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Welcome to the World of Trudel Adler

Welcome to the World of Trudel Adler

Trudel Adler, my mother, came to the United States 1934 when she was 21 years old. She frequently wrote long letters home to her family in Germany and asked them to save her letters and they did — over two hundred handwritten pages.

Trudel was an amazing young woman who grew into a fascinating warm wonderful woman, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She was funny, serious, forthright, and considerate. She worked hard all of her life and gave to the world more than she ever got. The tale of the rest of her life was full of challenge,sadness and joy. These early years are more than that. They reveal the strength of character, the chutspa, the love, that helped her through all those years. Preparing her letters for this blog has been like entering a conversation with her and getting to know the young woman I never met.

Trudel as in Strudel

When asked how to pronounce or spell her name, Trudel, would reply, “Trudel, as in strudel.” She always said the “s” in strudel was for sugar and she was sweet enough without it. But all was not sweetness and light. In 1933, Trudel wrote in her diary, “There is no future for Jewish youth in Germany. I think I shall go to Palestine.”

On May 8, 1934 she sailed for the United States. What happened next is told in her letters which are posted here on the anniversary dates of their original posting.

Here is a link to the most recent post:

  • May 17, 1936 – Today I am 2 years in America. How the time flies.
  • Trudel on the ship

    Trudel on the S.S. Manhattan, May 1934


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    May 17, 1936 – Today I am 2 years in America. How the time flies.

    May 17, 1936 – Today I am 2 years in America. How the time flies.

    5/17
    Today I am 2 years in America. How the time flies!

    Len Small, for whom Leonard was electioneering, died yesterday after an operation.

    He [Leonard] won a case in the Illinois Supreme Court against several big Chicago lawyers.

    Len Small Funeral

    Click on image.


    We are now in his new office just 2 doors from the old one but much bigger and nicer.

    LJG at desk

    [One of] LJG’s Offices



    Ziegfeld poster

    The Great Ziegfield

    This week we saw the “Great Ziegfield” with William Powell and Myrna Loy. Great.

    Love,
    Your Trudelchen


    The funeral notices and biography Len Small, who had been elected governor twice, but ran for office at least half a dozen times, tell a lot of his story. It makes me wonder why LJG supported him.

    Perhaps this article sheds some light on the subject:

    CJH

    LJG in Chicago Jewish History


     
     

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    March and April 1936 – I will be glad when the election is over.

    March and April 1936  – I  will be glad when the election is over.

    Trudel continued to abstract her letters into brief notes so I have consolidated March and April 1936 into one post. [April is below the first movie trailer.]

    3/20/26
    A fortune teller told me that Papa was not feeling well and should watch his health much more. Right? Leonard is very busy making speeches for Governor Len Small for mayor of Chicago. I will be glad when the election is over.

    Easter Sunday 4/12/26
    Happy birthday to Erna. [Erna's birthday was April 25th.]
    Leonard with speeches, also on radio, and I with hats, are keeping both of us very busy. I Try to go with him when I can.

    Last Friday Rose LaMarque and I saw “The Great Waltz.” Wonderful.

    4/26/36
    Although Leonard was not elected as a judge, he is still much better off than the other Republican candidate who spent $25,000 and lost too with only ½ as many votes as Leonard, who did not spend 1¢. I am glad it is all over but it was very interesting for me and I learned a lot.

    Papa’s letter had been opened by the Germans, by the foreign exchange department.

    I Have not moved to the Seneca Hotel with Mrs La Marque yet, but will tell you the advantages I will have:
    1. The landlord will not misplace my mail
    2. All phone calls and visitors will be told me as soon as I come home
    3. Home right after work (in the building)
    4. Not so much alone
    5. For the same money much bigger room
    6. Telephone in the room
    7. Private bathroom
    8. Much better neighborhood
    9. 1st class hotel service
    10. Restaurant and grocery store in building
    11. Closer to the beach in summer
    12. Radio
    13. Sewing machine
    Etc., etc.

    Went to Klemm and Addie Eggner’s wedding last Sunday. Although Leonard was not in the mood for it since his 85 year old Father had died 3 days before in Sumter, he went with me anyhow. He could not go to the funeral since it was the next day and it would have taken 2 days to get there.

    I saw best movie ever, “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town”: serious story; excellent performances.


    I have been unable to find any information about the judicial elections in Chicago in 1936. It would appear that there must have been some kind of open primary or Trudel may have combined the primary with the general election in her mind, which would explain how LJG could lose to “his opponent” and his opponent could also lose.

