While concentration camps and ghettos were the most potent symbols of the Holocaust, other types of camps existed in the occupied countries which were part of the machinery of the Third Reich and took on the complexion of its antisemitic and racial policies. Transit camps existed as way stations on the road to major concentration camps or extermination centers. Prisoners were detained briefly prior to deportation to such places as Auschwitz, Sobibor, or Dachau. Transit camps were overcrowded, with sanitary and health facilities often dismal. While the major concentration camps were under the control of the SS, transit camps were often run by police in regimes collaborating with the Nazis. Drancy, for example, located in the Paris suburbs, became an internment center for Jews in the summer of 1941. Transports to Auschwitz commenced in June 1942. Nearly 65,000 Jews were deported, fully one-third of them French citizens, the rest foreign-born Jews who had moved to France.
Westerbork was a transit camp in the Netherlands, and Jews interned here - including Anne Frank and her family, and Etty Hillesum - were eventually deported in successive waves to the major extermination camps: Sobibor, Auschwitz, and Bergen-Belsen. Almost 100,000 Jews lost their lives passing through Westerbork. Another camp in occupied Netherlands was Vught or ‘s-Hertogenbosch. Vught was an official SS concentration camp as well as a transit camp. One section held Jewish prisoners before they were transferred to Westerbork, and from there to extermination camps. In June 1943, hundreds of Jewish children were sent to the Sobibor extermination camp.
--Michael D. Bulmash, K1966
Browse the Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection.
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Envelope from Camp de Rivesaltes, France
2014.1.158
Front: Pale envelope with address handwritten in black ink. Includes three pasted blue psotage stamps, one pasted pink postage stamp, as well as two other pasted stamps, as well as one pink and two black hand stamps.Back: Address written in black ink. Includes red, purple and black hand stamps.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Like Drancy, the Camp de Rivesaltes was a transit camp for deportees ultimately shipped to extermination centers. Regular airmail cover to New York, camp censor and markings tying properly franked cover.
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Postcards Sent from Berlin to Westerbork Transit Camp in Holland Following the Return of the SS St. Louis
2020.1.4a-d
a: Postcard postmarked 18.2.41 with German text printed in red and handwritten letter on opposite side. Address written in pencil. Markings on front in blue and red pencil.
b: Postcard postmarked 21.3.41 with German text printed in red as well as handwritten text in purple ink and letter written in pencil on opposite side.
c: Postcard postmarked 25.3.41 with German text printed in red and handwritten letter on opposite side.
d: Postcard postmarked 12.4.41 with German text printed in red and handwritten letter on opposite side.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Margarete and Hans-Heinrich Glucksmann had been passengers aboard the ship SS St. Louis in 1939 (“Voyage of the Damned”). The St. Louis and its Jewish passengers fleeing Nazi Germany were refused entry to Cuba and subsequently the United States and was forced to return to Europe. These four postcards were sent by Margarete in Berlin to Hans-Heinrich following the return of the St. Louis to Holland. She signs her name with the obligatory “Sara.” At the time of writing, Hans-Heinrich was being held in the Westerbork transit camp in Hooghalen in the Netherlands. The postcards bear German censor marks and stamps.
[Related items: 2020.1.5, 2020.1.6]
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Letter and Envelope to Elice Raoux, Montfort, France Regarding Jewish Citizens of Rouen, France
2012.1.25ab
White envelope and letter handwritten in blue ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Partial translation: "Just a word in a hurry to inform you that all the Jewish people of Rouen have been arrested in the night from Friday to Saturday. Men, women and children have all been taken away and they came to Drancy Saturday morning. I think that "the Tigress" [an unknown individual] is among them. Deportations to the East are envisaged. Try to send news of yourself to Camille because you are the only person who connects him to the civilized people. I am not sure, but there is a great probability that Holstein would be among the prisoners, seeing as Levy Risle and his whole family have been arrested a preceding night..."
