As the Einsatzgruppen continued to blaze a trail of murder through the Baltic states, Ukraine and the Soviet Union, Reinhard Heydrich officiated at the Wannsee Conference in January, 1942, where plans were discussed for the systematic extermination of all the Jews of Europe in all of the countries conquered by Germany. Entire Jewish communities were to be liquidated. Concentration camps, initially used to incarcerate political prisoners, became extermination centers for mass murder in gas chambers, especially after Heydrich’s assassination. While there were many concentration camps, the major extermination centers were Auschwitz, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, Bergen-Belsen and Treblinka. Thus Jews were to be methodically killed with poison gas, or utilized as slave labor to be worked to death in war- related industries for the Reich.
This collection includes many examples of concentration and internment camp mail (including Romanian and Croatian camps as well as French internment camps) used during the Third Reich; several Auschwitz Briefaktion Postcards; and a program of the Bermuda Conference with a copy of a letter written by Rabbi Stephen Wise.
--Michael D. Bulmash, K1966
Browse the Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection.
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Envelope from Rovno, Ukraine
Front: Green envelope with four postage stamps of Adolf Hitler in various colors. Includes four black and two purple hand stamps, a line of writing in purple pencil and a red and white sticker.Back: A black hand stamp.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Cover to Berlin with hand stamp of Reichskommissariat of the Ukraine. Rovno (Rivne) Rovno fell to the Germans in June 1941 and was turned into a regional civilian administrative capital in Volhynia. Erich Koch was the Hitler appointed Reichskommisar whose mission was to exploit the region- its resources and people- for German ends.
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Postcard from Targu Jiu Concentration Camp to Bucharest
Front: Address written in purple ink; three hand stamps; ciruclar purple with 'B' at center, maroon letters, circular black with date; Printed green stamp with image of man in profile. Back: Handwritten note in pencil.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Rare Censored Romanian Postcard from Transit/Concentration Camp Targu Jiu forwarded to family member in Bucharest. During this period of time, Romania, under fascist dictator Ion Antonescu, was an ally of Nazi Germany. In 100,000 to 120,000 Jews of Bessarabia and Bukovnia were murdered by the Romanian army. As well massacres occurred in Odessa and Iasi along with programs in other cities. Survivors were deported to death camps in Transnistria (between Dniester and Bug Rivers) and ghettos in Western Ukraine. 120,000 of these deportees were murdered or perished due to starvation and disease along with the indigenous Jews of Transnistria. Targu Jiu was a transit camp where many Jews and political prisoners were interned prior to being sent to Transnistria. The postcard was sent by Jancu Lazarovici, interned at Targu Jiu. He was in all likelihood murdered during the Holocaust as he is listed in the Yad Vashem Database of Victims.
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Envelope from Sokolow-Podlaski, Poland to Basel, Switzerland
Front: A white envelope addressed in black ink. Includes green and blue postage stamps, two black hand stamps and a red and white sticker.Back: Return address in black ink. Includes brown censor tape as well as black, red, and purple hand stamps.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Sokolow Podlaski is a Polish town about 90 kilometers from Warsaw. Jews had settled in the area before 1420.Before the German occupation, Sokolow Podlaski had a vibrant Jewish life; indeed, Jews comprised approximately 60 per cent of the population of the town. The ghetto in Sokolow was established in 1939 with 5,000 residents. It was closed off in 1941, and as in other ghettos, disease, starvation, and death were rampant. Deportations began in 1942, Jews sealed in cattle wagons and driven to Treblinka where they were murdered upon arrival. This cover was mailed to Switzerland less than two weeks before the deportations from Sokolow occurred. This registered and censored cover l was sent from Sokolow by someone named R, Mielnick to a J. Guttermann in Basel, Switzerland.
