Postcard from Kielce Ghetto

Authors

Object ID

2015.2.135

Object Name

Postcard

Date

3-12-1942

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 writing in black cursive ink.Back: Printed purple postcard lines with writing in black cursive ink. Includes red, purple and black hand stamps, pencil markings, and two pasted stamps, including one red stamp showing a building, and one purple stamp showing a church.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

General Gouvernement 30 pfg. Postcard with additional 1z., from J. Raufman at Kielce to Alfred Szwarcbaum, Lausanne, Switzerland, showing violet boxed "FLUGPOST." Nazi censor markings, dated March 13, 1942. Kielce was settled by Jews in 1819. They were expelled in 1845. The ban was lifted in 1863 and the population increased dramatically, having numbered 18,000 by the 1930s. This figure represents approximately 33 percent of the inhabitants of Kielce. The Germans entered Kielce on September 4, 1939 and a Judenrat was established soon thereafter. The Jewish population of Kielce swelled with the influx of deportees from other areas, including 7,500 from Vienna in 1941. Two ghettos were established in April 1941. The "Aktions" commenced in August of 1942 with the deportation of 21,000 Jews to Treblinka and the slaughter of another 3,000 in Kielce. The remaining 16,000 Jews were placed in the smaller ghetto and worked as slave laborers in the munitions factories and labor camps. The Judenrat members were murdered on November 20, 1942.

Dimensions

4 1/4 x 5 3/4"

Keywords

Lausanne, Kielce, Stamps, General Gouvernement, Switzerland, Censored, Ghetto, Judenrat, Deportation, Schwarzbaum, Schwarzbaum, Raufman

Subcollection

Ghettos, Rescue

Recommended Citation

"Postcard from Kielce Ghetto" (1942). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2015.2.135.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/225