Just found this on eBay, I'm not looking to buy it, but something just seems fishy about it.
Here's the link: 1941 Auschwitz Nazi Concentration Camp letter Death Notice of Jewish prisoner ! | eBay
Just found this on eBay, I'm not looking to buy it, but something just seems fishy about it.
Here's the link: 1941 Auschwitz Nazi Concentration Camp letter Death Notice of Jewish prisoner ! | eBay
Matt, the price is way too high, and I doubt the authenticity of the piece too. The taping is so easy to age and add to a period card. I wouldn't want this piece in my collection.
Regards,
Carl
I see a few problems with it, mostly with grammar. I am pretty sure that 'os' and 'naehers' are not German words. Also, look at the way some of the parts, like 'Krakau', are stamped. It looks so cheesy. You would think that they would be able to stamp it normally. Plus, there is nothing in front of 'Sohn', which I find strange. There should at least be the word 'Ihr' in front of it, to designate whose son it was who was killed...
Also, I am looking at a lot of his other stuff for sale, and it mostly looks like junk.
Right: "naehers" should, of course, be "naeheres". "Lagerkommandant" is also misspelt as "Lagelkommandant".
(Just for the sake of accuracy, though: The "OS" is actually not an error: It is the abbreviation for "Oberschlesien" [Upper Silesia]. The impersonal ommission of "Ihr" would not be surprising in a telegram sent by a concentration camp, either.)
Would the prisoners number also not be included on the telegram? Most of the correspondence letter cards from prisoners and documents about prisoners seem to include their numbers? But don't pretend to know too much about telegrams sent from concentration camps.
Unfortunately there is no record of an Anton Meirer in the Auschwitz prisoner database, but of course it is not complete as much was destroyed by camp officials. Maybe there are undiscovered records still in former Soviet archives.
Because at the time so-called Streifenschreiber [lit. tape writer] machines were used for teletype messages. The text came out of the teletype machine printed on one long, continuous strip of paper. This strip was then cut into pieces of appropriate length and glued to a telegram form. This technology was used well into the 1970s.
Please understand I am not saying that this particular piece is original; I just want to avoid misunderstandings, lest possibly real items be considered fake for the wrong reasons.
I didn't even notice 'Lagelkommandant'! Very interesting... Are misspellings common on documents like these?
It does not have to be a prisoner that died. It could have been a socalled Ost worker or HiWi that has died in the hospital of natural causes (Plenty of deadly infections arounds such places.) The writing errors is of less concern if it was a HilfsWilliger/ prisoner without German as their first language that was typing the letter.
Just my thoughts when looking at this telegram. I cannot say if it is genuine pre45.
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