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Censored Letter from Simon Neisser in Berlin to Dr. Lauer in Biel, Switzerland on Eve of Deportation to Theresienstadt. Letter Mailed by Werner Carl Rabinowitz
Tan postcard with printed red postcard lines. Addressed to Dr. Lauer from Simon Neisser. Includes two messages in different handwriting in black ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Mr.Neisser writes: We spent the last two days in our room all by ourselves, praying to the Almighty for peace and good health. May He soon hear our prayers and answer them. Uncle Max is with us to help us pack. We will travel in the next few days to Theresienstadt. We are calm and quiet and pray to the Almighty that we stay well. We have not heard from our children but will also write to them following the trip. Our faith in God will continue to help us and give us strength. All of you stay well and we send our greetings to all. With love, Uncle Simon.
A second note is written in German script: My very dear ones: Uncle Max was here and must have had permission to visit us. The definite day for our departure has not been decided. We are now ready to leave and hope to see all of you again soon in good health. We place all of you in God’s care who gives all of us strength and hope to meet whatever the future holds. May God bless and protect us and keep us protected by his loving care. It is with this wish that I wish all of my dear ones the very best. Once again we thank you for your love and your affection and your prayers and I greet you as your loving aunt. “Tanta”…(name indecipherable).
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Letter from KZ Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
Front: Tan paper with red type on the top, 'Ronzentrationslager Sachsenhausen, Dranienburg bei Berlin'. Back: Split into two halves by a fold. One half has the adressee written on red dotted lines in large cursive in black ink. Has a censor mark (D) in a black stamp on bottom left corner. Top right corner has red stamp of Hitler's profile facing right, with a black circular stamp covering part of it. Other half has the prisoner's name, number and block written in.
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Postcard from Opatow
Front: Tan postcard with writing in black cursive ink. Includes a note on bottom left corner. Back: Printed purple postcard lines with writing in black cursive ink. Includes purple and black hand stamps, and a printed purple stamp in upper right showing a piazza with a statue.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: General Gouvernement 12 pfg postcard cancelled 10/6/1942. Boxed violet cachet "JUDENRAT OPATOW Postabteilung 2." Opatow was in the Kielce District of Poland. Jews had been living in this area since the 16th century. Occupied in 1939 by the Germans, a Judenrat was set up in early 1941, with a ghetto following later that year. Disease, especially typhus, spread as the population of the ghetto swelled with refugees from other towns. While many of the inhabitants were sent to labor camps, most were deported to Treblinka death camp several weeks after this postcard was written, between 20-22 October, 1942.
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Court Summons, Lemberg (Lvov)
Front: Tan postcard with black printed postcard lines. Includes typewritten address, a brown postage stamp of Adolf Hitler, black, red and purple hand stamps and various writing in purple and blue pencil.Back: Printed black text with several additions written in with black ink. Includes a red hand stamp.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Summons to review an inheritance case. However, the summons turned out to be undeliverable (aufruferfolglos, zuruck), and was returned and filed with other Lemberg World War II-period papers in the Lvov city court. Many of the original pre-war Lemberg (Lvov) residents were uprooted and no longer lived at their registered addresses after the Soviet, and later, Nazi occupations. Some ended up in Siberia or Central Asia. Others were in Nazi concentratin camps or killed by the Soviets, Nazis, and their collaborators, or in the Ukrainian-Polish Nationalistic strife, and yet others evacuated with the Soviets as the Nazis approached Lvov in the summer of 1941.
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Sachsenhausen-Orienburg Concentration Camp Letter , Ornamented by Prisoner
Front: Red printed message on top in German, titled: "Konzentrationslager Sachsenhausen." On the side and above the handwritten message are colorful flowers in yellow, pink, blue, green and black. They run up the left side and to the top of the message. There is a fold in the middle. Back: On one side of the fold is the address. Simply written addressee on red dotted line. On the righthand corner is a pink stamp of Hitler's profile facing left with a black, circular Oranienburg stamp. Bottom lefthand corner has a blue stamp with the letter E inside it, with a pencil scribble over it (censor mark). The other side of the fold has the name of the prisoner written in on a red dotted line with his cell number and block.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Censored Concentration Camp Sachsenhausen-Orienburg lettersheet with rare prisoner drawing.
