For centuries Jews had been concentrated in specified areas of many European cities, segregated from the surrounding population. They were often required to wear identifying items such as yellow badges or pointed hats. The Third Reich built upon this religious and antisemitic impulse of European ghettoization, creating a ghetto system based on an eliminative racial ideology. Jews were no longer merely persecuted, terrorized, and denied their civil rights and loss of their ability to earn a living. Now they were to be herded like cattle into overcrowded enclosures typically surrounded by fences, walls and barbed wire, denied access to the basic necessities of life, exploited for their labor, and subject to starvation and disease: all as a preliminary step to what the Nazis considered the solution to the "Jewish problem." The specific form of this solution went through several iterations, from mass emigration to plans to ship Jews to Madagascar or to Siberia. Confining Jews to ghettos began in earnest after Germany invaded Poland in September 1939 and 3 million Jews fell into their laps. Reinhard Heydrich had proposed establishing ghettos near railway lines in large Polish towns, with Jews from the smaller villages as well making up the ghetto population, in the effort to centralize Jews for a presumptive "final solution." Jews would be employed as slave laborers. A counsel of Jewish elders - a Judenrat - would be formed to do the bidding of the German occupation administration, ensuring that initiatives and regulations would be carried out. Jewish "police" were to ensure maximal compliance with Nazi orders, including readying Jews for slave labor or deportation. Conditions were execrable: overcrowding, starvation, disease, and exposure to the elements created high death rates. While this scenario wasn't the much-vaunted Final Solution the Nazis struggled with, it served to contribute to Jewish death without Germans taking full responsibility; indeed, the self-serving Nazi idea that Jews were disease carriers would prove to be a self-fulfilling prophesy by virtue of their living conditions alone. After operation Barbarossa and the invasion of the Soviet Union, millions more Jews came under Nazi control, at which point deportation and extermination of Jews in all German-occupied territory became the most obvious and desirable solution to the Jewish problem. At Hermann Goering's request, Heydrich chaired the conference at the Wannsee villa in the Berlin suburbs in January 1942 to coordinate this decision with other Nazi elite. Adolf Eichmann sat quietly taking notes which would be euphemized and sanitized for public consumption.
--Michael D. Bulmash, K1966
Browse the Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection.
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Rabbi Leo Baeck (1873-1956) Postcard from Berlin to Helmut Bradt in Zurich
2019.2.74
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 Baeck remained president. On January 27, 1943, two months after this postcard was written, Rabbi Baeck was deported toTheresienstadt. 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. While 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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Litzmannstadt Ghetto Envelope
2012.1.307
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 Oberburgermeister 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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Postcard from Opole
2015.2.123
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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Form Issued to Prisoner 5494 in Lwow Ghetto
2015.2.51
Front: Tan form with printed information in a list on the lefthand side and information written in pencil in printed boxes on the righthand side. A blue oval stamp with Star of David on lefthand side, and a red checkmark in the middle. Back: Printed information in a list on the lefthand side (bullet points 9-12) and information written in pencil in printed boxes in the righthand side. Includes a purple stamp with date in middle. These pre-printed forms were used for determining an individual's work in the Lwow Ghetto.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Pre-printed form, double-sided, used for determining individual's work, each with blue LWOW Ghetto marking.
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Form Issued to Prisoner 55829 in Lwow Ghetto
2015.2.52
Front: Tan form with printed information in a list on the lefthand side (eight bullet points) and information written in blue ink in printed boxes on the righthand side. A blue oval stamp with the Star of David on the lefthand side. Back: Printed information in a list on the lefthand side (bullet points 9-12) and information written in blue ink on the top box. Purple stamp in middle. These pre-printed forms were used for determining an individual's work in the Lwow Ghetto.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Pre-printed form, double-sided, used for determining individual's work, each with blue LWOW Ghetto marking.
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Envelope from Bendsburg
2015.2.139
Front: Green envelope with black writing. Includes purple, blue and red hand stamps, a red and white pasted stamp in bottom left corner, and two pasted stamps on right: one green and one blue, each depicting Hitler in profile.Back: Black cursive writing, and black and blue hand stamps.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Registered, censored cover from Isaac Israel in Bendsburg to Alfred Schwartzbaum in Lausanne, Switzerland with Czeladz registered label alongside. Bendsburg, German for Bendzin, was in the Katowice District of Poland. A Ghetto was created on July 1, 1941 containing 6,000 Jews who did slave labor for the German weapons industry. All the Jews were transported to Auschwitz when the ghetto was liquidated between April 1942 and June 1943, including 2,000 Jews who had been transported from Osweicim--the name of the town before it became known as Auschwitz--to Bendsburg.
