Description
EXTRAORDINARY & IMPOSSIBLE once-in-a-wartime postal link: 27 Sept 1941 postmarked cover from VIENNA (GERMANY) to addressee "J. Davidai" (i.e. Jewish name) at Kibbutz "GINNEGAR [via] Afula Palestine via ANKARA Turkey", franked 25pf per period rate for overseas surface mail (other than to Hungary & former Czechoslovakia) using a Hindenburg medallion single adhesive stamp & tied by single strike of local postmark; the cover was opened & resealed by the censor office in VIENNA (letter code "G" on the seal), which handled mail for the Balkans & Turkey; backstamped by faint Turkish machine cancel + ANKARA transit postmark and address corrected to indicate ongoing transmission - **and ARRIVED**: opened & sealed by HAIFA censor 71/10533 (per Sacher known operating until 30 Nov 1941) using red/yellow tape (Sach #Q10) and backstamped 1 DEC 1941 AFFULA arrival; the 3-digit handstamps on the front & back are probably German sorting numbers, the 6-digit handstamp on the front may be Turkish.
Extraordinary mail: the UK declared war on Germany on 3 Sept. 1939 & Palestine suspended all postal services with Germany for incoming and outgoing mail on 6 Sept. 1939; ironically there is no record of an official German declaration of war on the UK but de facto the British declaration + suspensions of postal services were surely reciprocated, for which intricate postal systems were implemented via the Red Cross and Lisbon post office boxes. At the time of this mail dispatch the German invasion of the Soviet Union was in its 2nd month.
Also procedurally a unique postal item as it overcame a number of key censorship restrictions: per German censorship regulations, overseas mail had to be deposited in-person at the postal counter and with the presentation of personal ID - here a risky step as the cover was addressed to enemy territory, a criminal act; the sender's name and address had to appear not just on the cover but on all the pages of his letter (such censor instructional labels exist) - the cover was not return addressed; and no Hebrew writing - here the Jewish name was simply in Latin letters.
Here a unique method of sending mail to an enemy territory by way of adding routing via a 3rd party neutral country - a criminal act on the part of the sending party, for communicating with an enemy country (who wisely did not write a return address on the back, something that also didn't get sanctioned on the cover by the wartime postal service); astounding as the cover passed both the German post office and censor. To emphasize the degree of censorship practiced, attached for illustrative purposes are images of other 1940-1941 era German-originating mail destined abroad, censored. Under these circumstances the dispatch and transmission were probably only possible due to a special favor/friendship between the postal clerk and the sender. Two month transit time very reasonable in light of the wartime conditions & recent turmoil in the East. Sent from a firmly controlled & restricted continent of some 400 million people - a mail "one out of 400 million"; the only one of its kind known. Slit open at top.
The addressee was probably Yehuda Davidai, married to Bracha, whose son Alexander was born in the kibbutz of Ginnegar in 1925 and was killed (Sept 1948) during the War of Independence.
A must-have showpiece for the collector who has "everything".
