1943 (19 Jan) Third Reich, Germany, Censored Folded Letter of a later Crucial Prosecution Witness from Auschwitz Concentration Camp to Warsaw Generalgouvernement, Censorship Postmarks, More Details in Description

This is an official censored letter sheet sent from the Auschwitz Concentration Camp (K.L. Auschwitz). The correspondence was written inside the camp on January 17, 1943, and processed through the camp's postal system two days later on January 19, 1943.
The letter is addressed to Warsaw-Praga, Poland

The sender of the letter is Edmund Cichocki, who signs the letter with his Polish nickname "Mundek". Based on the camp records and the handwritten headings on the envelope, his profile is documented as follows:
Edmund Cichocki Date of Birth: June 17, 1915 (written in Roman numerals as 17.VI.1915) He has the prisoner number 41654.
His registration date was June 26, 1942 (the date this specific number series was issued to Polish political prisoners in Auschwitz I).

Historical Significance: Cichocki survived the horrors of Auschwitz. Following the war, in September 1947, he became a crucial prosecution witness before the Supreme National Tribunal of Poland during the prominent Auschwitz Trial in Kraków. His detailed testimonies (archived at the Pilecki Institute in the Zapisy Terroru / Chronicles of Terror) heavily incriminated senior SS camp personnel regarding selections and abuses in Block 11.

The document illustrates the total control the SS exercised over prisoner communication, serving as a propaganda tool to deceive the outside world:
Mandatory German Language: Although Cichocki and his family were Polish, the entire letter had to be written in German. The camp administration prohibited any other language to make the text easily readable for the SS censors.
Cichocki writes standard phrases required by the authorities, such as "Ich bin auch gesund und fühle mich gut" ("I am also healthy and feel good"). Any mention of the true, brutal camp conditions, starvation, or illnesses would result in the immediate destruction of the letter.
The envelope lists strict rules for the recipient. Prisoners were only allowed to send and receive two letters per month, limited to 15 lines per page. It also explicitly notes new limits on incoming food packages, stating they must not exceed 250 grams (a single day's ration).

On the bottom right of the interior page, the ink stamp "Geprüft 12 K. L. Auschwitz" ("Checked [by Censor] 12, Concentration Camp Auschwitz") is visible. This indicates that a specific SS censor read and approved the content before it was cleared for mailing.

Provenance: Ex Werbizky.