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Anne Frank
Black and white photograph of Anne Frank with accompanying text in German and English.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Press photograph of Anne Frank from the 1960’s with numerous subsequent date stamps verso. Her written statement in Dutch comes from her diary, and is translated below
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Document Stating the Ghetto of Nowy Sacz is Destroyed
Dashed line underlining "Neu-Sandez" in upper left corner in black print, purple stamp marks "13 OKT. 1942" in upper right side
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Nowy Sacz, known as Neu Sandez in German, is in southern Poland near Cracow. The Germans occupied Nowy Sacz in September 1939. A Judenrat was established, along with forced labor and the confiscation of both property and businesses. Approximately 18,000 to 20,000 Jews were sealed in the Ghetto created in 1941. During August 1942, the ghetto was liquidated with three transports of men, women, and children to the Belzec extermination center.
This letter from a civil engineer Hueber to the city commission in Neu-Sandez “for his perusal” follows less than one month later. He notes that “Due to the resettlement [typical Nazi euphemistic term for deportation and murder] of the Jews… demolition of the houses in poor condition is of major importance… remaining building materials are to be retained and reused… you may not sell these material to private hands or dealers…”
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Postcard from Jewish Refugees from Poland Living in Lavlenka Village, Kazakhstan, to Tel Aviv, Palestine
Front: Handwritten message in Hebrew using purple ink; Back: Hammer and sickle symbol in top left corner, four blue postage stamps at top right as well as a printed red stamp.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Postcard written by refugees fleeing from Nazis, written in Hebrew, to family or friends in Palestine. Approximately 8,500 Jews fled to Kazakhstan during the Holocaust.
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Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp Death Notice Signed by Wilhelm Jobst
Certificate with taped edges, stamp of Nazi emblem in blue ink in lower left side, line of dots and dashes printed under "Todesbescheinigung" in black print.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Death notice for prisoner Siegmund Pamula, from Krakow, who perished at Gross-Rosen, from phlegmon and sepsis,” signed by the camp doctor Waffen-SS Physician Wilhelm Jobst. Whether this prisoner’s death is the result of brutal conditions in the camp, harsh treatment, or execution is not known. However, the records were often falsified to conceal the treatment prisoners received. Jobst himself was a camp doctor at Gross-Rosen from 1939-1942, after which he was sent to other camps, a satellite camp of Mauthausen and Sachsenhausen. After the war, he was found guilty by a U.S. Military court and sentenced to death.
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Mauthausen Death Notice
Yellowed paper form with typewritten black text, blanks filled in with handwriting . A signature in blue ink at bottom right.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Notice sent to Frau Hedwig Krzenski-Kriscski informing her that her husband Viktor had died a few days earlier of lung disease and had just been cremated in the early 1940's. "Lung disease" is doubtless a euphemism—Lager- speak—for being worked to death under inhumane, insufferable conditions. Most of what Nazi's regarded as Polish intelligentsia were sent to Mauthausen where the great majority perished. For .72RM she could be in receipt of the death certificate.
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Postcard from K. Stein in Theresienstadt Ghetto to Friend OSkar Schulz in Oslvan Jewish Labor Camp (Arbeitergrupped). GHETTOPOST Handstamp and Censor Mark
Tan postcard with black printed postcard lines addressed to Oskar Schulz from K. Stein. Includes handwritten message in black ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Translation: To: Mr. Oskar Schultz, AF 562, Oslavan -- Jewish North Group. Sender: K. Stein, AH 353 204, Theresianstadt. Translation: "Dear Oskar: We received your card and are happy that your foot is well again. Also that you had nice company. We were very happy last week when we received the many cards from our dear parents and Erish. I was very sorry to hear that our dear mother and Erish were ill also. All of our friends now receive mail. One of them received a package with a letter and does not even know the sender. No return address. She does not know who to thank for it. Anyway she enjoyed eating the contents. We are glad to have the information re-Armost. Dear Lotte is still sick but is improving. Generally speaking we are pretty well including mother and others. Your friends send greetings. Write again soon and greet our friends. Your Ifar."
