Dear Don,

Thank you for your letter. I am sympathetic with your desire to know more about the Rosenthal family, and I wish it were possible for me to provide you with a polished English translation of Dr. Busch's book. I wish even more that I could explain to you what it "means" to be part of a family that is "Scattered through all five Continents" or even more poignantly "what it means" to be (part of) a family in place - in situ. I've just finished scanning into computer files the initial 57 from a collection of several hundred letters which my father wrote to his future wife, many of which reveal the awkwardness and complexity of the evolution from one generation to the next.

I'm sympathetic with your being perplexed at my "idiocy". The Ancient Greeks designated as an idiot (idiotes) an individual who was unwilling or, what amounts to the same thing, unable to adapt, so as to integrate himself into the prevalent society. My stubbornness on insisting, after living for 82 years in a country where Englih is spoken, to continue to write in German, is an index of my social incapacity.

You are probably aware, that Westphalia, the German home of our family has been devastated by flooding such as not been recorded since the days of Noah.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y_OPuz06-I
Hagen, where Dr. Busch lives, has been especially severly damaged.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR-t8_yveYY
We don't realize how well off we are.

Jochen