Censored Lettersheet from Jehovah’s Witness, Johanna Groen-van der Vijgh, in Ravensbruck Concentration Camp

Authors

Object ID

2021.1.27

Object Name

Correspondence

Date

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

Lettersheet with green typewritten text and black handwritten script and a black mark slashing through the text

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

Censored letter sheet from 1943 with both red censor stamp and green chemical censor from Johanna Groen-van der Vijgh to her father, Albert Hendrik van der Vijgh, in Amsterdam. The six-line letter sheet is clearly specific for Jehovah’s Witnesses, referred to derisively on reverse in green German script as “Bibelforscher” or “earnest bible researcher.” Johanna had been married to Aron Groen, a bicycle repairman from a Dutch Jewish family who had been deported to Auschwitz in 1942 and perished. Johanna would survive the war. Johanna’s sister Hendrika had been imprisoned in Ravensbruck as well, but was deported to Auschwitz in 1942 where, during that year, she perished.

[Related item: 2019.2.111]

Dimensions

6 x 8 1/4"

Keywords

Jehovah’s Witness, Johanna Groen-van der Vijgh, Ravensbruck, Auschwitz

Subcollection

Concentration, Netherlands

Recommended Citation

"Censored Lettersheet from Jehovah’s Witness, Johanna Groen-van der Vijgh, in Ravensbruck Concentration Camp" (1943). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2021.1.27.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1729