A Guide to the World War I Letters of Benjamin Katz 1917-1918 Katz, Benjamin 11291

A Guide to the World War I Letters of Benjamin Katz 1917-1918

A Collection in
The Special Collections Department
Accession number 11291


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Funding: Web version of the finding aid funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Processed by: Special Collections Department

Repository
Special Collections, University of Virginia Library
Accession number
11291
Title
World War I Letters of Benjamin Katz
Physical Characteristics
There are forty-eight letters.
Language
English

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Benjamin Katz World War I Letters, Accession #11291, Special Collections Dept,. University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection of letters was purchased by the Library from Charles Apfelbaum of Watchung, New Jersey, on February 18, 1997.

Scope and Content Information

There are forty-eight letters, 1917 December - 1918 August, chiefly from Benjamin Katz, a private in the United States Army, to Mrs. Fannie Katz of Brooklyn, New York. Private Katz wrote from three different addresses: 300 F. A. Battery C, Camp Upton, New York (1917 December); 58th Infantry Company A, Camp Greene, Charlotte, North Carolina (1918 January 6-10); and, 4th Infantry Company L, Camp Stuart, Newport News, Virginia (1918 January 16 - April 4). Katz discusses army life, including field artillery, drills, obtaining his uniform, exercises with older soldiers, and some of the hardships of being in the army. These letters are all written in Yiddish and have not been translated. There is also one letter, August 18, 1918, from Harry Dreitzen, Pelham Park, New York, to B[enjamin] Katz, 4th Infantry Company L, in France. Dreitzen is writing on his third day at a Navy camp, and comments on Navy rules being the same as Army rules, friends and family who have enlisted, and slackers who have not enlisted. He praises the men already fighting in the war and regrets not enlisting in another branch where he could do some actual fighting but hopes to be on a ship or submarine destroyer. Dreitzen writes a very patriotic letter to his friend.