Without the Right of Correspondence
Description
Sketch by Michail Distergeft. Families who sought information on the fate of family members who had been executed were often greeted with the lie that their loved one had been sentenced to a forced labor camp "without the right of correspondence." Consequently, the phrase become a synonym for execution in prisoner language. In the sketch, a guard with a gun stands looking down at a prisoner who has been shot in the head.
Creator
Michail Distergeft
Source
Memorial Germany and International Memorial Society, Moscow
Bibliographic Citation
Michail Distergeft, "Without the Right of Correspondence." Gulag: Many Days, Many Lives, Item #125 (accessed May 27 2021, 1:13 pm)
Collection
Memorial.De