F05_P08: Oflag VI-B Prisoner of War Camp, Camp to Camp Mail Polish Military Internee in Romania
1945 January 3, Front side - Formular lettersheet to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, Stefanja Biernaska.
White formular lettersheet printed in German using black ink. Cursive and printed handwriting in pencil is present. At the top right is a black ink cancellation dated January 3, 1945. At the bottom left a faded purple postal censorship stamp with the letter D in the center appears. Another purple stamp is displayed in the top left.
Name/Title
F05_P08: Oflag VI-B Prisoner of War Camp, Camp to Camp Mail Polish Military Internee in RomaniaEntry/Object ID
2007.5.8Scope and Content
1945 January 3, formular lettersheet to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, Stefanja Biernaska.Context
Being the first captives of World War II, Polish POWs were held longer than most other foreigners in Nazi camps, but officers received privileged treatment. From Oflag VI-B at Dössel, Germany, Colonel Lucjan Majchrowski sent this formular lettersheet postmarked January 3, 1945, to Stefanja Biernaska, a woman imprisoned at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp while serving as a slave laborer at Kabelwerke Oberspree und Köpernick in Berlin. Censors at both camps examined and marked the letter. Pleased to have located her after lamenting her disappearance, the soldier wrote to his loved one in late December 1944, "I have no information from my parents since July of this year. All contact with that side is without hope. Send me Bogdan's address. Does Mrs. Wanda Karbowska live there [at Sachsenhausen]? Her brother John inquires; we live together in one hall. I hope we will see each other as quickly as possible in the new year. In health, I kiss you. Lulek." A registered letter from Auschwitz to a Polish soldier who had escaped to Romania, where he was interned at a camp near Comisani, Dambovita district. Transit backstamps of Prague dated March 7, 1940, and of Budapest the following day demonstrate that this was sent before the death camp existed; mail from the town of Auschwitz is seldom seen.Collection
Nazi Scourge I: Primary ExhibitionCategory
Lettersheet
Philatelic Material