PRIVATE SHIPMENTS

Delivery of internal correspondence was one of the main tasks of the post office, especially after the correspondence blockade.

Internal correspondence between private individuals may be surprising given the small size of the ghetto. However, mobility difficulties resulting from long hours of work, illness and exhaustion, especially when crossing footbridges, meant that contact with family and friends was maintained by mail.

People tried to continue the tradition of sending wishes for holidays, religious celebrations or birthdays. Many of the wishes were addressed to Chairman Rumkowski. The intentions behind these messages probably had a different meaning: from the gesture of courtesy towards a pre-war friend to the desire to please him in hopes of some profit.

On the occasion of Rumkowski’s wedding to Regina Wajnberger on December 27, 1941, the ghetto post office delivered over 600 congratulatory messages.

In 1943, a pre-printed telegram form was compiled to send good wishes. It was used only for internal purposes, with text in German and Yiddish. Single preserved copies of filled telegrams indicate that only the elite of the ghetto used that method of communication, as it was largely symbolic, meant to create an appearance of normality. Telegrams sent in 1944 are labelled with a date stamp used in the ghetto. 

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