Letter from Auschwitz.

[Adrian]

I picked this up a while ago, I really don't know why as it's not my collecting field. I would be interested in and welcome your comments on it. I believe it is written in Czech.

[sitges1990]

Hi Adrian, very interesting letter. Have you tried to translate it? This letter shows how obsurd the TR was. The camp is only a few months from getting over run by the Russians, your army is being obliterated on the Eastern front, but you can still mail a letter and it only takes seven days to get there. Hmmmmm, better pull ten more soldiers off the train, we have two extra bags of mail. Alot of bad things were going on about the time this letter got there. Thanks for showing Adrian.

Jay

[operaman]

Did anyone notice the music cleft on the front of the envelope! Do you think it came from Auschwitz prisoner symphony.I have heard that 50% of the Berlin Philamonic was Jewish and was sent to Auschwitz. Interesting

[sitges1990]

Good eye operaman, I wonder if your name has anything to do with you noticing the musical note? I do know that luckily their muscial expertise helped some of them survive that terrible camp.* The note is intriguing.

Jay

[Adrian]

Thank you for the comments Gents.
I have no idea what the music cleft is for or why it might have been put on the envelope. I'm guessing it is from a camp worker or helper as opposed to an inmate as I'm fairly sure the prisoners wouldn't be in a position to send letters such as this, especially at this late stage of the war. Without knowing the content I'm only speculating though and if anyone can offer any other ideas it would be good to hear them.
I have another note sent from a camp or prison, in this one, the words are numbered, not to exceed thirty, as this was all that was allowed.
It looks like a husband to wife letter - pics below.

[operaman]

Opera is a passion,for me.No such thing as to much Wagner(reported to be said by Hitler after a 5 hour preformance of Sigfried)

[Peter Hoffmann]

Just for info: it's a "clef" as in "key". Not a "cleft", which is synonymous with a builder's bum crack...

I'm also very passionate about opera, but not Wagner especially. As Rossini said: "Wagner has lovely moments, but awful quarters of an hour..."

[operaman]

I stand corrected.I love the British-Builders bum crack- I love it!

[HPL2008]

I have another note sent from a camp or prison, in this one, the words are numbered, not to exceed thirty, as this was all that was allowed.
It looks like a husband to wife letter - pics below.

Apparently not a prison; from the address of the sender Baracke 1 (= barrack 1) and the contents of the letter it sounds more like a camp for forced laborers. The place name Veitsberg is the German name for Žižkov, a part of the City of Prague east of the center. The letter translates as:


"26 February 45

My dearest wifey and little daughter!

Received cards from you and Vĕra. Am glad that pension is paid. Many thanks to Souček. Sending dirty laundry Wednesday. Looking forward to jacket *) Take care of your health **) Me fine.

Kisses

Daddy"


*) Rock can mean both "skirt" and "jacket"/"suitcoat"/"tunic". Since the letter was written by a man, we can assume he did not mean a skirt.
**) There is a grammatical error here. The writer - obviously not a native speaker of German - probably meant "Achtet auf Eure Gesundheit" (= Take care of your [= plural form] health). It may well be that the censors only allowed German-language letters, so even a Czech had to write to his own family in German.

[Adrian]

Excellent work again, thank you for the translation and for the additional information, much appreciated.