Long letter (three typewritten pages) documenting the first stages of the Holocaust of the Jews of France and the state of affairs within the French concentration camp Drancy. Drancy (France), 1941. Yiddish.
Presumably, the letter before us was meant to be the first of a series of letters, which were planned to be sent secretly, documenting what was happening in the concentration camps. At the beginning of the letter, the writer notes: "Two weeks ago we resolved to write weekly about the events that are to befall us. I had already taken upon myself to write about all the events since June of 1940, and have meanwhile written the weekly events on notes or on cards. Thereby, the general accounts that I have started to write, together with these weekly letters, will represent a comprehensive Sefer Hazikaron [Memorial Book]". In order to ensure the letters being preserved, the writer implores the addressee to prepare two additional copies and send them to other acquaintances – "the banker" and "the lawyer".
At the beginning of the letter, the writer attempts to form a general picture of the situation outside the camp (arrests in the streets and coffee shops of Paris, visiting attempts by family members) and then turns to a detailed documentation of the living conditions at the Drancy concentration camp: sleeping for months on concrete floors, food rations (a piece of bread weighing 275 gr. per day), the punishments (head shaving, solitary confinement, being chained) and additional issues.
A large part of the letter is dedicated to describing the protest by Jewish physicians at the camp (who were solely responsible for treating the prisoners, with no means or medicines), after which an order was given to release 388 prisoners whose condition was especially bad.
Throughout the letter, a man called "Bradati" [Polish: "The Bearded"] is mentioned several times. This nickname is attributed to David Rappaport, the head of the French aid organization Comite rue Amelot, and possibly, the writer was a member of the organization.
The Drancy concentration camp was established in August 1941 near Paris. In the camp stood a single four-story concrete structure, which originally served the French police and was designed to accommodate up to 700 people. At first, the Germans sent only foreign Jews to the camp; yet later, French citizens were also sent there, so that it held thousands of prisoners. Since August 1942, the prisoners started being sent to extermination camps in the east.
3 pp (typewritten on separate leaves), approx. 26.5 cm. Good condition. A few creases and stains. Small tears to edges. An open tear to the upper-right corner of each of the leaves (not affecting text). Several handwritten corrections.
For a translation of the letter into English and additional information, see enclosed material.