Food for Thought
. . . dinner and conversation with Honors classmates and a member of the Carolina faculty.

 You’ve Got Mail
Wednesday, October 3, 2007

A week before the fall semester began in August 2007, the US Postal Service delivered this envelope to the Music Department at UNC.

As you can see, the envelope and the stamps are foreign and quite old. In fact, the letter was written in Germany in 1939—ten days after the German and Soviet invasion of Poland.  The intended recipient was a woman named Elisabeth Sommer, who emigrated, with her husband and child, from Germany to Chapel Hill earlier that year.

Uncovering the mysteries of the letter has led Professor Hana Vlhova (who immigrated, with her husband and child, to Chapel Hill last year) through the archives of the Carolina Collection, the Art Department and the UNC Alumni Association. The letter is evidence of the long shadow cast by the catastrophic events in Europe leading up to World War II over the academic community here at Carolina.

Join us for dinner on Wednesday, October 3, to hear the rest of this intriguing and profoundly moving story.

For previous Food for Thought evenings, visit our archive.