Postcard from Jewish Inmate at Internment Camp Campagna Near Salerno, Italy to Trieste Family Member
Object ID
2021.1.17
Object Name
Postcard
Date
12-12-1940
Files
Download Full Text (850 KB)
Description
Postcard written in green ink. Panoramic view of Campagna is seen on front.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Mr. Lescheziner, here writing to a relative with the same surname, may have been among the first interns of the men captured in Italy. Most were Jews from Germany and Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia; however, there were as well Italian and French Jews. In any case the number of inmates at Campagna was small. Importantly, unlike camps in France, Germany or Poland - or for that matter other puppet states such as Slovakia, Romania, Croatia or Hungary, inmates had no restrictions on mail, and dd not experience threat of deportation. Hitler’s exhortations to the contrary notwithstanding, prisoners were able to keep their cultural and religious commitments alive. They moved freely through the town and socialized with the local inhabitants, who befriended them. The mayor and bishop themselves were instrumental in protecting Jews from deportation to concentration camps as were local Fascist groups. When the allies invaded southern Italy, and the Germans invaded from the North, locals helped the inmates to escape into the mountains.
Dimensions
5 3/4 x 4"
Keywords
Camp Campagna, Salerno, Lescheziner
Subcollection
Internment
Recommended Citation
"Postcard from Jewish Inmate at Internment Camp Campagna Near Salerno, Italy to Trieste Family Member" (1940). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2021.1.17.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1719