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Censored Auschwitz Letter Sheet from Polish Prisoner Feliks Suligowski
Message written in pencil on Auschwitz stationery.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Letter written to his wife Irene. In part…”I received your letter and thank you very much. Whenever I receive good reports from you, I feel very much encouraged. It gives me hope and strength to carry on. When I see the address and number of your house, I feel relieved. I read your letter at once to find out if everyone at home is well. I was again very happy to receive a good report. I was deeply touched when you told me that you had knitted winter articles for me. We are provided with warm clothing. I do not need anything. Please let the children make use of the things. Anyway, we are not permitted to receive packages. I am happy that I enjoy good health. In my last letter I requested news regarding the entire family. Here is hoping that I will hear from you again soon. I would also like to ask to have the children write to me again. Greetings to all of my relatives and my dear friends. Greetings and kisses. Feliks
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Rabbi Leo Baeck (1873-1956) Postcard from Berlin to Helmut Bradt in Zurich
Postcard with handwriting in green on both front and back. “Postkarte” in maroon printed on front with a stamp of the same color in the top right corner. A circular back stamp that read “Berlin” is above a circular pink stamp are on the right side of the page.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:Rabbi Baeck, author of The Essence of Judaism, was an important spokesperson for the Jewish community after the Nazi rise to power in 1933 in his role as president of the Jewish umbrella organization Reichsvertretung. When the latter was summarily disbanded by the Nazis and replaced with the Reichsvereinigung, Rabbi Baek remained president. On January 27, 1943, two months after this postcard was written, Rabbi Baek was deported to Theresienstadt. Here he held a prominent place as honorary head of the Judenrat, which afforded him privileges unattainable by other inmates; yet he continued to serve the ghetto community, and refused to abandon it, opportunities to emigrate to the U.S. notwithstanding. White Rabbi Baek survived Theresienstadt, three sisters perished. When it was finally liberated, Rabbi Baek continued to attend to the sick and dying.
Postcard sent to Helmut Bradt, a young, highly regarded professor of atomic physics from Berlin who was able to leave Germany and thus escape the Holocaust, with the help of Albert Einstein.
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Sachsenhausen-Orienburg Concentration Camp Letter
Front: Handwritten note in black ink, 'konzentrationslager sachsenhausen' printed in red at top left. Attached is a pink note titled "Lebensmittelpakete." Back: Handwritten address, red 'Deutsches Reich' Hitler at top right; 'L' ciruclar handstamp at bottom left.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Censored lettersheet from a prisoner named Horst Grimicke in the Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg Concentration camp near Berlin which was part of the larger Sachsenhausen concentration camp complex and slave labor camp complex. Postmarked December 6, 1942. Mailed to Rene Grimicke in Dresden. Pink insert about food packages sent to prisoners.
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Litzmannstadt Ghetto Envelope
A brown envelope with a typewritten address to Geka-Kleider with printed return address in lower corner to "Der Oberbürgermeister.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Printed stationary cover of "Der Oberürbermeister Ghetto Verwaltung Litzmannstadt C2, Moltke-Str, 211"; i.e. the mayor/municipality board of the ghetto. Franked and cancelled Litzmannstadt 24.11.42. This envelope was addressed to a German clothing enterprise in Berlin, whose products were supplied by Jewish ghetto sewing workshops.
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Geheim (Secret) Estonian Police Document
Half-page typewritten document with "Geheim" and "R" stamps and "Böhl" signature in green.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A 1942 document, stamped "secret" ("geiheim") from the files of the Estonian police. It ordered that they give "special treatment" (euphemism for liquidate) to three Jewish Partisans.
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Postcard from Westerbork
Front: White postcard with printed green postcard lines, typewritten addresses, and a black hand stamp.Back: Words both typewritten and in pencil.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A postal card from a Jewish family (Levy) postmarked 10 December, 1942, thanking the addressee for the package they sent.
