Weintraub Family Letters Relating to World War II

This collection is comprised entirely of letters and V-mail between Irving Weintraub and his wife Elizabeth during World War II. The letters, sorted chronologically by month, begin on January 1, 1941 and continue until September 14, 1945. The collection is a two-way correspondence and is fairly complete, although there are no letters between March 1942 and November 1943, and no letters from Irving Weintraub in 1941. Weintraub took photographs throughout his time abroad, but these photographs are not in the collection.

The couple wrote to each other often, sometimes sending multiple letters per day. Weintraub gives his perspective on several significant events during World War II, notably his description of the wait to land on the beaches the morning of D-Day. Weintraub also documents the gratitude exhibited by French citizens when Paris was liberated on August 25, 1944. As the end of the war approached in late 1945, Weintraub described the German counterattack in the Battle of the Bulge as well as his impressions after hearing stories from liberated concentration camp inmates. In his day-to-day letters Weintraub discussed the photos he took frequently, the people he met during his travels and cultural differences between Americans and the citizens he met in Europe. Occasionally he described the status of his ailing patients, but often stated his desire to spare his wife from the more graphic details of the war.

Elizabeth Weintraub's correspondence reflected the concerns of American women on the home front. Her letters were primarily devoted to describing her daily life and schedule. She provided her husband with descriptions of her conversations with friends and family, as well as her activities during the day. She gave frequent updates on the relationships of friends and the health of household pets, and asked him questions concerning his daily life. Elizabeth worked to provide her husband with a sense of home. One notable exception is her vehemently patriotic letter written the evening of Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.