Polish-Jewish girls in an UNRRA camp near Dusseldorf, Germany, were warned by non-Jewish Poles that they would be killed if they returned to their home towns, a pathetic letter from six of the girls revoals.
In the letter, which was received this week by a Swiss Jewish welfare organizations, the girls say that "our liberation is marking the beginning of a new oppression. We have nothing left but our eyes to cry. All hope is gone."
After describing the sufferings they had been forced to undergo while in the hands of the Nazis, which included witnessing the execution of their parents in the notorious Oswiecim camp, the girls said that when the Allies liberated the Ravensbruck camp they thought their sufferings were over.
"We hoped we had reached the end of our long road," the letter continues, "and that from now on we could live as human beings. We were sent to an UNRRA camp at Haldern, near Dusseldorf, along with other Poles. Here life became unbearable. The Poles insulted and pestered us with anti-Semitic remarks and threats to our lives. We do not want to return to Poland because they are killing off the remaining Jews there. The Poles in our camp promised to slay us should we dare to return to our native town."
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.
