Archive

Search

»Wir fahren weg und wissen nicht sicher, wohin«

Anonym | »Wir fahren weg und wissen nicht sicher, wohin« | self-evidence | Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia | Aug. 12, 1943 | voi_00050

Rights held by: unknown | Provided by: Moravian State Archive Brno (Brno/Czech Republic) | Archived under: Collection A 19 | The Law Enforcement Authority of the Province of Brno | Box No. 270 | No. 2444 | Postcard Karel Holomek (1943)

Pan
Karel Holomek
Hranice
Olšovec-kamenorom

  1. srpna 1943

Milý bratře.
Musim ti zdělit že 21 srna odjiždime a nevime určitě kam jestli budu moc tak ti napišu až z mista.
Ještě tě zdraví tvá sestra a švagř

[Postkarte Vorderseite]

Herrn
Karel Holomek
Hranice
Olšovec-Steinbruch

[Postkarte Rückseite]

  1. August 1943

Lieber Bruder.
Ich muss dir mitteilen, dass wir am 21. August wegfahren, und wir wissen nicht sicher, wohin. Wenn möglich, werde ich dir von dort aus schreiben.
Dich grüßen auch deine Schwester und Schwager

[Postcard front]

Mr
Karel Holomek
Hranice
Olšovec-Steinbruch

[Postcard back]

12 August 1943

Dear Brother.
I want to let you know that we’re leaving on 21 August, and we don’t know for certain to where. If possible, I’ll write to you from there.
Your sister and brother-in-law send their love, too.

Raj
Karel Holomek
Hranice
Olšovec-Steinbruch

[Postaki kartaki paluni rig]

  1. Avgusto 1943 berš

Muro drago phral.
Kamav te phenav tuke kaj amen akatar ka džastar ko 21. Avgusto, thaj či džanas čačes kaj. Te šaj, me ka hramosarav tuke odothar.
Tiri phen thaj to džamutro bičhalen tuke baxt thaj sastipe.

Credits

Rights held by: unknown | Provided by: Moravian State Archive Brno (Brno/Czech Republic) | Archived under: Collection A 19 | The Law Enforcement Authority of the Province of Brno | Box No. 270 | No. 2444 | Postcard Karel Holomek (1943)

Playlist

Lesung des Selbstzeugnisses Verwandten von Karel Holomek
0.31 min
voi_00110
Lesung des Selbstzeugnisses Verwandten von Karel Holomek | Spoken word | Germany | 2018 | voi_00110
EN

Contextualisation

At the Hodonín ‘Gypsy camp’

From August 1942, a part of the Romani population in Moravia was deported to Hodonín u Kunštátu, a penal labour camp that had been run by the Protectorate government since August 1940. Within a year, almost 1,400 men, women and children were sent to the camp, which, strongly resembling a concentration camp, now functioned as a ‘Gypsy camp’. There they suffered from malnutrition, a lack of drinking water and poor hygienic conditions as well as appalling living quarters in overcrowded wooden barracks, confiscated wagons and even tents. All persons above the age of ten had to perform forced labour. Acts of violence by the Czech overseers exacerbated the already dire situation. At least 207 internees fell victim to the horrific conditions and the rampant epidemics arising from the lack of medical care. From the Hodonín camp, internees were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. At first, those Roma stigmatized as ‘asocial’ and thus deemed undesirable were deported. The majority of the camp’s inmates were then transported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp on 21 August 1943. Relatives of Karel Holomek, whose names are not known, sent him this brief postcard from the Hodonín camp; at the time, Holomek was deployed in a forced labour detail at a quarry in Olšovec, a satellite camp of a ‘correctional labour camp’ in Brno. In the postcard they informed him of their imminent transportation to an unknown destination. The Hodonín camp was disbanded at the beginning of December 1943.

After years of controversy, the Czech state acquired the grounds of the former camp in 2009 to establish a memorial site.

Source: Ctibor Nečas: Jedinečné dokumenty. In: Romano džaniben 1/2005, S. 41–44

Dušan Slačka (2018)

Playlist

Lesung des Selbstzeugnisses Verwandten von Karel Holomek
0.31 min
voi_00110
Lesung des Selbstzeugnisses Verwandten von Karel Holomek | Spoken word | Germany | 2018 | voi_00110
EN

Details

übersetzer Titel
‘We’re leaving and we don’t know for certain to where’
übersetzer Titel
»Amen ka džastar akatar thaj či džanas čačes kaj«
Production
Aug. 12, 1943
Credits
Production Credits
  • Anonym (Author) (Hodonín, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia)
Object Category
Material
Technique
Object Number
voi_00050

Archive Section

Associated Terms & People

period 1933 - 1945