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Postcard from Westerbork
2014.1.128
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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French Internment Camp Drancy Rare Postcard from H. Barouh in Paris to Leon Barouh in Drancy Internment Camp
2019.2.88
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 violet cachet at 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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Postcard Sent from Westerbork Camp
2014.1.161
Front: Tan postcard with green printed postcard lines and stamp. Includes writing in black ink and black hand stamps.Back: Message written in black ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Postcard from Westerbork, a transit camp in the Netherlands from which Jews were typically deported to death camps such as Auschwitz. Among the many prisoners who passed through this camp were Anne Frank and Etty Hillesum, both diarists who were eventually deported to Auschwitz.
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Envelope from Drancy Internment Camp
2015.2.103
Off-white envelope with purple Bureau de la Censure in upper lefthand corner and black writing. Includes a pasted stamp of a man in profile facing left. Sent locally within Paris from the Drancy Internment Camp.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Cover sent locally within Paris, franked 1.50f violet triple ring cachet "CAMP D'INTERNMENT DE DRANCY."
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Postcard from Theodor Zirker in Westerbork Transit Camp to Dr. Lotte Hurwitz in Belgium
2021.1.23
Postcard dated 8/23/1943 with writing in green ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Mr. Zirker was born March 6, 1890 in Tirschtiegel, Poland. He was known as a manufacturer or merchant, with intentions to marry an office clerk, Clara van der Kaars. However, before the wedding could take place, Mr. Zirker was deported to Westerbork, and placed in Barak 41. Westerbork was initially a refugee camp established by the Dutch government for German and Austrian Jews fleeing Nazi persecution. However, German SS took control of the camp in 1943. This postcard to Dr. Hurwitz in Brussels was written 8-30-1943 and censored with a chemical censor and handstamped by the Commando unit of the Wehrmacht. Deported to Bergen-Belsen, Mr. Zirker perished February 9, 1944.
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Vouchers Used at Westerbork Transit Camp
2021.1.29a-d
a: Westerbork, voucher for 10 cents from February 15, 1944, CC series.
b: Westerbork, voucher for 24 cents from February 15, 1944, CC series.
c: Westerbork, voucher for 50 cents from February 15, 1944, CC series.
Westerbork, voucher for 100 cents from February 15, 1944, CC series.The 100 cent voucher has a partial watermark from the factory where it was printed: “Vuga NORMAAL”
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
The Commandant’s name “Gemmeker” appears on these vouchers along with a logo that was his idea: an image of the camp with a cog surrounding a warehouse chimney from which smoke emanates, perhaps a Westerbork nod to Auschwitz’s “Arbeit macht frei”, suggesting the importance of Jewish work to the Reich. Working all day would enable the Jewish prisoners to purchase small items at the canteen: coffee, razor blades, etc.
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Lettersheet from Jakob Weinberg in Westerbork Transit Camp to M. Polack in Amsterdam
2021.1.26
Stamped and handwritten lettersheet to Amsterdam
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Westerbork, located in Drenthe Province in the Netherlands, began in 1939 as a camp for German refugees attempting to escape persecution in Nazi Germany. The first refugees arrived in October of that year. Some had been passengers on the ill-fated SS St. Louis. Westerbork continued to function as a refugee camp supervised by the Dutch after the German occupation in May 1940 since all Dutch Jews were concentrated in Amsterdam. Administration of the camp was transferred to the Germans in 1942 at which time it functioned as a transit camp for Jews awaiting deportation to the extermination camps, Auschwitz or Sobibor.
While Westerbork functioned as a transit center for Jews prior to deportation, there would also be a longer-term population of mostly German Jews to create some stability in the camp. They would act as camp employees or Jewish council members and would not for the time being be subject to deportation.
Mr. Weinberg was one of the German refugees - from Emden, Hanover, Germany - at Westerbork. He was born on January 21, 1900 and he notes his barracks number as 40 b. He thanks Mr. Polack for packages received. He would be deported, and his date of death is given by Yad Vashem as February 28, 1945. The fate of Mr. Polack is unknown.
