Letter from Iga to John
Title
Letter from Iga to John
Description
A letter to John passed between the men and women's prisoner of war camps. Iga thanks John for the letter he sent and goes on to talk about her life, enjoying dance and sports and attending pilots school. She mentions seeing John in the camps and asking if he has a friend who would be willing to write to one of her friends in the camp.
Creator
Date
1944-11-10
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
Two hand written sheets
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
Identifier
ESaundersSorkiewiczMSaundersJWG441110-0001; ESaundersSorkiewiczMSaundersJWG441110-0002; ESaundersSorkiewiczMSaundersJWG441110-0003
Transcription
Friday 10 November 44
Dear John! your nice letter enjoyed me exceedingly. you even don’t know what means [insert] for me [/insert] that little letter beyond the wire, here in the captivity, so far from my country, my home and all my family. Then I forget I am alone, for I feel there is somebody who takes care of me. This thought helps me very much to endure all the lacks [sic] of our sad life. Our departure is not yet sure, they say only so. We don’t want to leave, we are quite satisfied with this camp, it is better than the preceding one. I think you don’t wish any change too, don’t you? Nice and sincere relations unite now our two camps. It is very pleasant, I am glad of our aquaintance, [sic] and you? you have asked me to give some photographs – I have only one of the time of the pilot’s school and I send you it. Perhaps it is not good – you will judge it yourself. I am very fond of dance and sport. Before the war the best recreation for me was the dance and my favourite sports: tennis, skis and boating. I don’t mention the flying, for you know what to think about it. All the free moments I spent at the sports. [indecipherable word]
[page break]
during the war I had no time and favourable conditions. I am longing to the happy time before the war, I have quite enough of fighting. I dream of returning to the civil life. As you see I am cheerful and gay. This kind of life without any work and sport bores me very much. I am too lively to remain so quietly, without any occupation. With great pleasure I began to learn English. I hope in a short time to be able to write and speak English fluently without any help.
You are in a better situation as I – your country is free, [deleted] an [/deleted] you have your home with your family and in my country there are only ruins and [indecipherable word] I lost all that was dear and precious for me. you wish to Know my age and my name, I am 24 years old, my name is Jadwiga Maria Sorkiewicz. I would very much like if you told me something about you. What do you do in the civil life, what do you study and on what do you take an interest? After such an exchange of thoughts it will be easier to correspond. Yesterday I felt very happy seeing you at the wire. What a pity the distance is so great, we can’t have a talk. Do you know German enough to be able to talk? I wait
[page break]
an answer for to-day at 3 o’clock. at the same place. I have a little prayer to you. Perhaps you have some friend so nice as you are. I would like he could correspond with a friend of mine, who corrects my letters. Just in this moment we learnt we all must go away for some work. The first group of girls in number 120 leaves Monday
We are very sad and anxious. I don’t know what to do, to go or to wait the next transport What do you think about it?
All my best wishes affectionately
Yours
Iga
Dear John! your nice letter enjoyed me exceedingly. you even don’t know what means [insert] for me [/insert] that little letter beyond the wire, here in the captivity, so far from my country, my home and all my family. Then I forget I am alone, for I feel there is somebody who takes care of me. This thought helps me very much to endure all the lacks [sic] of our sad life. Our departure is not yet sure, they say only so. We don’t want to leave, we are quite satisfied with this camp, it is better than the preceding one. I think you don’t wish any change too, don’t you? Nice and sincere relations unite now our two camps. It is very pleasant, I am glad of our aquaintance, [sic] and you? you have asked me to give some photographs – I have only one of the time of the pilot’s school and I send you it. Perhaps it is not good – you will judge it yourself. I am very fond of dance and sport. Before the war the best recreation for me was the dance and my favourite sports: tennis, skis and boating. I don’t mention the flying, for you know what to think about it. All the free moments I spent at the sports. [indecipherable word]
[page break]
during the war I had no time and favourable conditions. I am longing to the happy time before the war, I have quite enough of fighting. I dream of returning to the civil life. As you see I am cheerful and gay. This kind of life without any work and sport bores me very much. I am too lively to remain so quietly, without any occupation. With great pleasure I began to learn English. I hope in a short time to be able to write and speak English fluently without any help.
You are in a better situation as I – your country is free, [deleted] an [/deleted] you have your home with your family and in my country there are only ruins and [indecipherable word] I lost all that was dear and precious for me. you wish to Know my age and my name, I am 24 years old, my name is Jadwiga Maria Sorkiewicz. I would very much like if you told me something about you. What do you do in the civil life, what do you study and on what do you take an interest? After such an exchange of thoughts it will be easier to correspond. Yesterday I felt very happy seeing you at the wire. What a pity the distance is so great, we can’t have a talk. Do you know German enough to be able to talk? I wait
[page break]
an answer for to-day at 3 o’clock. at the same place. I have a little prayer to you. Perhaps you have some friend so nice as you are. I would like he could correspond with a friend of mine, who corrects my letters. Just in this moment we learnt we all must go away for some work. The first group of girls in number 120 leaves Monday
We are very sad and anxious. I don’t know what to do, to go or to wait the next transport What do you think about it?
All my best wishes affectionately
Yours
Iga
Collection
Citation
Jadwiga Sorkiewicz, “Letter from Iga to John,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed October 16, 2026, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/44232.