How could people receive letters in labor camps?
AK: Very little has been written about the complex network of Nazi labor camps, where conditions were far better than the death camps. Sala was in seven different labor camps altogether, part of a slave labor force called “Organization Schmelt” that was attached mainly to construction projects or factories. Until late in 1943, prisoners in the Schmelt camps were allowed to receive letters and packages, mailed through the regular Third Reich postal system. “But then we were supposed to return them,” she explained. “You could be beaten if you were caught with anything personal.” She risked her life to preserve the letters — hiding them from guards during line-ups, handing them off to friends and even burying them. The beautiful birthday cards that my mother received in 1944 and 1945 were not mailed but were smuggled from one room of the camp barracks to another. Q: Why are there suddenly more books and discussion about the Holocaust, at least some of it generated by survivors’ children