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Lvov Ghetto Work Form
2015.2.163
Front: Tan paper with printed black boxes and text, with various hand stamps and writing in black ink.Back: Printed black boxes and text with black ink writing.These documents determined an individual's work in the Lvov Ghetto.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Pre-printed form used for determining an individual's work in Lvov, with blue oval Lvov Ghetto stamps.
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Envelope with Litzmannstadt Stamp and Red Star of David Addressed Within Ghetto
2021.1.30
handwritten envelope with a “Judenpost” stamp in the upper righthand corner and a red ‘Star of David’
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Rare intra-Ghetto mail with image of Chaim Rumkowski, head of the Jewish elders, on 10 pfg. stamp. Two handstamps on back, one red star of David “EMPFANGEN” (RECEIVED) and purple “DER AELTESTE DER JUDEN/IN LITZMANNSTADT” (“THE JUDENRAT”, or “ELDERS OF THE JEWS”) in LITZMANNSTADT OR LODZ GHETTO. From R. Henberger, 38 Siegfriedstrasse 38, addressed to Walter Rosenberg, Gettoveraltung (Ghetto Management Office). Walter Rosenberg apparently is working at the Supplies and Economical Department of the Litzmannstadt City Board. The German headquarters were located in Moltkestrassee 157. Rosenberg seems to have been made a German refugee, born in Hamburg, who fled to the Netherlands with other Jews from Germany and Austria attempting to escape Nazi persecution, and was placed in Westerbork. Westerbork had been taken over by the Germans after the occupation and made into a transit camp for Jews. Rosenburg was deported to Theresiendstadt on April 7, 1944 from Westerbork transit camp, and on May 18, 1944- little more than five weeks later- he was deported to Auschwitz where he was murdered. He was 44 years of age. The fate of Mr. Henberger is unknown.
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Censored Envelope from Prisoner in Bendsburg, Poland
2014.1.154
Front: A tan postcard with orange printed postcard lines and text written in black ink. Also includes black and purple hand stamps, and faint red underlining.Back: Message written in black ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
The Bendsberg ghetto was among the first to be liquidated by the Nazis on August 1, 1943. This cover is stamped with the Jewish ghetto administration stamp. Schwarcbaum was a wealthy Jew from Bendzin who escaped to Switzerland and conducted relief and rescue work for Jews in occupied Poland, as well as supporting armed resistance by Jews in the ghettos.
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Theresienstadt Postcard
2012.1.335
Tan postcard with black printed postcard lines. Addressed in black ink to Adele Tuinlar from Israel Breda. Includes message in black ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Translation: "My dear children -- I hope that all of you are well. I can report the same of us. Our dear mother is also feeling better. We were very happy to receive your greetings. Do not forget the Juha. Take care of your health. The fondest greetings to all and kisses. Your ever loving Father, Breda Israel."
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Theresienstadt Package Receipt
2012.1.356d
Tan slip titled "Einlieferungsschein - Podaci listek" (deposit slip in German and Czech). Made out to Erich Gottlieb. Includes a printed table and a stamp.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Slip acknowledging receipt of a package in Theresienstadt
[Related items: 2012.1.356a, 2012.1.356b, 2012.1.356c]
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Notice of Confiscation of Jewish Property
2014.1.435
Form with 'Verfügung über Einziehung" printed at top.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Due to the inability to find Malka Klein, owner of the property in question, it is being forfeited to the Reich. It would be difficult for Malka Klein to contest this action as the ghetto in Ropczyc had been liquidated.
