Physical Description
Image of a table with a flower vase on graph paper with letter on verso.
Dimensions
overall : 6.690 x 8.860 in. (16.993 x 22.504 cm.)
Materials
overall : paper, wax crayon, ink, pastels
Signature
reverse, lower center, pen : Jeannot
Inscription
Recto: "Pour Maman" written twice in pen and crayon; verso: letter written in pen with additional note in upper right corner in pen ["Dear Mommy, Thanks for your letter, I was happy to get it. I haven't written you because I didn't have any paper, but a boy gave me some. It's hardly snowing here anymore. Are you almost better, and if you're all right over there. I'm eating well, and I'm in good health Is it cold where you are and write me if it's snowing. When there was a lot of snow here we went tobogganing on the slopes. We had a real good time. Write Freddy that he shouldn't write me in German. There's a nice dog at the home we call Sami. The school is in the house and there's a special teacher for the school. She does a good job teaching us. Next to the house there's a farm with four dogs. 100,000,000 big kisses from your son Jeannot who is always thinking of you./ Jeannot/ See over"
Contributor
Artist:
Hans Ament
Biography
Hans Ament was the son of Max Ament, born June 28, 1895, in Sanok, Poland, and Ernestina Reisz Ament, born September 29, 1902, in Budapest. The family left Austria for Belgium in 1939, planning to emigrate to America. A U.S. visa was issued to Hans on March 22, 1940, in Antwerp, but before he was able to leave, the Germans invaded Belgium and his family was forced to flee instead to France. Max Ament was deported on March 4, 1943, in convoy number fifty from Drancy, and was murdered at either Sobibor or Maidanek. On March 23, 1943, Ernestina Ament entered the sanatorium L'Esperance in Hauteville, several dozen kilometers from the home at Izieu, suffering from tuberculosis; she died on August 7, 1944. Hans Ament was deported on May 30, 1944, in convoy number seventy-five. His brother, Alfred, older by six years, was smuggled by OSE into Switzerland. He lives today in the United States.
