In 1946, Jakob Rosenfeld stood before the ruins of a house in Tarnow, Poland, and wept. The house had belonged to the Nowak family, who had hidden his 16-year-old sister Ruth in their cellarette for 18 months. The family had shared their food, risking their own lives.
Jakob had survived Auschwitz. He returned to Tarnow to find the Nowaks had been killed by partisans in the chaos of January 1945.
From 1946 until his death in 2002, Jakob wrote a letter every year on the anniversary of the day Ruth entered the Nowak home. Each letter was addressed to the Nowak family. Every letter was returned — there was no one left.
Jakob's son discovered 56 letters in a shoebox after his father died. He tracked down a distant cousin and delivered them all. In the final letter, Jakob wrote in failing handwriting: I do not know if you ever received these. Ruth said on her deathbed: Tell them thank you. Tell them we remember. I am telling them now.