Autograph Letter Signed to Rabbi Gurewitz, Melbourne, signed “Blume Dessler, née Ziv, of Kelm”

DESSLER, BLUMA.

Brisbane (Australia)

1st July, 1941

Yiddish

Bluma Dessler was the wife of Rabbi Elijah Eliezer Dessler and the granddaughter of Simcha Zissel Ziv, the "Alter" of Kelm. In this letter, the Rebbetzin implores Rabbi Gurewitz of Australia to come to the aid of Yochanan Blumenfeld, a student of the Telz Yeshivah and the Talmud Torah of Kelm, who, having spent time in the Dessler home in England, "has become as dear to (her) as her own son." Blumenthal was at the time imprisoned in an Australian internee camp. At the outbreak of World War II, Rebbetzin Dessler was visiting family in Lithuania. As a British subject, she was evacuated to Australia, where she was to spend the duration of the War, separated from her husband who remained in England