July 21, 1943
News: on May 12, in the morning, in private cloaths, Jadwiga Luszcz, No. 11275, from the Lublin May transport, who was earlier subjected to medical experiments – was taken by SS out of the camp. She had been called to the political office three times before and asked if she could cope with a journey on the train. One of the women from the Warsaw transport, who returned from Warsaw, where she travelled on some private matter, claims that Luszcz is in the Pawiak prison. The SS also took the political prisoner, Dr. Jadwiga Hewelka, who worked in the camp hospital. She was seen in civilian clothes with a group of female prisoners on their way to Berlin. Contrary to the previously described, both cases of Polish women cited here do not appear to be executions. Prisoners are sent to work in factories. On July 7, 1943. Yesterday the SS sent 300 Polish political prisoners to German factories; seven thousand from Lublin transport and eleven thousand from Warsaw transport are not sent to factories. It is unknown whether it is good or bad for us, but at least we are not in danger of separation. In the camp hospital, there is no longer Dr. Oberheuser; instead, there is a Yugoslav doctor – volksdeuch – Jan Klimek, who so far behaves very correctly and examines and treats sick prisoners. On May 6, the camp authorities issued a new regulation; it is forbidden to sing in a language other than German.
July 1943
You sent “Pan Tadeusz” pages. Everyone reads with emotion. Please divide this book into three parts and send it in the double bottom of the can …
July 21, 1943
XVI. In 1942, two groups of prisoners, the sick and the old unfit for work, were taken away. The first transport took place in the first half of February – about 100 people – the second in early March – 73 people. The fate of these people does not raise any doubts. We know that the families of these deported persons received notifications of their death. In the same period, transports of Jewish women were taken out, 150-200 each. Their fate is known. Currently, there are no Jewish women in the camp. We have general news every day (“Volkisher” and provincial newspapers), so we are very interested in news from Poland and ask for it very much.
July (?) 1943
28 km from us, in Neustrelitz, there is a labour camp – 36 cadets from Stalag II-A. A group of ten Polish women, our friends who go to work there once a week, keep in touch with them. The boys sent to the country lists of victims of medical experiments, executed Polish prisoners and poems by Grazyna Chrostowska, her drawings etc. Ask them for an address from where you can pick up these items. Besides, you may need them – they are responsible people. I’m sharing the correspondence card here for you. Please give the address to which they can write vital messages – read every fourth word or the first letters of all words.
The cadets write letters four times a month. Details and news from Poland are discussed in “pasta.” We attach the blanket form for the parcel to be sent to the stalag – the packages are almost unchecked – the sender may be fictitious or not given – 100% safe way for correspondence. The cadets do not know anything about what is happening in Poland. Therefore, it is necessary to contact them as soon as possible because a group of our prisoners sent to work there may not be released from the camp. We owe a lot to the cadets – apart from the shipment of our letters, which is the most important thing, they give us Polish books.
Comment by Krystyna Czyż :
There is a gap in the surviving correspondence from August until December 1943. For sure, we wrote letters and sent them, but for reasons that I am not able to establish now, they have not survived. Unfortunately, we do not have reports of the dramatic accidents on August 15, 1943. After several months, the SS took a group of women from our block on whom medical experiments were to be carried out. Contrary to decided protest, five Polish women were operated in a bunker – that is, in a camp prison. On the other hand, the entire bloc, which actively demonstrated its total solidarity with the victims of these medical experiments, was severely punished. Echoes of the latter events can be heard in a few sentences of two letters from December 1943 and January 1944.