F05_P08: Oflag VI-B Prisoner of War Camp, Camp to Camp Mail Polish Military Internee in Romania
1940 March 7, Front side - Envelope from Auschwitz concentration camp.
White envelope with cursive handwriting in blue ink. At the bottom right a red rectangular stamp from Auschwitz with the letter R is present. At the top right are three stamps depicting President Paul von Hindenburg facing to the left; One brown 10-pfennig stamp, one pink 15-pfennig stamp, and one green 30-pfennig stamp. Overtop a purple postal censorship stamp is present.
Name/Title
F05_P08: Oflag VI-B Prisoner of War Camp, Camp to Camp Mail Polish Military Internee in RomaniaEntry/Object ID
2007.5.8.aScope and Content
1940 March 7, envelope from Auschwitz concentration camp.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
Cover
Philatelic Material