     

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    February 28, 1936 – Elections, Movies, and a Possible Move

    February 28, 1936 – Elections, Movies, and a Possible Move

    Trudel continued to translate her letters in an elliptical diary fashion, leaving us to wonder about the delicious (and mundane) details she omitted. But these were not uneventful times. Although there was time for movies, there were also worries about her family about what was happening in Europe as she mentions, cryptically, in the reference to “Mr. Warburg” and as her fiance Leonard mentioned in his letter to Trudel’s family earlier in the year.


    LJG Campaigns

    Leonard J. Grossman on the Stump.

    Leonard’s petition to become a judge in order to be on the ballot he has to have a certain amount of signatures from people who want him. He is running on the Republican Party. Everybody has to declare if they are going to vote Republican or Democratic. That will also be for the general election in November.

    LJG Candidate

    Candidate Grossman


    Received a very unkind letter from Mr. Warburg. I had asked for advice how to bring Doddo here.

    Trudel, Erna and Lotte - 1932

    Trudel, Erna and Lotte – 1932

    Trudel at Rose's

    Trudel at Rose La Marque’s

    Rose La Marque

    Rose La Marque

    I may move to [share an apartment with] Mrs. LaMarque in the Seneca Hotel where I work evenings and weekends. She is that wonderful dressmaker and the lady who got me the job in her hotel. We are having dinner together every night now.


    Saw Charlie Chaplin in a very funny movie that took 5 years to make, Modern Times.

    Modern Times

    Modern Times



    The reference to an “unkind” letter from “Mr. Warburg” is unexplained. Trudel must have written to a member of the famous Warburg family, also of Frankfurt, in hope of getting some assistance for her sister Lotte (Doddo). This letter from Leonard to Trudel’s family hints at the problem. Lotte eventually made it to the United States in 1941.

    See this review of the book The Warburgs for more information.


    Charlie Chaplain hadn’t produced a movie in five years at the time Modern Times was released.


     
     

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    January 26, 1936 “It is awfully cold here.”

    January 26, 1936  “It is awfully cold here.”

    Trudel returns to diary style in her notes:

    1/26/36

    Awfully cold for weeks. 20˚ below 0 Fahrenheit = about 30˚ below Celsius. And we are making straw and light felt hats.

    Garbo  - Karenina

    A Spring Hat in Winter


    I may have to have my tonsils removed anyhow in Spring. The doctors here are all money hungry and so far I have not found one I would trust. A school friend of Leonard’s has an apothecary, not a drugstore, and we go to him for advice instead of a doctor.

    We recently saw “Anna Karenina” with Greta Garbo and Fredric March!! I did like the book much better.

    Had a bad cold but I am OK again.

    We saw “Mutiny on the Bounty”

    and laughed a lot seeing Eddy Cantor in “Strike me Pink.”

    Strike Me Pink

    Strike Me Pink


    Mutiny on the Bounty 1935

    Mutiny on the Bounty

     
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    Posted by on January 26, 1936 in Chicago, immigrant experience, Memoir

     

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    January 10, 1936 – It breaks Trudel’s heart that we can not help.

    January 10, 1936 –  It breaks Trudel’s heart that we can not help.

    My dear Father, and dear Lotta and Erna: LJG Letter 1-1--36 b letterhead

    I hope this letter finds you all well. Trudel worries anxiously when she does not get word from you. Sometimes we do not feel we get all the news.

    We have been very happy and she has been very brave this past year. Many millions of people are out of work in this country and those who are employed are paid so little. Trudel works very hard.

    Three thousand lawyers in Chicago are starving with no work and no office. We have 10,000 lawyers in Chicago alone. Our dollar is worth only 59 cents. Under Roosevelt and Democrats food and everything costs more and the taxes are so heavy that business has not started again since the depression, which makes it VERY HARD for lawyers to keep their offices and place in the profession.

    By working 18 hours a day I have done 20% better in 1935 than in 1934, but everything cost more this year than before. I write you because you should know if we could we would do something to help some of you come here. But this is impossible now. And it breaks Trudel’s heart that she can not help and the man who loves her can not. Everything is uncertain. Election year is 1936.

    Would you make me happy? Write oftener to dear Trudel. Every day she asks – any mail from Germany? And she looks so sad waiting so long for letters, she gets so few.

    Her throat bothers her. She has had a BAD cold and fever. She is so true and beautiful. She does not know what I am writing. She has written nothing to worry you since coming here, but everything is not easy for her and to get started in a strange country is lonesome work and very hard.

    If I have made it easier and pleasanter for her, I am glad because I love her.
    With love to you all, LJG Letter 1-1--36 b-signature

    Leonard


    This letter was written by Leonard J. Grossman, Trudel’s fiance and my father, to Trudel’s sisters and her father in the midst of the depression, as dark clouds were gathering over Europe.

     
     

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