that you will have some lovely rides. I hope that you received my last card where I told you that I put in a request to serve in the regular French army. I still haven’t received a reply from Uncle Max. I rightly wanted to ask you in this letter to kindly send me a photograph of yourself, when your letter arrived in which you ask it of me. You can quietly send me one and I hope that I will receive it soon.  I don’t know if stamps have value on envelopes any more but I advise you to keep them as they are for they can always be taken off. One writes  “A kind handshake” when one write to a male or female friend. One also very often says “I offer my hand kindly to you.” On the paper with which you wrapped up the socks there were 3 slips on which was marked: Found open or damaged and officially secured. I hope that you will still receive this letter before the 6th May. Will you not be able to go back to school next year any longer? I want to ask if you will have taken all the classes?  I hope that you will have written to Oma’s friend as I asked you to.

Lots of love from Oswald

A hello to Aunt Elieen.