Farewell letter from two prisoners who headed the French Football Association before the war, and perished - Martin Vrijens and Joseph schutters. They passed through Breendonck, Gusen and Mauthausen camps. In Mauthausen they were part of the Sonderkommando unit that dealt with transporting corpses for burial. The letter is printed, in the name of family members and friends of sports - June 3, 1945. Stencil printing with minor corrections in handwriting. French.
"Beatings and barbaric torture were part of your lot in Breendonck, then you were deported, loaded onto cattle cars, with little food and drink, sent on the great journey to the terror camp of Mauthausen where Breendonck was only a shadow of it... You lived in the most miserable conditions imaginable, inhuman cruelty that Hitler and his gang invented... Every day slave labor in hunger and exhaustion and every day carrying friends who were murdered to their final resting place, these probably influenced your exhausted bodies more than anything , and so your harsh lives continued until finally your tormented bodies could no longer resist the bestial treatment and death came to free you from your plight... At your funeral there were no family members to accompany you, no sports friends who came to bid farewell to their leaders... Dear Martin and Joseph... You were the pillars of our Football Association... You died heroes' deaths... We hope the atrocities you had to endure will never pass again into history... Oh friends, shout louder and louder so that everyone may hear, nation, freedom, homeland, and peace".
Martin died in torture in February 1943, and Joseph was murdered in February 1942 in Mauthausen.
[1] Leaf. 33x21 cm. Fold marks. Overall good condition
