This week in class we read the last letters from Jews towards their loved ones during the Holocaust. While some letters gave details of the horrible acts of anti-semitism some had very few details. This produced the question, were the writers of these letters purposely hiding the truth from their loved ones or were the letters being censored?
During the Holocaust, although Jews were horribly mistreated, they still had some freedoms in certain places, such as in the Warsaw Ghetto. Here the Jews had to live through horrific conditions, yet they still had the ability to write and receive mail with many restrictions. One such regulation early on in the ghetto was that letters were to be no longer than two pages. This helped limit the amount of details being told. The Germans did not want details about the bad conditions to get out, so people elsewhere would be calmer and less alarmed. As shown by this excerpt from the final letter from the Tytelman family, there was little room left on the two page maximum for Samek: “I wrote last in order to allow the above-signed ladies to chat. They have already said everything, and didn’t leave me any space.” Later on mail got limited to just postcards, leaving little space to write on. However, this was not the only goal of the postcards, as now mail would not be in envelopes, giving the ability for the S.S. to read the mail. Therefore Nazis could easily cross out and censor sentences about their horrific acts. The Nazis would not just do this with outgoing mail, but also incoming mail, frequently with countries not conquered or allied with the Nazi regime. This form of censorship could have also taken place against the Tytelman family: “As you already know, we have received one postcard from you since July. Apart from that, we got a message through Luzer, and we are very grateful to him. During this time, we have written you at least ten letters, and haven’t received a single reply, and so we are dying of concern as to what has become of you.” There is a great possibility that their family in Siberia had written to them, but the mail had been confiscated. A difficulty for the Nazis with reading all the mail was that the letters were written in many different languages. Some came from foreign countries, while others had secret codes or even invisible ink so the Germans could not read the mail. To solve this issue, in 1940, the Nazi Postal Service mandated that all mail would be written in German. As written by Genia née Aufang in a letter towards her brother Isaac and sister-in-law Esther in Lisbon, “I yearn for your beloved handwriting, as I read your letters several times a day and I beg you to please write and tell me how things are.” Due to this letter, it can be assumed that Genia’s family had someone else write their letters so that it would be written in German.
Censorship also took place within the postal addresses as well. The Nazis forced all Jews to include new middle names, Israel for men or Sara for women, in their addresses and return addresses, labeling them as Jews. This was a simple way for the Nazis to know which mail to look through. The Nazis also used mail to spread misinformation. An example of this were the prisoners in Auschwitz who were forced to write postcards to their families and friends, indicating that their relocation is going well, that they are in good health, and there is nothing to worry about. The Nazis did this in order to calm people in other areas that have been fearful or worrisome about the Nazis. In many instances afterwards, these letter writers were murdered immediately afterwards. The S.S. also regulated the amount of letters Jews were allowed to send to only two per month. Due to all of these regulations, it helped the Nazis prevent the truth of their horrors from reaching areas outside the death camps.
Sources:
- http://web-static.nypl.org/exhibitions/sala/postal.html
- https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash_briefaktion/
- https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/last-letters/1941/tytelman.asp
- https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/last-letters/1942/aufgang.asp