The letters of May 1943

Quiet with experiments for now. All victims returned to the block. Fortunately, we are not working yet. It is not known what influenced the end of the medical experiments. Maybe the victims’ protests or the publicity of what the experiments got. German doctors considered them crucial and essential for them. Publicity is a thing they fear and try to avoid, even inside the camp. We fear that they will want to eliminate the victims of the experiments as living evidence of their crimes. Please consider that every fourth Polish political prisoner has been shot to death during the last twenty months. On April 30, another five Polish women were shot under the guise of being transported to Auschwitz to mislead our attention. Because we figured out what it was all about, the next person, Mrs. Frankiewicz from Warsaw, was taken with a mixed transport with two asocial on the list of mentally ill. The camp authorities built a crematorium under the camp’s walls to hide evidence of the executions.

What can help us is broadcasting Ravensbruck atrocities on the London radio. One thing that can stop them is revealing the secrets … we’ll hold on until the end if only they’d keep us alive. Then, as a sign, use a pencil in the package. Following is a fragment of the memoir by Krystyna Czyz: The matter of passing the news about the camp and medical experiments to countries beyond the German occupation was one of the most important goals of the secret correspondence. For a long time, we didn’t know if it was successful. Our families in Lublin, Warsaw and near Warsaw found a way through underground organizations to transmit the messages from Ravensbrück to London. We experienced the greatest triumph when parcels from various international institutions started to come to the group of victims of medical experiments. Fragments of our ideas on the organization of these actions and the joy of implementing them can be seen in the last few letters.

We will only write inside envelopes – sign – twice underlined Generalgouv. Medical experiments completely stopped now, only on dogs brought to the x-ray. The hospital is governed by Dr. Rosnthal, Dr. Schidlausky and doctor Oberaheuser. This hospital is a crime scene: children born in a camp, except for German ones (both parents are German), are killed, people suffering from nervous shock or mental illness are put to death with an injection; the case of Teodozja Zych No. 7908, she was from our transport. But, of course, these are hidden matters. To Bola: Ninka needs “septazin” (something aseptic). For several days, a streak forms on the leg below the scar. It would help hide it in the package because the medicines are taken by SS guards (the pills have to be wrapped in candy wrappers). As a sign you have read, draw a sign IV on a box. Now Ukrainian women are being transported to work outside of the camp. On March 25, Ravensbruck authorities sent several thousand Polish women to a porcelain factory in Karlsba