Letter from Dachau Prisoner

Authors

Object ID

2012.1.521

Object Name

Letter

Date

4-14-1943

Files

Content Warning

The Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection consists of images, documents, and artifacts related to the Holocaust. The collection contains materials that depict a number of topics that may be difficult for viewers to engage with, including: antisemitic descriptions, caricatures, and representation of Jewish people; Nazi imagery and ideology; descriptions and images of German ghettos; graphic images of the violence of the Holocaust; and the creation of the State of Israel. For more information, see our policy page.

Description

Tan Dachau stationery. Includes printed text with letter-writing rules, as well as printed lines for the letter. The letter is written in green ink.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

Letter on Dachau concentration camp stationery signed, "Your father Vlacek." This letter has markings showing censorship by the central mail office in Dachau and has a city postmark of April 14, 1943. As was typical, the inmate stationery bears printed warnings. It is stamped with a red German 12 pfennig stamp bearing the likeness of Nazi Führer Adolf Hitler -- the kind of stamp the rules allowed relatives to send prisoners. There are normal mailing folds, two small holes in the vertical fold well away from the text, a few stains, and small edge splits at the horizontal folds. Printed letter forms were available to many concentration camp prisoners. Unlike inmates of internment camps and prisoner of war camps, concentration camp prisoners had to use a postage stamp in order to send out mail. Regulations printed on the face of this letter say: "Concentration Camp Dachau 3K. The following regulations are to be observed in the correspondence with prisoners. 1) Every prisoner may receive two letters or two cards a month from his relatives and send to them. The letters to the prisoners must be written very readably and be written in ink and may contain only fifteen lines on a page. Permitted is only one sheet of normal size. Envelopes must not be [security] lined. A letter may contain only five stamps at 12 pf. Everything else is forbidden and will be seized. Postcards have ten lines. Pictures may not be used as postcards. 2) Money remittances on postal orders are permitted but they must contain exactly the name and first name, the birth date, and the prisoner number. 3) Newspapers are permitted but may be delivered only through the postal office of the concentration camp Dachau 3K. 4) Packages may be sent through the mail in limited degree. 5) Request for the release from prison that are directed to the camp administration are useless. 6) Permission to talk with the prisoners in the concentration camp are fundamentally not permitted. All mail that does not conform with these regulations will be destroyed. The Camp Commander."

The sender of this letter was not Jewish, and wrote to his family in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Translation: "Dachau 3K, April 11, 1943. Dear wife and children! First of all my heart has greetings and my constant remembering you. And the rest of us... gave me particular pleasure because of her own handwriting and well as with the contents. After my friend praised how pretty she writes. I'm glad that you can take care of everything on your own and that you are all in good health. Tell your parents and your mother that because of the advanced age they should take good care of their health. The father Vasig is perhaps very ill and the brother Martin because he is.... I had a premonition. I hope that they all will get well soon. I am well and I can tell you that I already weigh 57 kilos. Tell Vasig [name] is also in good health. My regards to Mrs. Nasalek in Slapanic and the family Hancina Porseonik. I think all of them and I wish everybody the best. I thank you for the package which I received on April 3rd, which I, according the enclosed list, I have received in good order. All the time you send me good things. How much I would like to repay you. I thank Alois for his work in the vineyard, and say hello to all the neighbors. How is the family Partykona? Do they all work in Brünn? Is there any news of the sister Stepanka in Bosena? You ask me what you should send me. I don't require anything... ordinary, only what you can spare and what doesn't cause you much work or concern. I thank all of you for your attention. The godmother, the parents, and everybody else for their visiting and their concern for our children. I again send you all my greeting, and all including the larger family, with the wish of a fond reunion. Your father Vlacek."

Dimensions

8 3/4 x 6"

Keywords

Marie Kirizoni, Dachau, Censor, Stamp

Subcollection

Concentration

Recommended Citation

"Letter from Dachau Prisoner" (1943). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2012.1.521.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1234