Postcard from Izbica Ghetto

Authors

Object ID

2015.2.143

Object Name

Postcard

Date

4-12-1942

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 card with writing in black cursive ink.Back: Black printed postcard lines with writing in black cursive. Includes a purple pasted stamp depicting a building, a black and purple hand stamps, and a long red stamp across the left side.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

Postcard sent by Selme Greenbaum in Izbica to Helene Schloss in Goteborg, Sweden. "JUDENRAT IZBICA" in violet, message in German and red Nazi censor markings alongside. Izbica is a town in the Lublin district in Poland. The first Jewish families settled in the late 18th century and soon comprised over 90 percent of the population. Izbica was famous as a center for Hassidism. With the German occupation in 1939, Izbica was a transfer point for Jews from other towns in Western Poland, as well as Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. 3000 Jews arrived in December of that year and a Judenrat was established in early 1940. SS Hauptscharfuhrer Kurt Engels, known for his pathological cruelty, was commandant of the Nazi command and enjoyed terrorizing the area, especially shooting Jews in the morning before breakfast. Most of the 6500 residents were exterminated at Belzec and Sobibor. Thomas Toivi Blatt, who had escaped the death camp at Sobibor, had been a resident of Izbica.

Dimensions

4 x 5 3/4"

Keywords

Ghetto, Reich Seal, Judenrat, Izbica, Goteborg, Sweden, Censor, Hasidism, Poland, Deportation, Belzec, Sobibor, Helene Schloss, Selme Grenbaum

Subcollection

Ghettos

Recommended Citation

"Postcard from Izbica Ghetto" (1942). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2015.2.143.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/233

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark.