Concentration camps were a feature of the Nazi state from its inception. The first camps were initially used for detaining political prisoners deemed “enemies of the state”: communists, trade unionists, Jews and other dissidents. In short order, the list included homosexuals, alcoholics and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Prisoners were taken into “protective custody” to be “reeducated.” No term limits were given for their sentence. Dachau, founded in 1933, was the first major concentration camp. Himmler – in his role of head of the SS – appointed Theodor Eicke as camp commandant. Eicke would create in Dachau the brutal, inhumane paradigm for all Nazi camps to follow. While the number of Jews placed in concentration camps increased after the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938, World War II was to be a major turning point: the number of camps to accommodate ghettoized Jews increased and the intended purpose of the camps changed from one of exploitation of prisoners who were able to work to the industrial scale murder of Jews with the goal being the “final solution to the Jewish problem.”
Forced labor was a significant aspect of all concentration camps. Prisoners were compelled to work under harsh, punitive conditions from early morning until late in the day. Each workday was preceded by a mandatory roll call - the Appel - in which prisoners would stand at attention for hours waiting for their numbers to be called irrespective of weather conditions before marching off to work. At day’s end the exhausted prisoners would undergo yet another roll call. Fainting in this absurd ritual often meant being executed on the spot. Treks to the worksite in inadequate and ill-fitting clothes and shoes would themselves exhaust the prisoners before they even began their workday. This daily routine was meant to humiliate and terrify the prisoners, much like the work itself. Prisoners often perished within weeks or months from malnourishment, psychological stress, overwork and disease.
The mass murder of Jews by mobile Einsatzgruppen firing squads began in earnest in June 1941 as part of Operation Barbarossa. However, this method of “murder by bullets” (Father Patrick Desbois) would prove both impractical and emotionally taxing even for some of the SS, creating the need for “efficiencies” by bringing Jews from ghettos and cities to stationary killing sites located near railroad tracks to make victim transport easier. Six camps (Chelmno, Sobibor, Belzec, Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz) were built with the express purpose of murdering Jews, improving upon the more primitive technology utilized in Hitler’s T-4 “euthanasia” program to murder German citizens who were disabled or emotionally disturbed: the so-called “unworthy of life.” Gassing in chambers disguised as showers would supersede other less efficient methods, such as starvation, injection of sedatives, or carbon monoxide poisoning.
Auschwitz would evolve into the epitome of the hybrid camps, constituting a concentration camp to hold and punish prisoners deemed enemies of the Nazi state; an extermination camp (Birkenau or Auschwitz 2); and a series of forced or slave labor camps (e.g., Buna-Monowitz) providing cheap dispensable labor to factories and businesses serving the German war effort. At the height of operations, the lethal insecticide Zyklon B was utilized in chambers attached to crematoria that could asphyxiate more than 4,000 Jews per day, an improvement over earlier carbon monoxide technology for murdering Jews. More than one million Jews perished in these chambers. As a slave or forced labor camp, Auschwitz comprised subcamps located near factories and industrial sites to provide cheap slave labor producing goods for the Third Reich. For example, Buna, also known as Auschwitz III or Monowitz, was a subcamp utilizing slave labor for the I.G. Farben Industries to make synthetic rubber. The SS would sell Jews to I.G. Farben, and the latter would profit from a never-ending supply of cheap labor. Conditions were horrid. Prisoners who perished from starvation, disease, and overwork would be replaced by new prisoners. Aircraft factories, mines, and other war material plants took advantage of proximity to concentration camps to profit from the cheap labor of prisoners.
--Michael D. Bulmash, K1966
Browse the Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection.
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Gestapo Files of Insurance Rebates of Deceased Jews
2012.1.559
Green paper with typewritten message. Red '6' written into the date on right side. Signature in bottom right.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
A chilling set of three documents (2012.1.558, 2012.1.559, 2012.1.560) regarding the Nazi appropriation of insurance rebates or refunds from policies once owned by deceased Jews who perished within concentration camps. The first, 2pp. legal folio, Munich, Apr. 29, 1943, lists nine deceased Jews who were "deregistered," "expelled," "deceased" or otherwise no longer insured. The other two documents, 1p. 8vo. each, dated Munich, June 2 and 18, 1943, are regarding the list. Of course, Nazi decrees provided that these funds from "non-aryans" must be forfeited to the government.
[Related items: 2012.1.558, 2012.1.560]
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Postcard From Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian Holocaust Survivor and Nazi Hunter
2020.1.16
Postcard with black printed text and address handwritten in blue ink. Opposite has message handwritten in blue ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
The controversial Mr. Wiesenthal, signing the postcard as “Engineer”, is apparently - at the time of writing - convalescing in the women’s hospital at Mauthausen. He arrived at Mauthausen in February 1945, after moving through a number of other camps (Gross-Rosen, Chemnitz, Buchenwald) as the war was ending. He survived at Mauthausen on starvation rations until the camp was liberated by Americans on May 5. He describes some of his experiences to Mr. Grossman.
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Postcard from Zagreb to Berlin
2014.1.255
Front: A tan postcard with red printed postcard lines and stamp. Includes a typewritten address, a blue postage stamp, as well as red, purple and green hand stamps.Back: Message written in black ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Postcard from a Mr. Dragutin Tomic of the Pharmacological Institute in Zagreb to a Ms. E. Punge in Berlin. Includes a red Nazi armed forces (Wehrmacht) cachet stamped on the front. Mr. Tomic signs, "Heil Hitler!"
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Life Insurance Document for Margot Loewenstein
2012.1.46
A typewritten document on red paper with a large red Star of David stamp with the word "Jude."
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
A very disturbing set of three typed documents (2012.1.44, 2012.1.45, 2012.1.46) from Berlin. Each is ominously stamped "Jude" in a large red Star of David, concerning the life insurance policy of one Margot Lowenstein of Hamburg, who fled Nazi Germany in August 1939 for England. Under German law, Jews who left the country or were forcibly deported were forced to forfeit any benefits or monies due on existing life insurance policies. The document, loosely translated in part, reads: "According to our records, the claimant is a Jew who has left the country and has forfeited her German nationality. At present the above policy is due... We waive the certificate of insurance in the interest of the Reich..." This is a morbid reminder of the lengths the Nazi regime went to bilk every last penny out of their political and cultural enemies.
[Related items: 2012.1.44, 2012.1.45]
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Gestapo Files of Insurance Rebates of Deceased Jews
2012.1.560
Brown form with typewritten message. Upper left has return address handstamped and damage from paperclip. Top right has date, and purple rectangular handstamp with date Signature in bottom right, with purple handstamp. Several red pencil markings.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
A chilling set of three documents (2012.1.558, 2012.1.559, 2012.1.560) regarding the Nazi appropriation of insurance rebates or refunds from policies once owned by deceased Jews who perished within concentration camps. The first, 2pp. legal folio, Munich, Apr. 29, 1943, lists nine deceased Jews who were "deregistered," "expelled," "deceased" or otherwise no longer insured. The other two documents, 1p. 8vo. each, dated Munich, June 2 and 18, 1943, are regarding the list. Of course, Nazi decrees provided that these funds from "non-aryans" must be forfeited to the government.
[Related items: 2012.1.558, 2012.1.559]
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Real-Photo Postcard of Posen Town Hall
2016.1.14
Front: Image of building with "Posen. Rathaus" printed at bottom. Back:'POSEN' handstamp at center right next to purple '6 Deutsches Reich' postage stamp.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Heinrich Himmler gave an infamous speech on October 4, 1943 in the town hall of Posen (Paznan in Polish) before 92 SS officers and group leaders. He extols the murder and ultimate extermination of the Jews and the Jewish race. Enjoining the men gathered in the room to not speak of this genocide, Himmler nevertheless sees exterminating the Jews as the Nazis' necessary historical mission, with no place for mercy or sentiment. Moreover, Himmler sees this as a "glorious chapter" in German history "which has never been written and shall never be written." Eventually segueing to the stickier issue of murdering Jewish children and women, he is clear that he does not want them to become avengers: a "difficult decision had to be made to have this people disappear from the earth." Himmler, who sees himself as the "political instrument to the Fuhrer", expects that the Jewish Question in its totality would be resolved by year's end. "We must be," he insists, "as SS men honest, decent and loyal to members of our own blood, and to no one else."
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Lettercard from Concentration Camp Gross-Rosen to Radom
2019.2.105
Front includes red postage stamp of Hitler in top right corner, swastika stamped in black ink in bottom left corner. Back includes "Konzentrationslager Gross-Rosen" in red print in top left corner.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Gross-Rosen was initially a satellite of Sachsenhausen, but eventually became its own system with almost 10 sub-camps located in Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. Many German companies benefited from the slave labor employed here, including Krupp, I.G. Farben, and Daimler-Benz.
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Letter on Dachau Inmate Stationery
2012.1.349
Letter written in black ink on lined Dachau stationery. Addressed to Maria Radzikowska from Richard Radzikowski.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Translation: Dearest Marynienke: I am dedicated this letter to your name day. It will no doubt get there too early but I want the letter to be there on the day. I wrote to you last year for your name day. I am not an optimist but am hopeful that my letter will reach you in time. I wish I could see your happy eyes and could kiss you. I am sorry to say that distance between us is getting always farther and we are getting unhappier. On this day more than any other we will recall memories of times past. Tears will cover our eyes and our hearts will hurt. Nothing will change and life will go on just the same. Malenka, we do not want to give up hope -- that we will come September next year we will be together again finally. All disappointments, worries, fears and yearning will pass and we will be very happy once again. You are my wife and my friend. All that I can offer you is that your heart is mine and that I am very happy that this bond exists. This bond can not be broken by time or circumstance. I have nothing except the great yearning for you and to return to you. My present life and the life we will live after my return. I give you my heart and my life. What more can I give you? At present we are going through very trying times that demand patience and sacrifice. I received your letters. Both gave me impressions and peace. Thank you. I also received the package of Aug. 3. Everything was in good order in spite of the long time it took to get here. Your long letter was a real surprise. While reading it I felt the nearness of my beloved Marenka. Many thanks. It disturbs me what you write about “uncle” and that he hardly talks to anyone. It hurts me when I think of how hard you have to work. I am helpless and can not do anything for you or our dear parents. Please give hope and encouragement to our dear parents. I send kisses for you darling Matenke and Gize. I do not mean to be a burden to you. This is the reason why I asked you not to send me any packages. Perhaps some bread and cheese or tea. The noodles and peas made a very nice noonday meal. I know how difficult it is for you and that is the reason I do not expect anything for me. You shall keep it for you and the child. I have learned to tighten my belt. Shoes, I do not need -- the wooden ones I wear are good, only I need socks. I do not need underwear. I am permitted only to write to you. I greet and hug all of the good people. The fellows say thank you for your words of sympathy for Mr. Stelka who died recently. John, I understand you well, keep your head high and your eyes open -- people are not bad. Be careful. Do not be sad. Your youth will heal the pain. You will be happy. I kiss you and Marychena. I will write again soon in more detail. I send kisses for mama and greetings for all of our friends. Will our sister visit Herr Loga? If that would happen it would certainly make me very happy. My (?) is passed and foot is healed. Our precious and darling little daughter and Nahuhochig I send my love and kisses. Yours truly, Richard.
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Lettersheet from Auschwitz-Buna to Danzig with Scarce Censor
2019.2.100
Letter with red postage stamp of Hitler in top right corner, titled "Konzentrationslager Auschwitz" in black ink in top left, two squares on back.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
One of the three main camps of the Auschwitz system, to be distinguished from Auschwitz I (the main camp) and Auschwitz II (the extermination center), Buna (referred to variously as Auschwitz III, Buna or Monowitz-Buna) supplied slave labor for the I.G. Farben synthetic rubber complex as well as other German industrial giants, including those owned by Krupp and Siemens. Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz details his experience here.
Double ring cancel Auschwitz-Oberschlesien 8-30-43, with camp censor marking: Gepruft 2 A.L. Buna.
A.L. is a reference to Buna’s origin as an Arbeitslager, or work camp, before it metastasized into its own system with more than 40 sub-camps.
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Buchenwald Concentration Camp Formular Letter from Prisoner Adolf Sildberger
2019.2.107
Two columned paper, front and back with blue handwriting on printed, dotted, red lines. On the front to the top left side of the right column is printed in red "Konzentrationslager Weimar-Buchenwald" to the right of this is handwritten in blue "5/IX.1943' on a printed, dotted, red line.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:Sildberger correspondence from Buchenwald has been included in Lordahl’s work on concentration camp mail. It appears that Mr. Sildberger, born in 1904, was a Czechoslovakian citizen from Pribyslavice who was rescued from Buchenwald at war’s end.
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Croatian Ustasha Concentration Camp Work Permit
2014.1.195
White slip with printed black text with additional writing in purple pencil. Includes a purple hand stamp and a signature in black ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Partly printed and handwritten, issued by the Nazi-aligned Croatian government. Croatia Mitrovica, 9/28/1943. The document permits a detainee to work outside the camp for a period of 15 days and is signed by the camp administrator. It concludes: "ZA DOM SPREMNI!" ["FOR THE HOMELAND - READY!"] These camps were used for the murder of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Roma, and Muslims for religious and political reasons.
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Letter about the Transport of 765 Slovenian Jews to Auschwitz, Signed by Adolf Eichmann
2014.1.324a
Letter: Green "Geheim!" stamp at top. Two grid stamps and several markings and hand stamps. Signature at bottom right
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A very rare document about the transport of 765 Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau, sent by the commander of the SD in the Steiermark (August Becker) to Adolf Eichmann in the RSHA IV B in Berlin. Eichmann confirmed the receipt of the letter with an "Eingangsstempel" (Notice of Arrival) and signed it. The letter was addressed directly to him. At the bottom left of the letter it says that the letter is to be presented to Heinrich Himmler too. The blue box next to Eichmann's confirmation of receipt is one from Himmler's office and contains a signature in blue pencil which probably is the signature of one of his secretaries.
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Sonderausweis Issued to Obersturmbannfuhrer Hoppner
2014.1.324b
Permit:Front: Tan sheet with capital Ds in either corner. Title: "Gültig nur bei Dienstreissen: Sonderausweis." Two hole punched. Back: Printed text.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A SONDERAUSWEIS or Special Travel Permit, issued to Obersturmbannführer Rolf-Heinz Höppner who accompanied the transport of 765 Slovenian Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on 3 October 1943. Signature in ink of Obsersturmbannführer August Becker, at the time still holding the rank of Obersturmführer (he was promoted in 1944).
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Feldpost from Posen
2016.1.12ab
a: Envelope: Circular 'Posen' handstamp at top right as well as stamp of Posen town hall. Letter: Handwritten in blue ink on lined paper
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Heinrich Himmler gave an infamous speech on October 4, 1943 in the town hall of Posen (Paznan in Polish) before 92 SS officers and group leaders. He extols the murder and ultimate extermination of the Jews and the Jewish race. Enjoining the men gathered in the room to not speak of this genocide, Himmler nevertheless sees exterminating the Jews as the Nazis' necessary historical mission, with no place for mercy or sentiment. Moreover, Himmler sees this as a "glorious chapter" in German history "which has never been written and shall never be written." Eventually segueing to the stickier issue of murdering Jewish children and women, he is clear that he does not want them to become avengers: a "difficult decision had to be made to have this people disappear from the earth." Himmler, who sees himself as the "political instrument to the Fuhrer", expects that the Jewish Question in its totality would be resolved by year's end. "We must be," he insists, "as SS men honest, decent and loyal to members of our own blood, and to no one else."
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Letter on Dachau Inmate Stationery
2012.1.350
Letter written in black ink on Dachau lined stationery. Includes two messages from different dates.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Translation of two messages written on different dates:
10 October 1943 Dear Jadcia: I beg your pardon for not writing to you sooner. I did not forget you. Because of your coming birthday I am sending you my best wishes, I believe that the love in my heart to my people is more important than writing and wish for you that all of your wishes come true. With hearty greetings to your parents to you and ? W. Rabikowski
Dachau 25 Sept 1943. Dearest parents and ? Received your dear and wonderful letter on the 22 in good health. Thinking of you. Your letter made me very happy. Your letters are always the best medicine for me. I am always glad to hear that all of you are well and that you are at home. For that I thank God in my daily prayer. Dear parents, please give Johan Kvoresk greetings from me, and tell him that I thank him for his letter. Dear parents we have not seen each other for 3½ years. It is difficult to understand it. Time passes and it is not as hard as at the beginning. Now I realize that one can not always remain near a mother’s heart. I can now better understand it. We can lower our gaze forward to being together again with you dear parents and live a somewhat different life. Dear parents please send me a package about October with food items and cod liver oil and a pair of winter socks. Nothing else. I will now end my letter. I miss you a thousand times.