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The Mass Extermination of Jews in German Occupied Poland
Cream-colored pamphlet titled, "The Mass Extermination of Jews in German Occupied Poland" with red text. Interior includes information written in English.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A document addressed by the exiled Polish government to the governments of the United Nations in 1942. The pamphlet is concerned with the mass extermination of Jews in German-occupied Poland, and the Nazi's 'fresh horrifying methods' of extermination. The Polish government in exile was first to reveal in November 1942, through its currier Jan Karski, the atrocities committed by Nazis and existence of concentration camps.
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Postcard from Opole
Front: Tan postcard with message written in black cursive ink. Includes some damage on upper right corner. Back: Printed black postcard lines with writing in black cursive ink. Includes a blue Judenrat and black circular hand stamps, a pasted green stamp depicting a piazza and statue on the upper right corner, and several markings in purple pencil.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Postcard franked General Gouvernement 12 pfg tied Opole 12/2/1942 cds, with circular "POSTVERMITTLUNGS STELLE JUDENRAT OPOLE (LUBLIN) 12/11/1942." Written in German, the postcard was sent to a family member in Vienna. Opole was in the Lublin district of Poland. Jews had been living there since the 16th century and were important in the industrial development of the town. As well, it was an important Hassidic center. With the German occupation in 1939, the population of the town swelled to over 10,000 due to transports of Jews from Vienna. In the spring of 1942 deportations to death camps Belzec and Sobibor commenced. Those left behind were murdered. Only 28 Viennese Jews of the 2,000 deported to Opole survived the war.
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Letter from Wilhelm Kube
Front: White paper with printed return address in upper left corner and date written on upper right.Back: Continuation of letter in black ink with printed text.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Wilhelm Kube (1887-1943). Letter dated December 20, 1942 to a young girl starting in part: "May 1943 will be filled with a strong fighting spirit... in Adolf Hitler's movement.... we will fight until the final victory against the Bolsheviks... Then the era of youth will come." Kube was the Generalkommissar of Belorussia where his ruthless administration oversaw the extermination of the large Jewish population. In October 1941, Kube vehemently protested the "unauthorized" murder of Jews by Einsatzgruppen squads. Ironically, he himself particpated in a Minsk ghetto atrocity wherein a group of children were seized and thrown into sand pits to die. Kube, accompanied by several of SS officers, approached the screaming children and threw handfuls of sweets. The children perished in the pits. Kube was assassinated by a partisan bomb placed under his bed in 1943.
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French Internment Camp Drancy Rare Postcard from H. Barouh in Paris to Leon Barouh in Drancy Internment Camp
Postcard marked "CARTE POSTALE" in red print in top center, red stamp of man in top right corner, purple stamped in left corner, print in red, writing in blue on front and back.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Postcard with double ring cachet as arrival on French postcard with Petain stamp. Mr. Leon Barouh was born in Varna, Bulgaria in 1902. His permanent place of residence was in France. He was married to Judith Bensignor and they had two children, Sam and Jacques. Mr. Barouh was deported from Drancy on December 17, 1943, one of 848 men, women, and children on Convoy 63 to Auschwitz, where he perished.
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German Occupied Bohemia Moravia Postcard - Words Numbered - From Nelli Mueller of Hagibor Forced Labor Camp to Mother-in-Law in Zebrak
Postcard marked "POSTKARTE DOPISNICE" with a purple postage stamp of Hitler in the top right corner and a border of purple leaves,"Antwort pur anf Postkarten in deutscher Sprache" stamped on left side in black ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Nelli Mueller was a Jew who married a Czech ethnic German, Bohomil Mueller. For “violation” of the Nuremberg racial laws, she would be interned in Hagibor, a “mixed race” slave labor camp (Sonderlager) for spouses of mixed marriages. She was subsequently deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1945, a few months before that camp was liberated. Her husband had been consigned to a series of labor camps, the last of which was an Organization Todt subcamp of Mittelbau-Dora, working in the mines producing the V1/V2 bombs. Nelli’s address on the postcard, Prag XI Schweringasse 1201, is a Gestapo office used to address mail for Hagibor inmates. Censored postcard hand stamped message that only German language can be used. A requirement of no more than 32 word messages was adhered to by enumerating each word.