1933-1946 Holocaust era Philately & Ephemera

Mail to/from Romania on the eve of Jewish persecution: 1 SEPT 1940 postcard from TEL AVIV to sender's mother at in PUTNA Romania ("Judetul Radauti Bukovina" - Radauti county in Bukovina), written in German, franked 10m per 8m overseas postcard rate & tied by single strike of local postmark; passed Palestine Censor T6(?) either on dispatch or return; unclear double-ringed transit mark on local post...

Wartime incoming civilian mail: 8 X 1940 cover from KOLOZSVAR (Klausenburg) Hungary to TEL AVIV, franked 40f per period surface rate to Palestine; passed T5 censor (Sach-21a) in TEL AVIV. Rare origin & period: locale occupied by Hungary a month earlier (from Romania 11 Sept.); Hungary entered WWII shortly after, on 20 Nov. 1940. Locale was home-town of important Sanz-Klausenburg Hassidic dynasty. ...

Wartime outbound civilian mail: 22 OCT 1940 registered postcard in German from HAIFA (return addressed Maabarot) to Soviet-occupied LVOV franked 25m using Ba #93/99 per period surface mail rate (10m postcard + 15m registry fee) & tied by full strike HAIFA NAHLA B.O. postmark (GD-120); same day REG HAIFA transit; received LVOV 2-12-40 but as address unknown, marked such (manuscript & French instruc...

Wartime incoming civilian mail: 5 NOV 1940 uprated registered postcard from Soviet-occupied BEREZHANY to HAIFA, in German between 2 Jews, franked 80Kop (2 franks may be missing - postage period rate was 1.10R) & tied by 3 strikes of Berezhany Tarnopol Oblast postmark; passed Palestine Censor H22 & front-stamped 10 JA 41 REG HAIFA arrival, but re-routed to hospital in PETACH TIKVA: front-stamped ne...

WWII mail from Soviet occupied Lithuania: 10 MAR 1941 postmarked Lithuanian postal card with long message in Hebrew-written Yiddish (seems to be 2 messages from 2 different people), from VILNA to care-of addressee in TEL AVIV, here franked with Soviet postage of 30 kopeks (per 1 May 1936 postage rate period surface rate for overseas postcards) - Boyle notes that Soviet postage on mail became manda...

WWII mail from Soviet occupied Lithuania: 13-03-1941 postmarked cover from VILNA to care-of addressee in TEL AVIV, here franked with Soviet postage of 50 kopeks (per 1 May 1936 postage rate period surface rate for 20g overseas letters) & tied by local postmark - Boyle notes that Soviet postage on mail became mandatory on 25 March (eg. almost 10 days later); open/sealed by the pink/black 70/5833 Te...

Holocaust-era 2-way correspondence after Hungary's occupation of Yugoslavia: 26 MAY 1941 dated message in German on British Red Cross/Order of St. John Red Cross "postal message scheme" contact form, sent from daughter in JERUSALEM to mother in recently Hungarian-occupied UJVIDEK (NOVI SAD) in Vojvodina former Yugoslavia; the form was transmitted via the Red Cross office in GENEVA whose cachet is ...

Romania-Palestine rare WWII postal history: 23 Sept 1941 postmarked registered express postal card bearing same day dated family correspondence message in French, sent from BUCHAREST to KFAR YEHOSHUA via HAIFA; uprated with additional franking (now missing) & tied by multiple strikes of the local postmark; affixed with Romanian registry and express labels tied by a boxed Romanian CENZURAT censor m...

Censored Holocaust-era incoming Red Cross mail: 28 Jan 1942 postmarked stampless Dutch Red Cross contact form with 25 word message dated 20 Jan, sent from THE HAGUE to REHOVOT, with violet dater serving as a dispatch device; front-stamped with red French language 12 Feb 1942 dater as transit mark at the International Red Cross in GENEVA; there are no additional transit or censor marks from Europe:...

Wartime WWII/Holocaust-era 2-way Red Cross mail correspondence: stampless British Red Cross/Order St. John "postal message scheme" contact form with 25 word message dated 11 MAR 1942, from children in NAHARIYA to father in FRANKFURT; passed HAIFA censor H16 on way to overseas dispatch through Red Cross office JERUSALEM; as front-stamped by octagonal Crown censor "PASSED / P.204", letter transmitte...

Cheeky WWII/Holocaust-era Jewish-Palestinian POW mail: 9 MAY 1942 stampless prisoner of war postcard on German POW postal stationary, with message in English dated 24 April & addressed to the Workers' Council of HAIFA (here 'disguised' as "Mr. Moazat Hapoalim"), from prisoner Israel Baum at STALAG VIIIB (at LAMSDORF - aka Stalag 344) - oddly his sender's name on the return address is "Ben Chaim" (...

