Briefaktion (Operation Mail) Postcard, Auschwitz

Authors

Object ID

2015.2.107

Object Name

Postcard

Date

3-25-1944

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

Front: Tan postcard with message written in pencil. Back: Black printed postcard lines with writing in pencil. Includes a pink hand stamp across left side, and severla black hand stamps on upper right, and a pasted purple stamp of Hitler in profile on upper right. Several lines of purple writing on bottom right.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: One of four cards (2015.2.105 -.108) with Deutsches Reich franking on card from Birkenau to Prague, bearing 5 line "Rukanwort nur auf Postkarten in deutscher Sprach uber die Reichvereiningung der Juden in Detuschland..." 1944. Briefaktion or Operation Mail was a deliberate Nazi effort to spread disinformation regarding the welfare of selected prisoners, and thus quell the growing concern about their fate, and especially the rumors that they were being murdered. The victims of this charade were required to write postcards reporting that “resettlement” was going fine and that they were doing well and in good health. Nor were they incorporated officially into the Auschwitz camp system since they were not given standard prisoner numbers; rather, soon after the postcards were collected for mailing, the unsuspecting victims were murdered. What distinguishes these cards are the following: 1. The same return address of Arbeitslager Birkenau, bei Neu-Berun, Oberschlesien. 2. The mail was taken for processing to Berlin. 3. Cachets were stamped on the correspondence indicating that replies were permitted only through the Association of Jews in Berlin, Germany. 4. The postmark read Berlin-Charlottenburg 2.

Dimensions

4 1/4 x 5 1/2"

Keywords

Stamp, Briefaktion, Operation Mail, Auschwitz, Birkenau, Prague, Arbeitslager Birkenau, bei Neu-Berun, Oberschlesien, Association of Jews in Berlin, Charlottenburg, Richard Fried, Hilda Zerkowitz

Subcollection

Briefaktion

Recommended Citation

"Briefaktion (Operation Mail) Postcard, Auschwitz" (1944). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2015.2.107.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/196