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Halbreich Papers

Call Number

MS 2959

Date

1941-1946 (bulk, 1944-1945), inclusive

Creator

Extent

1.67 Linear feet (4 boxes)

Language of Materials

English .

Abstract

Collection of letters between newlywed couple, Shirley and Lester Halbriech, during Lester's time serving as a dentist in the Navy during World War II. Also includes a small collection of greeting cards and postcards from the 1940s, including some baby birthday cards.

Biographical / Historical

This collection of over 600 letters documents the almost daily correspondence between a newly married couple, Lester Halbreich and Shirley (Scheller) Halbreich, during World War II (largely from 1943 - 1945). Lester and Shirley were both Jewish natives of Brooklyn, New York. Lester attended Cornell University, graduated in 1937, and then attended New York University's School of Dentistry. Shirley also attended NYU, but left school after completing her freshman year to become a full-time wife. They married on December 24, 1941.

Shortly after they were married the United States entered WWII and Lester enlisted into service as a dentist in the US Navy. During the time Lester was away, Shirley and their son, Jeffrey Neal, who was born in July 1944, lived with her parents and sister at 921 Washington Avenue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. This area had a significant Jewish population in the 1940s and many of the men from this area fought in WWII. Throughout Lester and Shirley's letters they frequently mention other people from Crown Heights who were away at war and Lester describes making friends with other men from Brooklyn and bumping into people they knew during his time away.

Lester was first stationed for training at the Beeville Naval Air Station, Texas in 1943, and then, after returning to Brooklyn, was sent out to the Puget Sound Navy Yard Dispensary in Bremerton, Washington, where he was stationed from July-August 1944. He spent his time there working as a Navy dentist and completing a variety of training courses such as fire safety and prevention and chemical warfare. Lester's time at war was spent on the USS Oxford APA 189, a newly commissioned ship that transported troops to and from combat areas in the Pacific. The ship also had a permanent crew of men which included medical personnel to attend to the troops, to which Lester was assigned. This ship was commissioned on September 11, 1944 at the Naval Station, Astoria, Oregon by Commander Crandall. Lester boarded the USS Oxford here and remained on this ship until he was decommissioned in December 1945.

The ship's itinerary is as follows: The Oxford embarked 1,478 troops at San Francisco, California, and set sail for the South Pacific Ocean on October 26, 1944. She arrived at New Guinea on November 12, 1944, and then operated between Hollandia and Noumea, New Caledonia, and between Florida Island and Mantis Island. On the Oxford, Lester participated in landing operations in Lingayen Gulf, Luzon, and the Philippine Islands in January 1945. The Oxford then continued to transport troops between Leyte, Manus, and Wakde Islands. She also provided troop transport services during the initial landings at Okinawa April 1-5, 1945; of which Lester provides a detailed account. She then travelled to Guam, Pearl Harbor, and finally to San Francisco, California in May to take replacement troops on board the ship. The Oxford set sail again for the South Pacific in May 1945, this time to the Carolines, the Philippines, New Guinea, and Eniwetok, which she reached on July 22nd. On July 24th the Oxford departed with three other ships for San Francisco, where she spent the second week of August 1945. She departed August 23rd for Eniwetok with U.S. Army replacement troops. After stops at Ulithi, Manila, Subic Bay, and Japanese ports, the Oxford returned to San Francisco in late November 1945. Lester's experiences throughout these events are reflected in the letters.

Arrangement

The letters in this collection retain their original arrangement by correspondent and are organized within the finding aid into the following three three series:

Series I: Letters from Lester to Shirley
Series II: Letters from Shirley to Lester
Series III: Letters and cards from family and friends

Materials are arranged chronologically.

Scope and Contents

This collection is comprised of over 600 letters between Lester and Shirley Hlabreich while Lester was serving as a U.S. Army dentist on board the USS Oxford during World War II. Lester's letters reflect his daily existence on board the Oxford; his dentistry work, interactions he had with other men on board, games they played, books he read, food he ate, movies he saw, and 'liberty' trips ashore at these various Pacific islands. Due to censorship regulations he does not go into much detail about where he was and the operations in which the Oxford was involved. When censorship regulations were waived, however, he provided some interesting insights into his experiences at these various places and invasions, most notably the original landings at Okinawa. Lester's letters also touch upon events of the day, and despite the fact that he was at sea, he seemed to have relatively current information. A possible explanation is that one of his duties on board was decoding messages. Lest also comments on the prevalence of anti-Semitism. All of Lester's letters to Shirley are headed "My Darling Churl", a pet-name with which he referred to her.

Shirley's letters report her daily life, their family and mutual friends, motherhood, and the growth of their son. They touch upon events of the day, theater, restaurants and clubs.

A recurring theme throughout both correspondents' letters is the frustration they both experienced concerning mail due to the level of delays and incompetence in the mail service during the war. The bulk of letters in this collection were sent via air mail. Shirley posted the majority of her letters in Brooklyn, to which Lester attributed the long delays in receiving them. All of the letters have a 'Passed by Naval Censor' stamp on the envelope.

The majority of the letters in this collections are handwritten and typescript letters. There are also two letters sent via 'V Mail', a system that was used during WWII as a secure way to correspond with soldiers stationed abroad. V Mail reduced the logistics of transferring an original letter across the military postal system as a V-mail letter would be censored, copied to film, and printed back to paper upon arrival at its destination.

A more detailed Scope and Contents note is provided before each Series.

Access Restrictions

Open to qualified researchers. Portions of the collection that have been microfilmed will be brought to the researcher in that format and can be made available by Interlibrary loan. Researchers on site may print out unlimited copies from microfilm reader-printer machines at per-exposure rates. See guidelines in Reading Room for details. Photocopying undertaken by staff only. Limited to twenty exposures of stable, unbound material per day. (Researchers may not accrue unused copy amounts from previous days.) Items that include presidential signatures will be presented to researchers in duplicate form.

Use Restrictions

This collection is owned by the New-York Historical Society. Permission to publish materials must be obtained in writing from: Manuscripts Department, New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024; or via email at mssdept@nyhistory.org. The copyright law of the United States governs the making of photocopies and protects unpublished materials as well as published materials. Unpublished materials created before January 1, 1978 cannot be quoted in publication without permission of the copyright holder.

Preferred Citation

This collection should be cited as the Halbreich Collection, MS 2959, The New-York Historical Society.

Location of Materials

Manuscript Cage

Provenance

Gift of Terri Halbreich David, daughted of Shirley and Lester Halbreich, 2013

Collection processed by

Megan Dolan

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:48:20 -0400.
Language: Description is in English

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024