Help! Anybody read German handwriting? This is a found item and the family needs some help.

http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/Sarge.jpg

Interesting, an old post war drawing. Hope someone can read it. "Life"?

That's not German. It's posted in Regensburg but the rest is Spanish or Portuguese or something. But not German.

james1v wrote:Interesting, an old post war drawing. Hope someone can read it. "Life"?

I don't even know what that middle digit is. A one? (Not if it's post war, of course.)

This was found in a stack of Field Manuals sent to me for PDFing. The family didn't even know it was in there. It's kind of like Grandpa saying "Hi!" from 1945.

Teria wrote:That's not German. It's posted in Regensburg but the rest is Spanish or Portuguese or something. But not German.

Lovely. The mystery deepens. Grandpa was in "Intelligence" according to family history.

Gimme a minute.

I believe that may be Hungarian (at least, the one word I can sort of read, neretettel, appears to be Hungarian, possibly meaning "from Nereto").

edit: the word after that could be "halaval", which is Hungarian for "gratitude".

edit: the word before that could be "is" or "es". If it's "is" the meaning could be very different according to google translate, which says "is heleval" means "to progress". "Es heleval" would mean "and gratitude".

Mazille wrote:Gimme a minute.

59...58...57...56...55...

Gawdzilla wrote:

james1v wrote:Interesting, an old post war drawing. Hope someone can read it. "Life"?

I don't even know what that middle digit is. A one? (Not if it's post war, of course.)

This was found in a stack of Field Manuals sent to me for PDFing. The family didn't even know it was in there. It's kind of like Grandpa saying "Hi!" from 1945.

The bit that says...1945.v.22. Does that mean 1945/May(v=5th month) 22nd day?

james1v wrote:

Gawdzilla wrote:

james1v wrote:Interesting, an old post war drawing. Hope someone can read it. "Life"?

I don't even know what that middle digit is. A one? (Not if it's post war, of course.)

This was found in a stack of Field Manuals sent to me for PDFing. The family didn't even know it was in there. It's kind of like Grandpa saying "Hi!" from 1945.

The bit that says...1945.v.22. Does that mean 1945/May(v=5th month) 22nd day?

I'm thinking that's a number, probably "7".

The first word could be "Sok", Hungarian for "Many".

edit: and amerikai is Hungarian for American.

I'm pretty convinced it's Hungarian, seems to be a message of gratitude from whoever drew that picture.

It seems to say "amerikai" in the third line. Anyway, it was drawn on May 22, 1945 in Regensburg.

debunk wrote:I believe that may be Hungarian (at least, the one word I can sort of read, neretettel, appears to be Hungarian, possibly meaning "from Nereto").

That's what I was thinking. I don't really speak Hungarian, but I grew up pretty much next to Hungary.
The first word looks like "sok" which would mean beautiful, high, different, or many. Next debunk's neretettel, then "és" (which means "and) and then "hálával". No idea what that could mean. Then "amerikai", or something. So, "american". Can't read the next line...
Then name, date and "Regensburg".

I'm afraid you'll need a Hungarian for that.

Does the fourth line start with "Gott"?

No. No way. (Unless it's the Hungarian word for "god", but that would be "isten")

No; I don't think so. Might be a Q. MattHunX is the man to ask. He''s Hungarian.

Regina wrote:No; I don't think so. Might be a Q. MattHunX is the man to ask. He''s Hungarian.

Right. Good idea!

Could it be a German town with Hungarian spelling. Or a POW camp?

Gawdzilla wrote:Could it be a German town with Hungarian spelling. Or a POW camp?

Well, it does look like "Datonàvah", or something of that sort. He could be writing about "amerikai Datonàvah". "the American (city) of Daton", or something?
That's a wild guess, though. I'm really bad with those bloody Hungarian pre- and suffixes.

Any chance this is Yiddish?