The German Army established internment camps in World War II to hold Allied civilians captured in occupied territory. These civilians included American and British citizens caught in Europe as World War II began, as well as citizens of the Channel Islands. The Germans hoped to exchange civilians - including Jews - for German nationals who were held in Allied countries. They were interned in Laufen and Tittmoning in Bavaria, and Camp Vittel, which was located in the Vosges mountains in France. Most of the documents held by these aliens were eventually declared invalid by the Nazis toward the end of 1943, and many were transported to Drancy and Auschwitz in 1944 where they were murdered.
France had a great many internment camps holding political prisoners, Jews, and Romanies. Jews - both citizens of France and foreigners - became victims of the antisemitic policies of Petain's collaborationist Vichy regime. Camp de Gurs in the Pyrenees was created for Spanish refugees, but many German Jews who fled the Nazis were interned here as well. Jews were interned in des Milles, Recebedou, de Noe, Ferramonti di Tarsia, and Rivesaltes and many others. Recebedou was an Internment Camp created in February 1941 to hold Jewish refugees -many fleeing the occupied zone of France - and Spanish anti-fascists for deportation to Drancy transit camp and thence to the extermination camps: 349 Jews were deported to Drancy from here. Rivesaltes submitted more than 2200 Jews - including 110 children - to Auschwitz by way of Drancy in 1942: all were murdered.
The British government established internment camps throughout the British Empire to confine "enemy aliens;" for example, Tatura Internment Camp in Australia. Alexander Distler, a Jewish refugee from Austria, found himself dispatched to several camps for "enemy aliens" in Canada. There were camps in Mauritius, India, and the Isle of Man. Some refugees were allowed to enter the United States: Camp Oswego, New York; Bismark, North Dakota; and several in Texas. The British also established detention camps in Cyprus, Atilt, and Eritrea to prevent refugees from the Holocaust from entering Mandatory Palestine.
--Michael D. Bulmash, K1966
Browse the Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection.
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Postcard to Man Interned at Ferramonti di Tarsia Internment Camp
2014.1.358
Front: Orange 'Slovensko' and black 'Slovenska Posta' postage stamps in top right corner, blue stamp 'Lietadlom/Par Avion' stamp, typed text on left hand side. Back: Typed text filling up entirety of page.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Ferramonti was the largest internment camp established by Mussolini in 1940. Over 3,800 Jews were imprisoned there, most of whom were foreign-born. Prisoners were released six weeks after Mussolini's downfall in September 1943.
Postcard from Bratislava, Slovakia to Fridrich (Fritz) Kohn, a Jewish internee originally from Czechoslovakia, on the island of Rhodes in 1940 subsequent to the Pentcho debacle. As of this writing he has been transferred along with other survivors of the Pentcho to Ferramonti di Tarsia internment camp near Cosenza in Calabria, Italy in January 1942.
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Postcard from Zygmunt Pustelnik in Tittmoning Internment Camp in Bavaria to Joseph Pustelnik in Chicago
2019.2.122
Front of postcard marked “PAR AVION!” in center in pencil, “Internierten-Post Postkarte” printed in black ink in upper left corner, writing in red ink in both upper corners, stamped with blue, red, black, and purple ink. Back of letter marked “Interniertenlager” in black print in upper left corner, twelve lines of writing.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Tittmoning castle was an internment camp in Bavaria near Austria which was run by the German army. British and American citizens, including African-American jazz musicians who had the misfortune of being in Germany at the time war was declared, were imprisoned here along with European Jews with passports from the United States and Latin America. Polish internees arrived at Tittmoning with warnings of atrocities being committed, and it is believed that a group of Jews transferred from Bedzin Ghetto were murdered here in 1943, just three weeks after this card was posted. Pustelnik “yearns… to see my dear family,” and asks his relative to write - and to not forget about him. German and U.S. censor markings.
