Original Source: Boston Public Library, MS Am. 178, S. 26-29 Transcription and translation: Sunny Yudkoff, Transcription of Mary Antin’s Yiddish Letter (Precursor to From Plotzk to Boston), in: Studies in American Jewish Literature, 32 (2013) 1, pp. 67-98; ibid: “Translation of Mary Antin’s Yiddish Letter (Precursor to From Plotzk to Boston),” in: Studies in American Jewish Literature, 32 (2013) 1, 36-66 © 2013 by The Pennsylvania State University Press. Reprinted by permission of The Pennsylvania State University Press. Transcription (Latin script): Monica Rüthers, 2015, based on: Sunny Yudkoff, “Transcription of Mary Antin’s Yiddish Letter (Precursor to From Plotzk to Boston),” in: Studies in American Jewish Literature, 32 (2013) 1, pp. 67-98.
No one expected the bath or the
unnecessary formalities. But every
for we were in some type of prison:
We all remained standing in the yard, but now
women were standing in one group and men in another.
2 of the women clad in white approached the group of
women and showed them to the baths, where they too
entered.
The bath consisted of 2 rooms. In the first
room were 2 benches. To one side was a large
kettle of boiling water on an iron stove. In the
2nd room were 4 showers set into the ceiling. There was no
floor here but an iron grate.
As we entered the first room, the two
women ordered us to take off our clothes and then
ordered us frequently: “Quickly! Quickly!”
They took everyone’s clothes and placed them together in sacks
and carried them to be disinfected.
They ordered us to go into the 2nd room. We placed
ourselves under the showers. The women gave everyone
ears. And when we were sufficiently soapy, they turned
on the 2 showers, and we were all doused,
as if in a summer rain.
Then we went back into the first room and we
wrapped ourselves in large flannel blankets and had to sit
on the benches.
5 minutes later, the
one’s
neck and ears, and without saying anything or
asking anything, he left.
Soon they brought the sacks with our clothes. When
they put them down, the room grew dark from the steam.
“Now get dressed and quickly!” the women
ordered.
Each of us began to pick out his clothes and dress hurriedly.
And before everyone was completely dressed, the 2
women pushed everyone through the narrow door,
saying:
“Your bags are in the yard, just as you left them. Take
them and go as quickly as possible into the waiting room.
We entered a train car with all the other passengers
traveling to
two Jews who were traveling to
When all the passengers had settled down and fallen asleep,
I looked around and listened, and I began to
recall everything we had suffered through that evening. And
I shuddered at the memory of how everyone had been treated (in
the bath):
The harsh faces of all the people whom we had
seen in the
white clothes. They made a terrible impression on everyone. Their
orders, their rushing and yelling made everyone
shudder. I don’t believe that a bath like that would have been built or a
because of a fear that a person would transmit disease to
green soap protect against disease? I can’t help thinking
that it was just a way to trick passengers
in order to rob them.