Letters written by Auschwitz doctor offer rare look at wartime family ties

A collection of letters and documents belonging to Dr. Jan Nowak, a non-Jewish Polish physician imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps, has been donated to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum. The archive, donated by Marek Trybulski, includes a letter from Nowak written in Auschwitz, seven letters from his relatives, postcards, and other wartime documents. Nowak, who worked in camp hospitals at Auschwitz, Majdanek, Gross-Rosen, and Flossenbürg, was eventually liberated and later testified against SS officers. Despite strict censorship and prohibitions on detailing camp conditions, the correspondence reveals the importance of family ties for prisoners. Trybulski stated, "Documents like these should not be traded," emphasizing their historical significance. Wojciech Płosa, head of the Museum Archives, noted, "Reading these documents, we can see how important the bond was that prisoners tried to maintain with their families."