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Postcard to Man Interned at Ferramonti di Tarsia Internment Camp
2014.1.357
Front: Purple 'generalgouvernement' printed postage stamp in right corner; J.U.S. hand stamp on left side with eagle symbol hand stamp below. Back: Typed note, purple J.U.S. hand stamp at bottom center.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Ferramonti was the largest internment camp established by Mussolini in 1940. Over 3,800 Jews were imprisoned there, most of whom were foreign-born. Prisoners were released six weeks after Mussolini's downfall in September 1943.
Postcard from the J.U.S. Jewish Support Team (Judische Unterstutzungsstelle fur das Generalgouvernement) in Krakow, 1943, to internee Friedrich Kohn in Ferramonti di Tarsia, Cosenza. Mr. Kohn who had been on the ill-fated Pentcho, had been rescued and taken to the island of Rhodes along with other survivors of the shipwreck. This postcard - censored - was sent several months after the final Nazi assault commenced on the Jewish ghetto at Krakow, the capital of the General Government. Hans Frank was the Governor General of the region and was headquartered there. Oskar Schindler’s enamel factory was located here as well.
Subject: search operation.
Your letter of 10.11.1.to the J.U.S. which was handed to us recently, could not be answered because the J.U.S. was inactive from December last year because of the new regulations of the Jewish camps and the Jewish residential districts in the General Government.
J.U.S. has now been allowed to resume her activities with the approval of the relevant authorities. For the time being, this extends to the mediation of gifts from neutral and friendly foreign countries for the Jews in the G.G. The investigations into the whereabouts of Jews in the G.G. are outside our area of activity, so we regret not being able to serve you with the desired information.
Sincerely, Dr. Weichert.
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Internment Camp Ilag VII-Laufen Postcard from POW Robert Boxall to J.G. Hutt, St. Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands
2019.2.338
Document labelled “Interniertenpost Postkarte” at top, “KANAL INSELN” written in lower right corner, dated “1st Sept 43” on back.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Ilag VII-Laufen internment camp, administered by the Wehrmacht, was in Bavaria near the Austrian border and was known to house more than 400 British men from the Channel Islands, as well as other British internees, along with some Americans. The author of this letter, one of the Channel Islanders from Jersey deported to Germany during the occupation, states to his friend in Jersey that he cannot report all the news he is asked to because “we are very restricted… on what we can write… but will send what is possible.”
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French Concentration Camp de Noe, Postcard Sent to Sweden with Chemical Censor Mark
2016.1.36
Front: handwritten message fills entire page, blue censor mark runs diagonally; Back: handwriting continues, ‘CARTE POSTALE’ printed in red with several handstamps and blue diagonal censor mark.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: De Noe was originally intended to receive Spanish refugees fleeing Franco’s Fascist regime. By 1941 it was a hospital camp, but as well housed over 700 Jews. In August and September of 1942, 530 Jews formed parts of four convoys representing 4,000 Jews which left Drancy for Auschwitz. By the end of 1943 the elderly and incurable were evacuated to various hospitals. Postcard pre-printed with stamp of Petain.
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Ferramonti Concentration Camp Cover from Jewish Inmate Richard Mayer, Air Mail, Prisoner of War Post via Sofia-Istanbul to Carlo Weiskopf in Jerusalem
2019.2.109
Envelope addressed to "Carlo Weiskopf". Front features a blue Italian postal stamp covered in a rectangular, purple ink stamp with diagonal lines in it. On the front there is another rectangular, purple ink stamp and another circular purple ink stamp. The back has brown censor tape and a circular, black ink stamp.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Ferramonti, near Tarsia in Southern Italy, was the largest Italian concentration camp. Opened in June 1940, Ferramonti held almost 4000 Jewish prisoners, most of whom were refugees from Germany. It was neither a slave labor camp nor an extermination center along the lines of German and Polish camps. Indeed, inmates were treated well and there were organized cultural activities, a library, and a synagogue with an Italian rabbi officiating. After Mussolini’s downfall in 1943, many internees at Ferramonti either joined the Allied war effort or were transferred to Camp Oswego in New York. Italian and British Censor cachets, Ferramonti censor cachet. With censor tape on left and verso. Stamp annulled since it was not required.
