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. I kiss
you. Lulek."
Below: A
registered letter from Auschwitz to a Polish soldier who had
escaped to Romania, where he was interned at a camp near
Comisani, Dambrovita 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.
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