"Forget You Not"™ |
A Letter from Auschwitz dated
February 16, 1942
(with translation
below)
Dear Walter, You really surprised me, first
of all, with your letter and second, with your
announcement. I congratulate you on the results of your
medical test for military service. If you want to join
the air force that much, I won't spoil it for you and
will send back the paper for you with my signature. I
hope you get lucky with that as well, my friend. I take
it for granted that you have to sign up only for the
duration of the war. What happened to the other comrades
who took the test? By the way, what did your mother think
about your plan? She won't be too excited about it. You
wrote that you will take your final examinations soon. Do
the best you can to get a high score because if you want
to succeed in life you must be able to do something. How
did your examinations in vocational school go? Here it is
a hellish mess, everything is upside down. They have
built a village of barracks, and they are not small --on
average some twelve to fourteen rooms per barrack and
each is about six to seven meters long and about four and
a half to five meters wide, with a nice corridor in the
middle. Wehave five men to a room. Each of us has his own
desk and closet for coats, office jackets, hats. They
also have a concentration camp here with about 50,000
convicts. They all wear black and white striped suits.
Most of them are Polish, but also German. Among the
Polish are many men of the more intelligent class. They
will keep them here on purpose. With these people we can
get anything done, especially since many of them have
learned a trade. Each one is working in his own trade. In
the camp there are a furniture workshop, a sawmill,
concrete shop, etc. In Poland, just one false move, and
it is a striped suit. Break a leg and friendly
greetings. Your father . 1941
Historic Photographs of Birkenau (Auschwitz II) Under
Construction
A father congratulates his son for his sucessful medical
examination for military service and describes his
impressions of the forced working camp in Ausschwitz. He
is an employee at IG Farben in the camp.
Auschwitz, February 16th,
1942
www.feldpostsammlung.de/english/index-e-frame.html?/english/e7-auschwitz.html
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