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Cover from Special Camp Gilgil in Kenya to New York
2019.2.119
Envelope with red, white, and blue border, blue square with "BY AIR MAIL PAR AVION" written in white on left side, four gray and purple stamps marked "UGANDA."
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
A number of African countries which were part of the British Empire - Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda, and Southern Rhodesia - held “enemy aliens” who were foreign residents and refugees. Special Camp Gilgil, however, north of Nairobi, held political detainees who were members of the Palestinian Jewish underground, such as Irgun or Lehi members, who were militantly opposed to British rule in Palestine, and Arabs who would deny the right of Jews to enter Palestine. Double-ring Gilgil cancel, cover addressed to what appears to be a D. Gurion, care of W. Goldberg in New York. Date indistinct.
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Postcard from Dora Huttman in Jerusalem to Sigfried Roiz, Latrun Detention Camp I, Palestine
2019.2.117
"POST-CARD" written at top of postcard in black print, writing in blue on left side, "HEADQUARTERS THE PALESTINE POLICE FORCE" stamped in purple near top, "7.6.44." written on back in top right corner.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Latrun, located in the Ayalon Valley between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, was the site of a detention center initially established by the British in Palestine to imprison German and Italian prisoners of war. From 1942 Jewish residents of Palestine - the Yishuv - were detained in Latrun for resistance to British Mandatory policy in pre-state Israel, including members of Jewish defense organizations such as the Irgun.
Written in German, displays British Palestine censorship marks.
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Cover from S. Roiz in Latrun to D. Huttman
2019.2.118
Envelope addressed to "Mrs. Dora Huttman, "JERUSALEM" underlined in bold, stamp of crown and "passed" in blue ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Latrun, located in the Ayalon Valley between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, was the site of a detention center initially established by the British in Palestine to imprison German and Italian prisoners of war. From 1942 Jewish residents of Palestine - the Yishuv - were detained in Latrun for resistance to British Mandatory policy in pre-state Israel, including members of Jewish defense organizations such as the Irgun.
Written in German, displays British Palestine censorship marks.
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Censored Cover from L.F. de Jong, Netherlands, to G. Newman Family Interned at Vittel Interniertenlager
2019.2.121
Front of envelope includes “Züruck” stamped in blue near bottom, “INTERNIERTENPOST, GEBÜHRENFREI!” underlined in top right corner in black ink, back of envelope includes “LOUIS FRANCOIS DE JONG” underlined at top.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Vittel was a resort town in the Vosges mountains of France. It was used by the Germans to detain aliens - British and American citizens living in France - as well as Jewish prisoners who could eventually be exchanged for German prisoners. However, most of the Jewish detainees were eventually transported to Auschwitz. On April 18, 1944, two months before this letter was written to a Jewish family interned in Vittel, 163 Jews from Vittel were sent to Drancy Transit Camp and then to Auschwitz where they were murdered.
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Envelope sent from Mauritius Detainment Camp
2014.1.377
Front: 8 multi-colored stamps; 'by airmail' stamp; many handstamps. Back: Handwritten return address, three hand stamps and a large penciled in 't' or 'x'.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Cover sent from Jewish detainment camp in Mauritius to Hertzliah, sent registered air mail 11 July 1945 arriving at destination on 3 August. Addressed to Dr. Fritz Loewy, Beth Dranoff, Herzliah. "Written in German" indicated on front.
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Envelope sent from Cyprus Jewish Camp 66 to Palestine
2014.1.370
Front: Red 'Cyprus' postage stamp in top right corner, handwritten address. Back: Address handwritten on top flap.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
The flood of Jewish refugees from post-war Europe and displaced persons camps attempting to immigrate to Mandatory Palestine, compelled the British - acceding both to Arab demands and the terms of the 1939 White Paper - to block immigration beyond the specified quota. The refugees unsuccessful in running the blockade were sent to detention centers on Cyprus, Athlit or Mauritius. This cover comes from Cyprus Camp 66 Staff addressed to Palestine.
