Leonard Ackermann, working for the Treasury Department in North Africa, wrote this friendly letter to his pal, Lawrence Lesser, one of the Assistant Executive Directors of the new WRB.
In the letter, Ackermann writes, “Mike [Hoffman, another Treasury rep] also asked me whether I was interested in the problem on which you are working, and of course I responded in the affirmative. Just what we’ll do is not certain yet as we have not as yet had the conferences with the boys upstairs. If you get any ideas about the part that we might play let me know as official communications sometimes fail to convey the real feel of a subject.”
It’s a good thing that Ackermann was willing to play a part, because before Lesser even received this letter, the War Refugee Board had appointed Ackermann as their representative in North Africa.
(I’m holding the letter at an angle because in shipping the letter from North Africa, the military put it on microfilm, and then when the film arrived in the US, printed a tiny copy for the recipient. So it’s very small–you can see my thumb for scale–and printed on shiny photostat paper. So I had to hold it at an angle to be able to photograph it without glare. I’m very grateful to the Lesser family who shared this letter–and other documents–with me.)
