WWII concentration camp mail -- Dachau, 7 June 1944, to Pétange
When I find a prisoner-of-war or concentration camp cover, I often wonder who the writer was and what happened to them. One such cover is shown above. It was sent from Dachau in June 1944 by Luxembourger Johann Scholtes of Pétange, who was born in Roeser on 20 November 1892.
The Dachau records indicate that Scholtes was transferred to Dachau on 26 February 1944 from the Hinzert concentration camp, where many members of the Luxembourg resistance were confined. He was assigned No. 64388 and imprisoned in Block 2/2 3K.
The United States Army liberated the Dachau concentration camp on 29 April 1945. Some 428 days after he had arrived, Johann Scholtes was one of the prisoners liberated on that day. Presumably he was repatriated to Luxembourg, although I don’t know the rest of his story.
Here is his letter home, still contained in the cover, and bearing the Dachau camp postal censor’s cachet at the end:
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