16 years ago when I seriously began thinking about the contents of Solly’s letters and photos I got in touch with a curator at the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. and talked to her about the material I had.  Was she interested in things like that for their collection?  “Yes”, is what she said, adding, “whenever you have them together please send it to us.”  I finally restarted that conversation in the spring of 2015  with a new curator and sent her a few digital examples of the letters this past November.  Two months ago I sent her a link to the Love Solly blog in case she wanted more context.

She called last week and asked if we would make a gift of some of Solly’s letters. Of course, Selma was delighted and asked me to say yes.  That means, most likely, that after I am long gone a few of these letters will live on as part of the museum’s permanent collection.  

They are interested in the letters where Solly talks about the concentration camps, talks about being Jewish and the things he misses or thinks about as a Jew, places where he grapples with his feelings about Germany and the Germans, and anything else we believe serves that historical perspective.

I will wait for the paperwork and documents before we select letters to give them but at this point, off the top of my head, I imagine there are as many as 5-6 that would speak to those interests.

When they end up in the collection they will be digitized.  They will become part of the paper archives, properly preserved and stored, available for on-site and digital viewing/research, and when appropriate to rotating exhibits will be displayed as part of the historical record.  Pretty cool!

Maybe, by the time we reach the last posts from Love Solly there will be a reason to go to Washington and visit the museum again?