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Letter from Arthur Seyss-Inquart
2012.1.390
Typewritten message on "Der Reichskommissar für die Besetzten Niederländischen Gebiete" stationery. Includes signature in blue.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A letter written by Arthur Seyss-Inquart to Albert Speer. Seyss-Inquart (1892-1946) was Reich Governor of Austria, Deputy Governor to Hans Frank in the General Government of occupied Poland, and Reich Commissioner for the German-occupied Netherlands. In the latter capacity, Seyss-Inquart shared responsibility for the deportation of Dutch Jews and the shooting of hostages. At Nuremberg he was found guilty of crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, and subsequently sentenced to death.
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Post-WWII Missing Relative Document Issued by Le Ministere des Anciens Combattants et Victimes de Guerre
2019.2.235
Document titled “ACTE DE DISPARITION,” date “24 JAN 198” stamped in purple in top right corner.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: This document, a response to an inquiry, states that a Jewish woman of Polish background, Pola Eckhauz, born in Vilna in 1901, a married seamstress living in Paris, France, had been interned at Drancy transit center in Paris on July 16, 1942, from which she was deported to Auschwitz on July 29, 1942. On this transport- the twelfth from Drancy- five people survived of the 1,001 deportees. Yad Vashem database confirms that Ms. Eckhauz was murdered in Auschwitz.
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Drancy, France Internment Camp Food Package Card
2015.2.104
Tan paper with printed black text and a purple circular hand stamp in upper lefthand corner.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Unused food package card with violet triple ring cachet "CAMP D'INTERNMENT DE DRANCY." Drancy was a high-rise apartment complex in the northeast suburb of Paris in the 1930s before the Nazis confiscated it and utilized it as an internment camp to hold Jews and other “undesirables” who were later deported to the extermination camps. 65,000 Jews were deported from Drancy, of whom 63,000 were murdered including 6,000 children. The Vichy government under Petain and Laval cooperated with Nazi Germany, hunting down foreign and French Jews and turning them over to the Gestapo for transport to the Third Reich's extermination camps. Drancy was under the control of the French police until 1943 when administration was taken over by Alois Brunner. With his arrival came the need to increase deportations to Auschwitz. Drancy at its peak held more than 7,000 prisoners. The brutality of the French guards in Drancy and the harsh conditions imposed on the inmates is well known. For example, upon their arrival, small children were immediately separated from their parents for deportation to the death camps. On 6 April 1944, SS First Lieutenant Klaus Barbie raided a children's home in Izieu, France, where Jewish children had been hidden. Barbie arrested everyone present, all 44 children and 7 adult staff members. The next day, the Gestapo transported the arrestees to Drancy. From there, all the children and staff were deported to Auschwitz. None of them survived.
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Drancy Internment Camp Postcard
2014.1.160
Front: A black and white photograph of high-rise apartments with white text in French.Back: Black printed postcard lines.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Drancy was a 1930s high-rise apartment complex in the northeast suburb of Paris before the Nazis confiscated it and utilized it as an internment camp to hold Jews and other “undesirables” who were later deported to the extermination camps. 65,000 Jews were deported from Drancy, of whom 63,000 were murdered, including 6,000 children. The Vichy government under Petain and Laval cooperated with Nazi Germany, hunting down foreign and French Jews and turning them over to the Gestapo for transport to the Third Reich's extermination centers.
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Censored Letter from Drancy Internment Camp
2012.1.34
Envelope with title, "Kriegsgafanyenpost" with address and message written in pencil.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Frontstalag (Frontstammlager) 111 Drancy censored lettersheet sent by Jewish POW Solomon Narinsky to his wife Sonia, in Frontstalag 142, Besancon. Initially a POW camp holding North African colonial POWs, Frontstalag 111 also held 79 British prisoners and foreign laborers who were in France. Solomon Narinsky was a renowned photographer who had at this time a photography studio in Paris. His wife Sonia was also a photographer swept up in the dragnet after the German invasion of France in May 1940. Frontstalag 142 was a camp for Anglo-American citizens who were mostly Jewish and who would be used as bargaining chips swapped for German POWs. Mr. Narinsky was released as part of a prisoner exchange in 1944. He would move back to Palestine to Kibbutz Ein Harod. In August 1941 the U-shaped building complex “La Cite de la Muette,” that was the hub of Drancy for POWs, became the transit camp transporting Jews to extermination camps such as Auschwitz.