WWII/Holocaust-era POW mail: 24.11.1944 stampless "Kriegsgefangenpost" postcard in English from Jewish-Palestinian soldier at "Stammlager IV-D" (Stalag IV-D) [TORGAU] to HAIFA, tied by camp shield-shaped censor handstamp (Geprüft 28 Stammlager IV-D) & mute double-ring date-stamp; passed Deputy Chief Field Censor [Egypt]; message dated 15 Nov. 1944 (odd delay in dispatch); vertical fold. The camp ...

Postwar WWII illegal Jewish immigration mail service: April 1946 era postmarked commercial cover sent by a Displaced Person on board the "Dov Hoz" illegal immigrant ship & posted at LA SPEZIA Italy, addressed to MESHEK YAGUR; the franks & a portion of front are torn away - the cover would have been franked 15 Lira; backstamped with ship's bilingual circular handstamp "Repatriation Ship Fede - Dov ...

Holocaust-era Jewish mail from German-occupied Poland, outside the Ghetto: 11 NOV 1940 postmarked family correspondence registered cover from Metzger in tiny locale TUCHOW German-occupied Poland (return-addressed "Deutsche Post, Osten") to a Maurice Metzger in VICKSBURG US, franked 1.10Rm using Generalgouvernement & GG overprinted Polish stamps stamps, tied by 2x strikes of the local postmark + re...

Holocaust name-change mail: 24 June 1941 postmarked air mail cover (with original correspondence), sent by a David Israel Wharnitz residing at #24 Adolf Hitlerstrasse in KONIGSBERG to LAURELTON (Queens) in New York, franked 105 pfennig for 6 gram weight (the base 5g rate was 65pf) with manuscript jusqu'a type endorsement by the postal clerk "airmail to New York", using 2x Hindenburg medallion stam...

Holocaust-era Vilna Ghetto police permit: 18 March 1942 dated permit, improvised on a sheet of notebook paper, issued by the 3rd Police Station (precinct) at 655 (am) for a Chaim Meler to go to the employment exchange (Arbeitsamt) until 845; stamped by the station's (German) text cachet at center with the policeman's signature below + bilingual German/Lithanian form stamp at the top left. As writt...

Holocaust-era Nazi report on the Warsaw Ghetto: June 1942 dated 6-page mimeographed survey with green cover and official title plate entitled "Der Judische Wohnbezirk in Warschau (Zahlen und tatsachen)" (The Jewish residential district in Warsaw, numbers and facts). In graphs and statistics the report covers demographics, work-occupations, economy & general conditions, schooling, police, post, hea...

WWII/Holocaust era mail from the heart of darkness - Svencioneliai/Schwentschionellen (Lithuania): July 1942 postmarked registered cover sent from Lithuanian sender (Zofija Dunskiene) at "Pharmacy" (vaistine) in SVENCIONELIAI to the lime kiln ("wapiennik") of a soap manufacturer "near Krakow" ("mydlniki koło krakowa") at RZASKA in German occupied Poland.Although the sender does not indicate perso...

WWII/Holocaust-era Jewish mail on the European mainland: 5 AUG 1942 postmarked Petain-frank imprinted postal card mailed from German-occupied PARIS to PIATRA NEAMT in Romania, uprated to 3.70Fr with Petain head stamp & tied by 2x strikes of the local postmark; passed the German Army censor ("gepruft" machine cancel - probably the Paris "X" letter-code office) and then the Romanian censor; received...

WWII/Holocaust era camps > Theresienstadt/Terezin (Bohemia-Moravia/Czech Republic): 12 Jan 1943 postmarked postal dispatch receipt sent from PRAGUE to addressee Gottliebe in THERESIENSTADT, likely a Jewish inmate at the concentration camp....

Holocaust-era Hungarian conversion document: 16 March 1944 dated "extract" of the Budpest Evangelical Church confirming the conversion of 3 family members. Although the "Second Jewish Law" of 1939 had already defined Jews by race instead of just religion, thus altering the status even of those who had formerly converted from Judaism to Christianity, here on 12 March 1944 the Germans occupied Hunga...

Jewish Synagogue postcards in the Holocaust/WWII: Hungary > Gyongyos - photo montage postcard published by Weinstock of Budpest, of the town including image of the Synagogue with caption, postally used 17 June 1944, from GYONGYOS to BUDAPEST, during the Hungarian deportation of the Jews: here specifically, the deportation of the town's Jews, to Auschwitz, took place in June....

Postwar military mail: 9 FEB(?) 1947 dated stampless Soviet Red Cross POW card (1946 stationary) from camp 7399/3 in AHUM (central Russia) to HAIFA, written in German from son (Dr. Felix Eulenburg - possibly adopted) to father (Dr. Berni Ascher). Message says that the newspapers are not showing a peaceful picture Palestine (i.e. the period of the Jewish insurrection), that he can hardly rest, and ...