June 29, 2021

Jochen:  I enjoyed reading your commentary.  

1. Sad to read that you have not heard from Dr. Busch.  I hope you hear from him soon.  

2. I am not sure I agree that Dr. Busch sought pretty much to focus most of his book sales on our extended family members. I know he was presenting his book to audiences in Germany (I would reason) with the intent of selling more book more widely there. 

3. I am in total agreement with you relating to his hope to sell it to a wider English-speaking audience (I assume beyond merely family members). 

4. Again, you are absolutely correct in your assessment that it served as a monument/memorial to our widely dispersed family and to that mission, he absolutely succeeded.  

5. I want to be clear to you that I take nothing away from Dr. Busch’s well researched biographical text.  He did a superb job in capturing so many difficult to uncover facts relating to our family’s history.  No doubt, for that he deserves immeasurable credit. 

6. Jochen:  I do want to make clear what I was thinking in reframing his book for a wider audience. Using his research for which he MUST be credited, I envisioned a book that would present the 18 family storylines in a condensed version presenting each difficult journey so many of the Rosenthal offspring families had to take/endure to reach the far corners of the world. My wife is a Hadassah member and that organization monthly presents books that should be bought and read in this historical Jewish genre. Additionally, the United Jewish Appeal (as an example) annually has individual authors make presentations of their books to large UJA audiences at UJA breakfasts (typically with photos and PowerPoints).  It is a way of drawing in crowds for the charitable appeal and the authors then are given the opportunity to sell their books to those in attendance.  I have seen dozens upon dozens of books sold that way.  I think our family’s story would be very appealing to sales methods.  Don

On Jun 29, 2021, at 12:08 PM, Ernst Meyer <ernstmeyer@earthlink.net  wrote:
 
Dear Don,
 
I keep re-reading your letter - for which I thank you - and ask myself whether I should inflict an answer on you. I write letters such as this, partly to keep my own thinking straight.
 
a) Dr. Busch has answered neither of my last two letters. I am concerned that he may be seriously ill, and that I will receive no reply no matter how long I wait.
 
b) I suspect that when he started to write Verstreut über alle fünf Kontinente, Dr. Busch had made no decision about its style or content, that his interest in and affection for German Jews in general and for the Rosenthal family in particular is what got him started. The the book grew by accretion of stories from the Rosenthal descendants, and by exposition of pertinent historical facts.
 
c) I have no evidence that Dr. Busch ever contemplated reaching large audiences.  He was addressing us Rosenthals as a family. It did not occur to him, except in retrospect, what a large proportion of living - and future members of that family do not read German. Hence his impulse to arrange for an English translation.
 
d) Once he had written it, Dr. Busch interpreted his book as an instrument for preserving family consciousness and facilitating the reunion of its members.  In the case of you and myself, that function has worked out.
 
e) I read - and translate - the book as a monument, as a memorial to the ancestors from whom we descended, and as a reminder that we ourselves are legatees of a - dare I say it - sacred heritage. By writing it, Dr. Busch has fulfilled his perhaps only unconscious desire, to join us in our Judaism.
 
f) As a monument to our heritage and as a reminder of who we are, "Verstreut über alle fünf Kontinente" does not need to be a best seller. It does not need to be readable. It does not even need to be read. Its sheer existence serves as a pointer to what can now no longer, and what could perhaps never be reached and understood.
 
g) As a relevant illustration of another sort of monument, I attach an image from the Jewish cemetery in Oerlinghausen, - the cemetery has become a tourist attraction to the inspection of which it is recommended that visitors allot ten minutes.  The inscription reads: "Die Synagogengemeinde Oerlinghausen ihren gefallen Söhnen 1914-1918 Ernst Joachim Meyer, Albert Kulemeyer", which translates: "The Congregation of the Synagogue in Oerlinghausen, to its Sons Killed in War, 1914-1918 Ernst Joachim Meyer, Albert Kulemeyer".
 
h) However much I like to have a letter from you, please don't feel that you need to answer this.
 
Best wishes, Jochen