Concentration Camp Posen Fort VII: Postcard Sent to SS Guard

Authors

Object ID

2019.2.113

Object Name

Postcard

Date

4-4-1941

Files

Description

Postcard front image of pond with fountain. Trees and white building with red roof behind.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

The Germans invaded Poland in September 1939, and the first concentration camp was established in the city of Posen at Fort VII, one of the 19th century forts surrounding the city. Within the first month the first Polish prisoners - especially the intelligentsia - were imprisoned and murdered. Fort VII was a particularly brutal facility, where executions occurred daily and the miserable living conditions conduced to disease and death. The Nazis’ first experiments with gas and gas chambers occurred at Fort VII: both staff and patients from local psychiatric facilities were gassed here. By November 1939, Posen became a Gestapo prison for Polish political prisoners. While some Jews were imprisoned here, most were transferred to the extermination centers at Belzec or Sobibor. Himmler made the decision in 1941, soon after this postcard was written, to turn Fort VII into a Gestapo prison.

Dimensions

3 5/8 x 5 1/2"

Keywords

Fort VII, Gas chambers, Posen, Heinrich Himmler

Subcollection

Concentration

Recommended Citation

"Concentration Camp Posen Fort VII: Postcard Sent to SS Guard" (1941). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2019.2.113.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1488