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Concentration Camp Transport Preparation Letter
2014.1.430
Typed letter on 'Reichsbahndireftion Berlin' letterhead; the name 'Hirsch, Dorothea' is underlined in red pencil.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
A document to the SS Economic Administration Department Group D, responsible for concentration camps, in Oranienburg from the Deutsche Reichbahn Administration Berlin, concerning a bureaucratic error regarding the list entry of a Jewish female prisoner, requesting to be informed if the camp has two inmates with the same name Dorothea Hirsch. The Reichbahn is sending along eight transportation lists in duplicate, requesting to be notified ahead of time in order to make arrangements with each respective concentration camp.
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Gestapo Chief Heinrich Muller Signed SS Arrest Document
2014.1.32
A green document with typed and printed information about Roman Gardala, a Catholic buildling master, signed by a Gestapo officer at the bottom. Gestapo Chief Henrich Müller ordered the Secret State Police to arrest Gardala for the unauthorized possession of fire arms.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Document signed by a Gestapo officer in pencil. In German, from Secret State Police, Krakow, dated October 23, 1943. Headed “Protective Custody Instruction,” papers for Roman Gardala, a Catholic building master, born June 2, 1895 in Tarnow, Poland. He was held for unauthorized possession of firearms on orders from Heinrich "Gestapo" Müller, Hitler's Gestapo chief who oversaw the implementation of Hitler's policies against all groups deemed a threat to the state.
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Censored Formulary Letter from Prisoner at Stutthof Concentration Camp
2014.1.317
Front: Tan paper, folded in half. One side has the addressee written on black dotted line in pencil. Red postage stamp of Hitler's profile in right corner with Stutthof circular stamp on top of it. Other half has the prisoner's name,number and block filled in on black dotted line next to some German text, with something written in German in pencil written underneath. Back: Top has a block of German printed text in black with the title: "Auszug aus der Lagerordnung". The date is stamped in purple above, along with a pencil 9. The message is written in pencil in German on dotted black lines.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Stutthof was the first concentration camp complex outside of Germany prior to 1937 boundaries. It had its origins in an internment camp for civilians before becoming a labor camp. In 1942 Stutthof became a concentration camp, with crematorium and gas chamber added the next year. Conditions were brutal, typhus was common. Sick prisoners were gassed (with Zyklon-B after 1944) or given lethal injections. Prisoners were slave laborers in local SS-owned businesses. Professor Rudolph Spanner developed a method for harvesting bodies to produce soap. He called the product R.J.F. or, translated from the German Reines Judische Fett, Pure Jewish Fat.
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Buchenwald Physician's Note
2012.1.41
Half-sheet with typewritten information and blue signature.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A document from the camp physician at Buchenwald, confirming the casualties from different diseases in the camp during the period of December 19, 1943 to December 25, 1943, including diptheria, tuberculosis, etc.
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Notice to Appear for Work Issued by Elders of the Jews in Prague
2014.1.114
White paper with printed and typewritten information in two languages.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Notice to appear for work sent to Rudolf Seidler by the Jewish Elders in Prague in 1944. Typed in both German and Czech.
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Bunchenwald Concentration Camp Pamphlet
2012.1.396
Tan cover titled, "Das war Konzentrationslager Buchenwald, Ein Triumph der Grausamkeit" ("That was the Buchenwald Concentration Camp, A Triumph of Cruelty"). Interior includes pages of printed text in German.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Period history of the Concentration Camp by Paul Kowollik.