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Arrest Warrant from Vilna Ghetto
2015.2.113
Tan paper with typewritten words and blanks, filled in with blue pencil. Includes other writing in gray and purple pencil, and several purple hand stamps.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
One of four arrest warrants bearing Vilna (Vilnius: Lithuanian) Ghetto handstamp in violet and red. Of the more than 60,000 Jews living in Vilnius before the German occupation, 21,000 were murdered over the course of the summer of 1941 by German troops, Einsatzgruppen A, and their Lithuanian collaborators. The effort was to establish a ghetto to imprison all Jews of Vilna and suburbs in the old Jewish quarter of the city. The area was split into two Ghettos, referred to as the Large and Small Ghettos, to implement the process of dehumanization, exploitation of the population for slave labor, and systematic extermination of all the Jewish residents. As in other ghettos created by the Nazis, conditions were intentionally overcrowded and unsanitary, with disease, hunger, and daily death as expectable outcomes. The Small Ghetto was liquidated by the end of October 1941, leaving approximately 20,000 Jews remaining in the Large Ghetto. Jacob Gens was appointed head of the Ghetto administration. A former police chief, he set about establishing medical care, cultural and welfare systems for the Ghetto. Like Rumkowski in the Lodz Ghetto, he hoped that if Jews could prove themselves to be a productive workforce for the Nazis, then the Ghetto's destruction would be delayed. Germans continued to murder Ghetto Jews--typically the elderly and infirm--on a regular basis. Under Himmler's orders, deportations to concentration camps in Poland and slave labor camps began in the summer of 1943, along with mass shootings in the Ponary Forest. At the slave labor camp known as HKP, Wehrmacht Major Karl Plagge was heroically able to shield many of the Jewish workers from murder at the hands of the Nazis. The extraordinary privations notwithstanding, Vilna was known for its sustained cultural and intellectual life. It maintained a substantial library, ran theatrical productions, sports events, magazines, poetry readings, and more. Vilna Ghetto was also known for its underground partisan organization, the FPO, formed in 1942 and head by Abba Kovner and Josef Glazman and Yitzhak Wittenberg, its motto was "We will not go like sheep to the slaughter," thus attempting to establish a means for Jewish self-defense. Ultimately they pursued a policy of sending members out to join partisan units in the forest.
[Related items: 2015.2.111, 2015.2.112, 2015.2.114]
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Military Orders from Theresienstadt
2014.1.441
Sheets with typewritten German text, titled, "Tagesbefehl Nr. 324."
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Daily orders distributed through the concentration camp including information about new transports that arrived with new prisoners, electricity savings, camp behavior regulations, turning off the light, rising time; signed by Der Aeltestenrat.
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Theresienstadt Package Receipt
2012.1.356b
Small sheet titled "Einlieferungsschein -- Podací lístek" (deposit slip in German and Czech). Includes a table and two stamps.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Slip acknowledging receipt of a package in Theresienstadt
[Related items: 2012.1.356a, 2012.1.356c, 2012.1.356d]
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Postcard from the Jewish Ghetoo in Kassa (Kosice)
2016.1.45
Front: Some handwriting in lines of postcard, ‘KASSA’ circular handstamp at top right; handwritten message fills the page.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
By the time this postcard was written, Kosice (Kassa) had been annexed to Hungary. Persecution of Jews commenced in earnest, and Jews lost their property and possessions, and ultimately their civil rights. When the Germans invaded Hungary in March 1944, Jews were massed in brickwork factories and in a ghetto. By May the deportations began with almost 16,000 Jews deported to concentration camps. By October the Arrow Cross established a reign of terror in Hungary.
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Postcard from Sculptor Ottilie Wollmann in Theresienstadt to Felix Hepner at the Pension Beau Sejour in Vevey, Switzerland
2021.1.15
Signed and stamped postcard in black ink dated June 12, 1943.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Ottilie Wollmann was a German sculptor born in Berlin in 1882. She had studied with Fritz Klimsch and Max Kruse and was a member of the Association of Berlin Women Artists. Ottilie worked in an Impressionist idiom. Her sculpture Mother and Child received an award at the Jewish Museum exhibit in 1935. A cast of her bronze Gret Palucca was shown in the 2004 The Eternal Female exhibition at the Gothic House in Berlin. As a Jewish artist, however, she - like the dancer and teacher Palucca whom she immortalized - would be persecuted by the Nazis.
Ottilie and her mother were transported to Theresienstadt Ghetto/Concentration Camp in July, 1942. Her mother perished there, but Ottilie would be deported to Auschwitz on October 9, 1944 where she was murdered.
This postcard is written to Felix Hepner, owner of a boarding house in Vevey Switzerland, probably a relative on her mother’s side of the family, while Ottilie is in Theresienstadt, dated 12 June 1943 Theresienstadt: “Greetings and heartfelt birthday wishes to my sister and Marta Kuznitzky. Packages and postal delivery come promptly. I am doing well, I work as always. Hopefully you are all in good health. I was delighted to hear from you so soon. Write often even if you don't get confirmation right away. Always with you in my thoughts. Love, Your Ottilie Wollman” (signed).
