‘I have been in the concentration camp Auschwitz since June 14…’

Tadeusz Korczowski received the prisoner number 373 and his brother, 625. Both brothers were released from the camp in October 1941. Tadeusz Korczowski did not gain complete freedom.

After his incarceration in Katowice and Kraków prisons, he was sent as a forced farm labourer to Germany in the vicinity of Hannover.

In April 1942, he was released due to ill health and returned to Rzeszów. Again he engaged himself in the activities of the resistance movement and joined the Home Army.

After the end of the war Tadeusz Korczowski was arrested by the communist secret police in 1945. He was kept in prisons in Rzeszów, Kraków, Bytom, Warsaw, Łódź, Poznań, and Rawicz until January 1946. He was released at the beginning of 1946. Tadeusz Korczowski settled with his family in Gliwice where he worked as an engineer until his retirement. He died in 1997.

Imprisoned along with them were those who organized secret border crossings and smuggled volunteers for the Polish Army to Hungary, among them–mountain guides, as well as numerous members of clandestine organizations, such as the Union for Armed Struggle established in the autumn of 1939 or the White Eagle Organization (OOB) operating at the lands of Sądecczyzna.

The large group of young people, including scouts, was deported to Auschwitz on June 14 as well.

They had been arrested in the Extraordinary Operation of Pacification (Aussenordentliche Befriedungsaktion, AB), the German occupiers’ campaign against the Polish intelligentsia.

Deported in the first transport were also civilians caught during street round-ups.

Among the remaining deported were representatives of different professions: teachers, lawyers, priests, landowners, sportsmen...

..., military men, doctors, musicians, and craftsmen. At least 11 prisoners were of Jewish origin.

Prisoners sent letters once or twice a month in different periods of the operation of the camp.

At first, prisoners wrote letters on stamped sheets of paper and then on special blanks (with printed instruction and sections to be completed).

Prisoners could buy them in the camp commissary or, if they were not sent money by their families on the black market.

Apart from the official correspondence prisoners often took the risk and tried to smuggle illegal correspondence–outside the camp. Secret messages had a form of small paper rolls covered in tiny writing.

Some letters were coded. Secret messages sent outside the camp aimed at forwarding information about the camp to the activists of the Polish Government-in-Exile in London.

Secret messages exchanged between the particular parts of the camp included information collected by the members of the resistance movement or personal messages for relatives and friends.

They were carried by prisoners who could move throughout the camp because of their camp duties, e.g. prisoners working in transport Kommandos (work details), performing repairs and installations, or messengers.

A toy-devil donated by the Museum by former prisoner Kazimierz Hałoń. The toy was used to smuggle out messages, especially during the holiday seasons.
Source: Collections Department A-BSM

Secret messages smuggled outside were often put in arranged hiding places located outside the camp where prisoners worked. They were picked up at night by the members of the local resistance movement.

Polish civilian workers, who were meeting prisoners during work, acted as intermediaries and forwarded secret messages. They smuggles them in specially prepared hiding objects such as keys, pencils, shoes, and bikes.

My Bellowed Halunia! Since June 14 I’ve been in the Auschwitz concentration camp. I am healthy and feel fine. Please follow an instruction on exchanging letters strictly and write soon.

You are allowed to send me money. Next time send more. Dearest Mommy, best and most sincere wishes of happiness on your name day. Best regards and many kisses for all of you. Warmest kisses for you.
Yours, Tad

Letter of (the date on the postmark) August 31, 1940. My Beloved Ones,
I would like to thank you very much fot the letter and money that I received on August 9 now please provide me with more information–how are you, where is everybody, do they work.

Now I would like to ask if there would be a place for me in the gimnazjum at the begining of the school year. The time here is running very quickly at work and in good health. I am waiting for a moment when we will be together again. Please prepare yourself well for winter and Halunia should take care of shoes.

Write shortly, but about everything. If I need money, I will write. Do you have any news from Skruda, what the Olko family is doing. Are they both in Krynica? Are they working in Lipowa? I am constantly thinking of you. Please take a good care of each other. My Sweetie, for sure, will have become a good housekeeper by the time I return. Give my best to everybody.
With sincere kisses,
Tad.

Auschwitz, Sept. 1, 1940.
My Beloved Mommy and Halunia, Our letters met each other on the way and I received yours on Aug. 28. Please respond, but quickly and clearly, where you are employed, what the Father, the Olko family, and also the others are doing.

From your last letter I couldn’t draw any particular conclusions.
Halusia already writes quite well in German and please try to learn German yourself as soon as possible. We miss you very much, but we hope to be together in the near future.

Thank you for greetings from Skruda and Czubo and I’m sending them my regards.

Mommy, I kiss your dearest hands and Halusia’s beloved and most beautiful lips.
Tad

Oct. 5, 1940
My Bellowed Mommy and Halusia,
It was a letter I am very grateful for. Please always write in such way. Not all news was cheerful, however, I am happy that you, Mommy, got a job–it’s something distant considering it’s in the autumn, but such is your fate Mommy.

I could write a lot about our feelings when we are thinking about you at home, but it is better to focus on labour in the camp. At present, I don’t know anything about my release, but we think that it will be soon.

My dear Halusia, unfortunately, we do not have here enough space for a weeding photo and it can’t be sent here. Please write how you’ve managed to make a living and take care of yourself, always keep calm and be in a good mood. Our entire future is in our hands and until then we can’t start our life together. When everything returns to normal, then we will spend our life just as we both imagined it. Thank you for greetings from Skruda and Grodziec.

It’s nice that everybody is thinking of me that much. Take every opportunity to give my regards to all relatives and friends and write how things are going.
I kiss your dearest hands Mommy, and your beloved lips and Face Halusia.
Yours, Tad

Prisoner – a Pole
Thadeus Korczowski
Born July 7, 1914, prisoner no. 373, Block 3a
Concentration camp of Auschwitz (Oświęcim)

Of course, the most important is how things are at home; are you healthy, how do you deal with all matters without men’s help?
I am waiting impatiently for your letters, they make me calm in the upcoming weeks.
Give my regards to everybody and send most sincere kisses to Father from his beloved son.

Please send me more money because I have already spent everything.

Always be full of hope that everything will pass and we will be happy together again.
I kiss your dearest hands Mommy, and bright eyes and lips Hanusia.
Yours,
Tad

To avoid questions to the camp authorities and guarantee a prompt mail delivery, please follow the instructions:
1. Write letters in German
2. Registered letters are forbidden
3. Send envelops without lining

4. Send German stamps
5. Photographs in letters are forbidden
6. Sending money in letters is forbidden
7. Write two letters a month
If all instructions are followed, each letter will be promptly delivered or sent.