Alois from Block 2: A letter from Sachsenhausen

A letter sent from Sachsenhausen concentration camp (near Berlin), on official paper and dated 17 August 1941.

The letter was addressed to “Fräulein Boja Smidova”, “Pawlowitzstrasse 23”, Olmütz, Mähren, a historic city in the Moravian region of what is now the Czech Republic. At the time, the area was part of the “Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia,” under German occupation.

In the letter, Alois thanks the recipient for the mail and a package he received. One sentence, however, was deemed too inappropriate by the Nazis and was crossed out in red pencil: “Verzage nicht, denn nach langer Regenzeit folgt stehts Sonnenschön”.

Alois was held in Block 2 of Sachsenhausen. The camp consisted of ten wooden barracks, each used for different categories of prisoners. According to postwar testimonies and reports, Block 6 held political prisoners, Block 4 was for Jewish inmates, and Blocks 9 and 10 were assigned to so-called criminals.

The remaining blocks housed a mix of other detainees: political opponents, prisoners of war, and forced labourers or those who refused such work—many from Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Bohemia, the Soviet Union, and what is now Ukraine.

Sachsenhausen was established in 1936 just north of Berlin. It initially served as a detention site for political prisoners but soon expanded to include Jews, Roma and Sinti, Soviet civilians, and others. The number of Jewish prisoners alone rose from 21 in early 1937 to around 11,000 by early 1945. After the war, the camp was used by Soviet forces before being turned into a memorial and museum in 1961.

Interestingly, Alois’s prisoner number (15205) is missing from the sequence in the Arolsen Archives. The records jump from 15095 to 15382. It's unclear why this gap exists, but it leaves room for questions.

Though brief, this letter connects a name, a number, and a location, offering a small but valuable piece of insight into the personal histories behind the official records.