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Documents
[213]
Discharge Certificate as Death Warrant.
Extract from the files of the Criminal Police Office of the Reich –
Special commission in Bromberg – Ref. No. Tgb. V. (RKPA) 1486/24.39.
On Sept. 2, 1939, the minority German Eugen
Hofmann, merchant of Bromberg, was seized
and put into the womens' prison of Bromberg through the initiative of Isidor Berger, the Jewish
Polish A. R. P. Commander of this area. On Sept. 4, he was released from imprisonment and a
certificate of discharge, as shown by photostatic print herein, was handed to him.
The same discharge certificate was received by all minority Germans
released at the same
time as Hofmann. Of these, all with the exception of Hofmann were murdered on Sept. 4.
The curious certificate of discharge, of which the translated text is as
follows: "Hofmann,
Eugen, of this town discharged today in accordance with the decree of the President of the
Republic. Bromberg, Sept 4, 1939. Seal: Police arrest L. dz. 4/9/1939. Two illegible signatures,"
represents, according to previous findings, an order to the Polish authorities to kill the bearer
of such a discharge certificate. Hofmann escaped the death destined for him only by the fact
that he went to his relations in Bromberg and stayed there until the entry of the German troops,
without his unforseen presence there being discovered.
(Signed) Dr. Wehner, Criminal
Commissar.
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