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...

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...

Holocaust-era 2-way correspondence on the eve of 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 ca...

Censored Holocaust-era incoming Red Cross mail: 28 JAN 1942 stampless Dutch Red Cross contact form with 25 word message dated 20 Jan, from THE HAGUE to REHOVOT, dispatched with dater; in transit 12 FEB 1942 in IRC Geneva; censored (in Palestine?) and text cut out; passed Palestine censor in TEL AVIV (2 strikes sexagonal cachet) & marked by rare "Imperial Censorship, Palestine... form may not be us...

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 Chai...

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 (Gepr?ft 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 w...

Postwar incoming civilian mail: 30.4.1946 commercial cover from LA SPEZIA to MESHEK YAGUR sent by a Displaced Person on board the "Dov Hoz" illegal immigrant ship (stopped by British at the locale in the "La Spezia Affair" of 4 April - 19 May): stamps & portion of front torn away - would have been franked 15 Lira; backstamped with ship's bilingual circular cachet "Repatriation Ship Fede - Dov Hos"...

Holocaust-era Jewish mail from German-occupied Poland, outside the Ghetto: 11 NOV 1940 postmarked family correspondence registered cover from Metzger in 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 + registry l...

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,...

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; rece...

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 Hung...

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....

Holocaust-era Auschwitz II-Birkenau Briefaktion (Operation Mail): 8 JULY 1944 dated handwritten message on neutral postal card, franked 6pf at the period inland postcard rate using a Hitler-head single stamp & tied by machine slogan cancel ("Pack army packages well and sturdily!") - now partly removed; the sender is a female, born 1877 at "Arbeitslager Birkenau" and the addressee is a female i...

Hungarian WWII/Holocaust-era Jewish mail: AUG 1944 local BUDAPEST registered cover from the "Jewish radio license reporting" bureau at Post Office 112 BUDAPEST to a Vilmos Litzmann, tied by the bureau's green boxed cachet ("Zsid? r?di? enged?ly adatszolg?ltat?s") + signature endorsement for official mail reduced postage (70 Filler for the registry fee instead of 1 Pengo for the additonal base lett...

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 ...