["To an unknown family:" letters from displaced Europeans to the Brazilian Red Cross, Rio Grande do Sul branch, in the post-Second World War period].

Abstract

The study addresses the multiple demands forwarded via letters to the International Red Cross, Porto Alegre branch (Rio Grande do Sul state), by persons from Eastern Europe displaced to the German territory, in the immediate post-Second World War period (1946-1949). This epistolary writing or letter-writing is understood as fragmentary narratives of life trajectories. The aim is to understand how the sender articulates ethnic and religious belonging and human compassion to sensitize the potential reader in Rio Grande do Sul, in order to receive a package of groceries, clothes, and other donations. Therefore, this writing of the self unveils some aspects of the miserable post-war daily life, its dramas and traumas, lived and narrated by anonymous protagonists, and the work of mediation, listening and assistance of transnational humanitarian organizations, such as the Red Cross.