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Theresienstadt Postcard
2012.1.334
Tan postcard with black postcard lines. Addressed to Marie Stufleo from Prka Katz in pencil. Includes message written in purple pencil.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Postcard from (?) Katz in Theresienstadt, in pencil, To Marie (?) in Prague
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Theresienstadt Package Receipt
2012.1.356a
Green slip titled, "Zpáteční lístek" (return ticket). Addressed to Marie Kolská, "manzelka fotografa" (wife of the photographer). Includes writing in pencil.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Slip acknowledging receipt of a package in Theresienstadt
[Related items: 2012.1.356b, 2012.1.356c, 2012.1.356d]
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Theresienstadt Postcard with Berlin Cancellation, Censored with Reply Instruction Cachet
2012.1.339
Tan postcard with black printed postcard lines. addressed in green ink to Julius Stern from Laura Stern. Includes message written in green ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Postcard with Berlin cancellation to Julius Stern in Switzerland who Is in a labor camp, sent by family member (?) Stern, probably his wife, in Theresienstadt. Reply instructions cachet states that replies can only go through the Reich Association of Jews in Germany, Berlin-Charlottenburg 2, Kantstrasse 158. Another cachet reads that “replies only by postcards in the German language.” Censor markings.
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Document Signed by Hans Biebow
2014.1.121
Typed letter with signature and two rectangular purple hand stamps.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Biebow (1902–1947) was chief of Nazi administration of the Lodz Ghetto in occupied Poland. Under his administration, the 164,000 Jews of Poland's second largest city were crammed into a small area of the city. Communication between the ghetto inhabitants and the outside world was completely cut off and the supply of food was severely limited, ensuring that many of the inhabitants of the ghetto would slowly starve. Over the course of its existence, the population of the ghetto swelled to 204,000 with more Jews from Central Europe being sent there. The ghetto Administration remained in operation from April 1940 until the summer of 1944, but there were transports out of the ghetto to extermination camps (primary Auschwitz and Chelmno) beginning at the end of 1941. Biebow was a ruthless administrator, concerned with the ghetto's productivity and his own personal gain. He was directly responsible for starving the ghetto's population beyond limits of endurance, and he assisted the Gestapo in rounding up Jews during deportations. In the days just before the liberation of Lodz by the Red Army, Biebow ordered large burial pits to be dug in the local cemetery, intending that the Gestapo execute the remaining 877 Jews who served as a clean-up crew in the ghetto. This might have been an attempt by Biebow to eliminate witnesses to his role in the workings of the ghetto. Biebow exercised his control in part through a Jewish administration headed by Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski. Rumkowski believed that the Jews could survive if they produced cheap, essential goods for the Nazis. Biebow profited substantially from the sale of the products of Jewish labor as well as the seized properties of Jews. He is also said to have provided less food to ghetto inhabitants than was paid for, pocketing the difference. The ghetto factories produced products such as boots for German soldiers and were profitable for the Germans because the Jews, cut off from all resources, worked for wages that consisted only of bread, soup, and other essentials. The productivity of the ghetto was a factor in its comparatively long survival. The inhabitants endured four years of starvation, illness and overcrowding before being sent to the extermination camps of Chelmno and Auschwitz. Of the 204,000 inhabitants, approximately 10,000 survived.
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Technischer Uberwachungs-verein posen (Poznan Technical Surveillance Association) Document
2014.1.459
Tan document titled "Technischer Uberwachungs-Verein Posen" from Litzmannstadt.
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Litzmannstadt Judenpost Stamp depicting Jewish Elder head Chaim Rumkowski
2015.2.128
Green paper with an image on left side, and black bar on right side. Image includes the head of a man in glasses [Chaim Rumkowski, head of the Altestenate [Council of Jewish Elders] in Lodz Ghetto] surrounded by workers, as well as people walking up onto a wooden bridge. Includes text in white and black.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Rare 10 pfg. gray imperforate photographic essay depicting Chaim Rumkowski, head of Altestenate (Council of Jewish Elders) in Lodz Ghetto, printed on thick paper without gum.
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Lvov Ghetto Work Form
2015.2.162
Front: White paper with printed black boxes and text, with various hand stamps and writing.Back: White paper with printed black boxes and text with signature in blue ink.These documents determined an individual's work in the Lvov Ghetto.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Pre-printed form used for determining an individual's work in Lvov, with blue oval Lvov Ghetto stamps.
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Postcard from Theresienstadt Ghetto
2014.1.127
Front: Printed black postcard lines with black cursive address and return address.Back: A handwritten message in black ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A card from Theresienstadt Ghetto with a full message permitted by the Germans for propaganda purposes -- to send "happy" messages to people outside the ghetto. The message had to be written in German and censored.