Object ID
2014.1.297
Object Name
Letter
Date
10-22-1941
Files
Download Full Text (2.0 MB)
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
Feldpostbrief' printed along with two handstamps, one black with date, one purple with Reich seal. Interior: Pencil handwriting in German. Several sentences are scrawled on the sides. Fold crease through middle.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Disturbing folded Feldpost lettersheet sent from a Corporal (Obergefreiter) with signals detachment 660 (nachrichtenabteilung) on special assignment in Smorgonie, Lithuania Oct 22, 1941.
"Also this morning I grabbed 7 Jewesses when cleaning out the homes; they were all attractive, as we were slowly coming out. Two girls we kept for ourselves for the living quarters, one to cook and the other for clothing, it is really a shame for the girls, two had such beautiful black hair, they were all shot at once."
After the invasion of Lithuania in 1941, thousands of Jews were executed; these girls would have been in hiding from the killing squads. According to the Yad Vashem website, at the beginning of 1941 there were approximately 220,000 Jews in Lithuania and by the end of 1941 there were only around 40,000, primarily in the ghettos.
Dimensions
8 x 5"
Keywords
Feldpost, Smorgonie, Lithuania
Subcollection
Bullets
Recommended Citation
"Eyewitness Testimony from Smorgonie, Lithuania to Killing of Jews" (1941). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2014.1.297.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/555
Rights Statement
