My mother’s love letters from WW2 American soldier.

[angstinabaggyjumper]

During the latter part of WW2 my mother fell head over heels in love with an American soldier, a yank. From the sound of his letters the feeling was mutual and my mother kept all the letters he sent her from America and from France around the time of D Day. It makes emotional reading.
My question is what should I do with these letters now my mother is no longer with us and I have no one interested enough to safely leave them. Any ideas please?

RidingWindhorses correct where he wrote detail it has been neatly cut out!

I've worked on a similar project to this (I'm a ghostwriter) and the letters in question were fascinating, but the person who had them in their possession had the same dilemma - how much 'right' did they have to get them published? In the end, two things came into play that helped make the decision:

(1) the deceased had often remembered fondly the time recollected in the diaries/letters and, as she got older, frequently spoke of how no one could have imagined that 'a silly old woman' like her could have had such a life; and,

(2) the person who commissioned me realised that they didn't actually have to do anything with the finished manuscript until they felt comfortable, so they are sitting on it for a while until they decide what to do (they are actually also uncovering lots of amazing photographs that will be added if it ever does get published, so it's an ongoing project that has brought a whole family together).

I think they also felt a manuscript was safer than having one set of such precious documents that could get lost or damaged - so, at the very least, please make copies!

I'm of the opinion that if I'd ever written anything which the grandchildren would find, which was of a very personal nature :)), and they discovered it years after my death, I'd hope their comment would be "Bloody hell! The silly old sod did have a life as well!"

carelessdad Love it! Will elaborate tomorrow but love the sentiment.

Aww what a wonderful find. They're precious and I think many people, me included, would love to read them.

Could you try to find the soldier's family? They may be very grateful to have them.

My friend was the daughter of an ex German POW. Years after he died she had contact from a man who was her half brother. Turns out in the chaos after the war he stayed here and actually had a wife and some dc in Germany. Okay thats extreme but contacting this guys family, I wouldn't.

She kept them. I think that tells you everything...

Yes theluckiest he was the love of her life and no one measured up to him. As soon as my DF died my mother was trying to find him again.

I think contacting his family would be a good thing to do. Yes you’d need to tread carefully but it’s as much their family history as yours. Sweeping generalisation here but everyone from the US I’ve met has been very interested in history.

Peanutbuttercheese a lot of German POWs were let out into the community. Two of our family had German gardeners with whom they became friends and at the end of the war one was to go to East Germany and one West Germany. The POW going back to East was worried and reluctant and we never heard from him again however the POW who went West is still a family friend and certain members of our family go to stay with him and his family, I think he had a soft spot for my DM and always asked after her.

It sounds like material that would be best kept within the family. If you have no one to pass them onto have you considered trying to keep them with your Mum in some way? Is your mum buried or cremated? I wonder if there's anyway they could be added to her grave or buried under a significant tree or something. Like a time capsule or something so it could be found later by someone who might treasure it.

I also think that the man's family might absolutely love to hear from you. I am American and my father was in US intelligence during the war, and did some training in England before D-day. I would just love to have a letter he wrote to an English girl he met at that time; he was a wonderful letter writer, and I would feel like I was getting a peek into who he was before I knew him. It would bring him to life for me once again, which would be very precious.

Personally I wouldn't love to receive old correspondence from my Father declaring love over and over for a woman that wasn't my Mother. It would feel really weird.

I'm perfectly well aware that my father and mother loved other people before they met and got married. Surely we're all grownups?

If they belonged to my father I would be very interested and would love to have them.

Nor do I agree that the letters should be kept within the family. Family have a tendency not to understand the value of such things and throw them out or lose them.

As someone who's worked on social history projects, most recently on Trent Park which in WW2 was a prison camp for German Generals, I am certain they should be archived somewhere as a useful piece of social history.

My dad’s girlfriend from before my mum delivered one of my babies! My mum still writes to a few of her old boyfriends in Africa and India...

Surely people are not so precious about their parents’ other relationships?!

In fact I have a photography book by one of my mum’s uni boyfriends on my coffee table now I think about it.

I think I'm a grown up and yet I still wouldn't want to receive another woman's love letters that I wasn't related to. That would be personal history for her own family to keep.

SleepFreeZone that's a nice idea about keeping them with her but I don't think she would want them to be anywhere potentially perishable.

I am coming round to the idea that perhaps I should contact his family it's not an idea I had entertained before due the circumstances of their end. That is a dilemma and since he hurt my mother and in some ways ruined her life, should I mind if I expose him?

I seem to be in a similar position however it is letters and cards exchanged by my parents. They married after the War.
For certain reasons I would not like my siblings or children to see this correspondence. This is to do with the conduct of my remaining relatives rather than the content of the letters.
Both parents were cremated so I think 'cremating' their letters would be appropriate.
Thanks to PP who made that suggestion

How sad User02 is it really that bad?

I would consider a local museum. It would be so sad if they were lost. After all she cared enough to keep them.

You saying that after you are gone people would consider them worthless bits of paper struck a chord with me.

After my grandmother died her house was cleared. I had to tell my mother and ring my aunties to say "somewhere you will find three pieces of worthless looking stone, slightly cubeoid, you'll think what the hell and chuck them. Don't!!"

They are tesserae from a local important mosaic, she was given them after helping with the archaeological dig... Just grey stone, minor tesserae but still. I have two! Lord knows what happened to the third.

These things matter, I can't explain why but they just do.

My gran kept all the (many) private letters sent to her over years by her brother, a war correspondent. When she died, my aunt immediately destroyed them, without discussion with anyone else, or reading them, as she felt they were private. She was concerned my dad and me would read them, which would be intrusive and disrespectful. The potential loss to the historic record still slightly pains me! But I guess it was the right thing for her, and it was her mum after all.

I didn't know that he hurt your mother so much OP. That is sad, and I am sorry.