Messages to Loved Ones

During the Holocaust, Jews wrote thousands of letters to their loved ones. They sent letters from homes, ghettos and sometimes from the camps. Mail was an important way for families to share information and stay in contact when separated.  

Letters to loved ones contained pleas for help, declarations of love and messages of encouragement. They also described harsh conditions, hunger, despair and fear. Some letters were written on the eve of deportation and served as final messages of farewell and love. They reveal how Jews perceived what was happening to them. Many Jews were aware of the growing danger and wrote with a sense of resignation, knowing they might not survive.  

In the camps, there was little chance to send messages to the outside world. Early on, concentration camp prisoners were permitted to send a limited number of postcards each month. These were heavily censored by the Nazis. But in camps like Auschwitz, Jewish prisoners were not allowed to write to their families at all. In other camps, Nazi guards forced Jews to write postcards declaring that all was well with their “resettlement.” This was an attempt by the Nazis to hide the true nature of the camps. By the time families received these false messages, the writers had often been murdered in the gas chambers.