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Cover from Dov Fuchs in Cyprus Jewish Internment Camp 55 to Chaim Risch in Ramataim, Israel
2019.2.255
Envelope with one red postage stamp and one orange postage stamp along right side, “ISRAEL” written and underlined in blue ink at top. Back includes “CYPRUS” written and underlined in blue ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Mail from internment camp at Karaolos during the period of mass emigration by European Jews following World War II. Famagusta postmark reverse, Karaolos postmark front.
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Jewish Birth Certificate from Cyprus Displaced Persons Camp
2014.1.440
Table with Hebrew writing and red hand stamp.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash
Issued to Jewish survivors, originally from Romania, who survived the concentration camps. Stamped by the DP camp on Cyprus and its religious authority.
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Israeli Cover Welcoming Refugees from Detention Camps on Cyprus
2019.2.254
Envelope includes map of Cyprus, image of ships stamped in black ink over green postage stamp in top left corner, dated “28.1.1949” in bottom left corner.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Immigrant ships cachet with Tel Aviv cancellation and map of Cyprus. Five mil Doar Ivri stamp issued on May 16, 1948, when the name of the country (Israel) had not yet been chosen. Hence called Doar Ivri or Hebrew Post.
The flood of desperate Jewish refugees from post-war Europe, especially those living in displaced persons camps, were attempting to immigrate to Mandatory Palestine, then under British control. The British saw such action as a violation of the restrictions on quotas set forth in the 1939 White Paper, and therefore illegal. Known as the Bricha, an enormous underground effort utilizing derelict ships to smuggle the refugees into Palestine ensued. Refugees caught trying to run the British blockade were sent to detention centers on Cyprus, Atlit, or Mauritius. The Exodus 1947 was critical in changing the tide of public opinion when the ship was boarded by the British. The resistance of the passengers notwithstanding, they were ultimately transported back to Germany.
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Shurot Newspaper from Cyprus Jewish Refugee Internment Camp
2015.2.211
Tan paper with Hebrew title. Includes the emblem of Israel with Star of David and olive branch on upper lefthand corner, and beneath it a large printed 50 in a decorative border. Also includes printed black Hebrew text and an illustration of two angels sitting by a tent with luggage in a black box.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Single-sheet newspaper printed in Hebrew from 3.2.1949 titled "Shurot. Cyprus was an internment camp for Jewish refugees from the Holocaust who were captured and detained by British forces having been accused of attempting to gain entry to Palestine/Israel illegally. Cyprus internment camp was closed in February 1949. Thus, this appears to be the final issue of this newspaper. The cartoon depicting two sad angelic figures perhaps represents the stateless Holocaust refugees from Europe, with bags packed, yet uncertain as to when they might enter the promised land.
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Mauritius Jewish Internment Camp Cover from Adolph Meir Felmann to New York Physician
2019.2.127
Blue Mauritius postage stamp in upper right corner, “Written in English” in black print in upper left corner, underlined with dashes, “PASSED BY CENSOR MAURITIUS” in triangle shaped stamp in purple ink. Back labelled “OPENED BY CENSOR” in large red print, and includes “Exp.: Adolf Meir Feldmenn” in black print near top.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Britain’s refusal to permit desperate Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe to emigrate to Palestine meant establishing internment camps within the Empire. In December 1940 they opened up an internment camp in a dismal Napoleonic era prison on the island of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean off the coast of South Africa. Ultimately 1,500 refugees, “illegal immigrants,” were denied entry to Palestine and were deported here.
Cover shows a purple triangular Mauritius censor as well as a Union of South Africa censor. All camp mail went through Postbox 1000, which was also the return address. It is believed that Mr. Feldmann eventually was allowed to become a citizen of Israel.