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1944 U.S. Army Air Force Original Sepia-Toned Aerial Photograph of Dachau Concentration Camp from Photo Recon Airman
2019.2.99
Black and white photo of camp [similar to 2019.2.97], labeled "DACHAU ORD. DEP. & CONCENTRATION CAMP" in red on the back.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Northwest of Munich, Dachau was among the first and, by war’s end, oldest of the concentration camps established during the Nazi regime. It was the prototype for all camps that followed, and employed the brutal, sadistic methodology of its first Commandant Theodor Eicke. The camp was liberated on April 29, 1945 by US armed forces. This is an original aerial photo of the camp, the entrance gate and prisoner compound. These photographs would be read by aerial photo-analysts for the wealth of evidence they conveyed.
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Censored Cover Ravensbruch to Amsterdam from Dutch Jehovah's Witness
2019.2.111
Green envelope with censor tape of left edge, three German postal stamps on top right corner: green, red, and purple in that order.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
In the face of escalating persecution by the Nazi state, the Jehovah’s Witnesses held fast to their religious beliefs as dutiful servants of Jehovah. In refusing to submit to the authority of that state and swear allegiance to Hitler; in refusing to participate in elections; in their refusal to serve in the military, bear arms, submit to a draft, or serve in war-related industries, or allow their children to join the Hitler youth; Jehovah’s Witness remained true to their calling, and to a resolute refusal to defer on matters of conscience to any other authority than their faith. Jehovah’s Witnesses in Nazi Germany or the occupied countries were therefore publicly humiliated, imprisoned, or placed in concentration camps where they were distinguished from other prisoners by their distinctive purple triangle, and referred to as Bibelforscherinnen or “earnest Bible students”. They were often made to endure extreme torture, and some were even executed. And while Jehovah’s Witnesses—unlike Jews—could escape persecution, punishment and death by renouncing their beliefs and going along with the Nazi program, few chose to do so.
Johanna Groen, born Johanna van der Vijgh, is one of approximately 200-250 Jehovah’s Witnesses from the Netherlands sent to concentration camps after the German occupation. She had been interned in Ravensbruck with her sister Hendrika van der Vijgh who was murdered in Auschwitz in August 1942. Johanna had been married to Aron Groen, a Dutch bicycle repairman from a Jewish family. He was deported to Auschwitz in 1942 where he perished. The letter is addressed to her father.
[Related item: 2021.1.27]
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Lettersheet from Prisoner at Amersfoort Durchgangslager
2019.2.283
Letter with red “NEDERLAND” postage stamp in top right corner, two pages of writing on inside. Back includes additional page of writing and “Polizeiliches Durchgangslager Amersfoort” printed in red in upper left corner.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Amersfoort in the Netherlands was referred to as a police transit camp. Prisoners here were ultimately to be sent to the major extermination centers such as Auschwitz, Sobibor, or Mauthausen. Conditions were as appalling as the worst of the major concentration camps. Hunger, disease, poor hygiene, and the cruelty and violence of the guards and administration were commonplace.
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Censored Postcard from Ella Stibitz in Kolin Ghetto to Mother Josefa Stibitz in Theresienstadt Ghetto
2021.1.16
Postcard written in black ink with purple border design. Zensur 8 is written in red crayon on front.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Josefa was born in Bohemia in 1873, the third of nine children. Her father was a businessman. She married Vladimir Stibitz, a bank official, in 1898. Vladimir eventually became director of a factory in Kolin belonging to his brother-in-law. Josefa and Vladimir had four children. When Vladimir became ill and died, Josefa managed the factory. In frail health, Josefa was deported from Kolin to Theresienstadt in June 1942 on transport A.A.D.68 three years after Germany invaded Czechoslovakia. Here she met her siblings, who would ultimately perish in extermination centers.
Remarkably, Josefa survived Theresienstadt, having been liberated in May 1945. Three years later, in 1948, she recorded memories of her experiences at Theresienstadt. Photographs of Josefa walking with her daughters to the collection point in Kolin in 1942 prior to her being transported to Theresienstadt had been discovered as well as photographs showing her reunion with her son in 1945 after her liberation. These recordings and photographs were utilized by Nadja Seelich and Bernd Neuberger in their 1997 documentary entitled “Theresienstadt looks like a curort (resort)” about Josefa’s imprisonment in Theresienstadt and her struggle to survive.