F01_P14: Youth Concentration Camp Moringen
1942 December 7, Front side - Letter from young man at Moringen concentration camp.
Beige letter with printed text and outline in German using black ink. Cursive handwriting in pencil appears overall. At the top right, a red 12-pfennig stamp depicting Adolf Hitler facing to the right. Overtop, a black ink cancellation dated December 7, 1942.
Name/Title
F01_P14: Youth Concentration Camp MoringenEntry/Object ID
2008.4.14Scope and Content
1942 December 7, letter from young man at Moringen concentration camp.Context
In 1939 and 1940, the Nazis established three concentration camps to “re-educate” wayward young people who deviated from the official racist doctrine of the state – at Moringen and Litzmannstadt for boys, and at Uckermark for girls. One example of a crime that led to the incarceration of so-called “Swingboys” was a fondness for jazz music, which the Nazis disparaged as “niggerjazz.” Moringen was very small, with a capacity for 400 prisoners. Opened in April 1933 as a regular concentration camp for men, it became the first women’s concentration camp in September 1933. In August 1940, the first youth arrived when it was redesignated Jugendschutzlager Moringen, also Konzentrationslager für Jugendliche. Very few prisoner letters from Moringen are known, and none are recorded from the other youth concentration camps. This is a December 7, 1942, young man’s letter to his mother.Collection
Nazi Scourge II: Five Frame ExhibitCategory
Letter
Philatelic Material