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 Jugenschutzlager Moringen, also Konzentrationslager für Jugendiiche.

Below: Very few prisoner letters from Moringen are known, and none are recorded from the other youth concentration camps. This is an August 26, 1942, young mean's letter to his family. A purple handstamped cachet on the back gives instructions for sending money to inmates.