Between 300 and 400 Jewish war prisoners are being executed each day by the Nazis in the prison camp at Chelm, it is reported in a letter written by a German soldier, confirming the fact that the German military authorities are executing all Jewish war prisoners taken on the Soviet front.
The letter, written by the soldier to his relatives in Germany and smuggled to Lisbon by a devious route, describes conditions at the Chelm camp. The soldier writes: “Naturally we are not treating the prisoners too gently. If they will have to stay here through the winter, half of them will die. Jewish prisoners are shot on the spot. They must first dig their own graves, then five of them are bound together so that all fall into the pit at the same time. About 300 to 400 of these executions take place daily.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
