As the Einsatzgruppen continued to blaze a trail of murder through the Baltic states, Ukraine and the Soviet Union, Reinhard Heydrich officiated at the Wannsee Conference in January, 1942, where plans were discussed for the systematic extermination of all the Jews of Europe in all of the countries conquered by Germany. Entire Jewish communities were to be liquidated. Concentration camps, initially used to incarcerate political prisoners, became extermination centers for mass murder in gas chambers, especially after Heydrich’s assassination. While there were many concentration camps, the major extermination centers were Auschwitz, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, Bergen-Belsen and Treblinka. Thus Jews were to be methodically killed with poison gas, or utilized as slave labor to be worked to death in war- related industries for the Reich.
This collection includes many examples of concentration and internment camp mail (including Romanian and Croatian camps as well as French internment camps) used during the Third Reich; several Auschwitz Briefaktion Postcards; and a program of the Bermuda Conference with a copy of a letter written by Rabbi Stephen Wise.
--Michael D. Bulmash, K1966
Browse the Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection.
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Real Photo Polish Postcards of Nazi Atrocities
2012.1.100g
Black and white photograph of a Jewish man on his knees with Nazi soldiers nearby with printed postcard lines and caption on back.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Old Jewish man, dressed in prayer garb, being made to dance while Germans enjoying his humiliation.
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Real Photo Polish Postcards of Nazi Atrocities
2012.1.100h
Black and white photograph of a group of people carrying their belongings with printed postcard lines and caption on back.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Jews packing belongings for trip to the ghetto in Grodno.
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Real Photo Polish Postcards of Nazi Atrocities
2012.1.100i
Black and white photograph of Jewish men standing and on their knees wearing armbands with printed postcard lines and caption on back.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Jewish men —with armbands--forced to humiliate themselves playing leapfrog to the delight of Germans. Jewish onlookers.
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"Israel" Envelope
2012.1.305
Purple grey envelope with typewritten address to Henri Landauer and return address typewritten on back flap to Julius Israel Josephi.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A law enacted August 17, 1938 required Jews with non-Jewish forenames to assume the name "Sara" if a woman and "Israel" if a man. This law became effective January 1, 1939. These names were to be used on all correspondence -- private or official -- including return addresses on mail.
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British Ambulance Corps Label
2012.1.417g
White stamp with illustration of a man on horseback skewering a Swastika-laden mythical creature. Titled, "Bought to Aid Britain."
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Szyk labels for the British Amublance Corps.