Correspondence

Henri Muller has kept many letters and cards exchanged between brothers and sisters during the war but also between Manek and his children. This epistolary correspondence highlights the love that bound the Muller family. Despite the risks involved, the father never stopped writing to his children and making sure they had everything they needed. Reading Manek's letters also tells the story of an immigrant who had not yet mastered the French language and had to hide. In his handwritten letters, we hear the melody of his accent that emerges from his phonetic writing. In the ones written for him by his childhood friend, Marc Kleinman, who spoke French perfectly and with whom Manek was hiding in Périgueux, the accent disappears behind a text displaying precise grammar and spelling. There are also letters with approximate spelling written by French people, such as the concierge of the Place du Guignier. To read these texts is to unwind the intimate thread that linked the family despite the separation. But it is also to discover the story of an immigrant through his linguistic peregrinations. The man who was called Manek Schneps in his native country became Manek Muller in his adopted country. Although his letters are signed Muller, it is Schneps who expresses himself through a language that often escapes him and who, in spite of everything, succeeds in expressing all his love to his children.