Letters by children from German concentration camp found in Łódź

A few days ago, while examining documents from a private collection, historian discovered eight letters written by the youngest prisoners of the German Third Reich.

"I only ask for some hard soap and a spoon, as I have nothing to eat with...", "Just a little bit of saccharine, please...", "Mommy, make me 20 pancakes..." - these are only a few fragments of shocking letters written by children imprisoned in a concentration camp in Łódź. The letters have been discovered by researchers from the Museum of Polish Children - Victims of Totalitarianism.

"A few days ago, while examining a private collection, we've stumbled upon eight original letters sent from a German concentration camp at Przemysłowa street, inside the Litzmannstadt Ghetto. These letter were written by Polish children in 1944. They were addressed and sent to their closest relatives," said Dr Ireneusz Maj, director of the Museum of Polish Children - Victims of Totalitarianism in Łódź. "It is an exceptional finding, because only 11 such letters from this camp have been found," he explained.

The documents were being examined and preserved. Also fragments of partially destroyed correspondence between the imprisoned children and their parents, often also incarcerated. "For us, these letters are a special, intimate form of contact with experiences of those children, really tragic experiences," said Dr Andrzej Janicki of the Museum of Polish Children.

"Letters by the youngest prisoners of the German camp, treated literally, could suggest that the conditions there were good," he said. "The children quickly learned that mentioning any true information would have ended in being redacted by German censorship," Janicki explained. He added that in such case, a letter wouldn't even make it to the addressee, while the author would have been punished.

"The letters are full of reassuring the kids were fine and everyone was healthy. Between the handwritten lines, emerges a tragic picture," the historian said.

"There's information on the actual situation in the camp. One girl wrote that 'everyone is healthy', but her little brother 'has just had pneumonia and he has water gathering in his side'" - he read out. "Another author of a letter tells us the situation in the camp is very good, even as good like at this girl's aunt, but in the last sentence, the child writes that her mother should visit her because 'otherwise she cannot understand anything'" - Janicki quoted. "Another girl asks for shoes for herself and her sister, the letter is dated February 15," he mentioned, adding that most often the children were asking for food.

"Today I will be transferred from this camp to a Grange," a child imprisoned by the Germans wrote. "I'm sad I can't be with you. (...). I miss you so much..." - we read in another letter from the camp for children.

"Identity of one child, mentioned by his sister in a letter, has been confirmed. The man is alive," the historians said.

The letters and other camp documents will be available to see at an exhibition this December at Łódź Culture Centre.

Established in mid-1942, the camp at Przemysłowa street was part of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto, where the occupiers held Jews before sending them over to German death camps. The age of the prisoners of the camp for minors ranged from a few months to 16 years. They were placed there mainly for petty theft, trade and beggary, all caused by war poverty. Those children came from families which had refused to sign the Deutsche Volksliste, or were children of prisoners, as well as youth suspected of being members of underground resistance.

The children were kept in very basic conditions, forced to slave labour, they were beaten, tortured and starved. Various sources mention 3,000-4,000 prisoners and more than a hundred dead. At the end of German occupation in Łódź, there were over 800 children in the camp.