The Third Reich Study Group NEWS SHEET · 2019. 8. 13. · DIARY DATES & EPILOGUE: The schedule for...

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In this issue :

DEAR MEMBER: A special commentary by John Rawlings – page 2

STATE of the MEMBERSHIP:

Our growing list of New Members to the Group – page 2

ENQUIRIES: ‘New Enquiries’ and ‘Results of Enquiries’ – page 3

GERMANY IN TURMOIL 1918-1933, THE RISE OF NATIONAL SOCIALISM:

First in a two-part series from a display by Tony Hickey – pages 4 thru 7

THE SPECIAL CANCELS AND SERIENSTEMPEL FOR THE HITLER YOUTH: More of the cancels in this ‘Part 4’ of the series – pages 8 & 9

K.d.F. CRUISE MAIL 1935, THE “COLUMBUS” – THE ODD ONE OUT:

A look at maritime mail by John Rawlings – pages 10 thru 12

OVERPRINTED POLISH STAMPS FOR USE IN THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT: First of a three part series by Bob Jones – pages 13 thru 17

NEW BOOKS:

A look at new literature for our hobby – page 18

INFORMATION ON THE UPCOMING G & C.P.S. AGM FOR 2018 IN STOKE: by Giles du Boulay – page 19

INFLATION BUSTING DEALS ON PHILATELIC ITEMS FOR G & C.P.S. MEMBERS:

– page 19

DIARY DATES & EPILOGUE: The schedule for upcoming local meetings of the G & C.P.S. around the regions and a brief note from the editor with upcoming articles planned for the September issue

of the News Sheet – page 20

The Third Reich Study Group

NEWS SHEETGroup Leader:

John Rawlings, 58 Crantock Road, Catford, London SE6 2QP

June 2018No. 173

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News Sheet No.173 June 2018

Dear Member I have watched from the wings as it were for over a year now as Bob Jones quickly and confidently came to terms with the editorship and I must say that I have been both pleased and impressed. In my opinion all the changes he has made and the continued high standard of the content and presentation of the research have had wide appeal and the consequent increase in membership (now 111) have put us back roughly where we were two or three years ago. Continuity has been maintained in long running projects such as the index and the Souvenir Sheet handbook and his own contributions have added new topics to our already wide coverage. In short I believe we can look forward to the immediate future with confidence but I became concerned when a quick check on the contents of NS168 to 172 showed that (new blood or no) Bob too will be faced with the problem that has haunted editors in many spheres throughout the ages - how can I fill the next magazine? Single pages, pictures, paragraphs and queries are all very helpful but it’s the multipage contribution that he knows he can really rely on that brighten an editor’s day and the quick check I mentioned earlier showed that, not only does Bob currently have only five such contributors, but that he himself is top of the list, having made major contributions to all five issues. It’s a situation that I also had to deal with quite often myself but at least I could often get help from our American counterparts, Alf Harper, Peter Rickenback or one of several keen collectors now (alas) no longer with us. Bob, I suspect, is not so lucky, and his own brief article in News Sheet 168 trying to encourage potential contributors leads me to believe that he has been aware of the problem from the start. For any one contemplating taking up the challenge for the first time I can only add that it does not have to be a lone venture. Advice and help are there for the asking and, from personal experience, I must emphasise that there is no better way to learn about the postal history of an issue than to set out to tell the story yourself. We, as a group, have been engaged in the research for the last 44 years but the Third Reich is such a vast and varied collecting area that it is always interesting to check out the index to see how much has already been written about your own favourite topic and, if it is something like the Hitler Head Definitives, Railway mail, Party Officials, Naval mail, or mail from occupied areas such as Norway, Holland, Luxemburg, Alsace, Lorraine, or France you may be surprised to find that you will be breaking completely new ground. Give your support to Bob by taking up the challenge to ‘WRITE NOW’.

Good luck and best wishes…………. John Rawlings

Due to the appalling weather at the start of the month of March, the scheduled meeting of the G & C.P.S. for the 3rd March was postponed and a joint meeting along with our Study Group was arranged for 24th March. At the meeting the display was the one planned for the G & C.P.S. meeting “Propaganda in Germany 1919-1933” by Tony Hickey. Although not strictly ‘Third Reich’ the display was excellent and did show a lot of items from the N.S.D.A.P. prior to the coming of power in 1933. Over the next two News Sheets a condensed article from Tony will appear from his interesting and well illustrated display (starting on page 4).

Bob Jones

State of the Membership New Members We would like to welcome the following new members to our Study Group. They are: Mike Dadds - Axminster, Devon, EX13 7SY

David Haig - Netherton, Wishaw, ML2 0DW

Colin Wood - Crossways, Three Bridges, Sussex, RH10 1XS

Al Pukala - Chesterfield Twp., Michigan, 48051, U.S.A.

Due to my error in the last ‘New Members’ section, Giles du Boulay should not have appeared as a member and has therefore requested to be removed. Sorry for the mistake Giles. Ed.

114 Our total membership now stands at:

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Enquiries New Enquiries Enq. 3/18 I recently came across the two cards shown below. They seem to have been printed to advertise the

‘One Pot Meal’ initiative. I would like to know if any member has seen cards like these before. They are unused and there is no indication of when they were printed or by whom. The address side of the cards is common to both.

The cards were designed by a ‘G. Lambertz’. By checking the calendar dates on the front of the cards,

they could be from 1934/35. The translation of the text on the cards read (card on the left): “The dates here, remember them, it’s your duty: Stews”. The second card in translation reads: “Thanks to each helper again today for all donations in the winter time, also for the donation given bringing much joy to Easter”. Does anyone know when the “One Pot Meal” initiative ended as the next year(s) that coincide with the calendar dates shown on the cards are 1945/46.

Results of Enquiries Enq. 1/18 Our member Ben Beede got in touch with this suggestion to Steve Clark’s enquiry:

“I think that the cover that Steve Clark reported with a 12Rpf stamp but 18Rpf postage due probably weighed enough to require 24Rpf in postage. Otherwise, there is no answer, I believe”.

Enq. 2/18 Ben Beede also has his theory on Alex MacIntosh’s cover:

“The cover that Alex MacIntosh asked about is, indeed, a puzzle. The item was properly paid for the registration service that was intended. The lines through the stamps are odd. If the cover had been sent within the stamp delivery district between small postal installations without going through a post office then “cancelling” the stamps with lines through them was perfectly proper. However, the cover was, allegedly, sent between regional postal administrations, not within the same delivery district”.

In a comment on Steve Clark’s article in the last News Sheet about the ‘Swiss Ärztemission at the Eastern Front’, which ended with the sentence “I would be very interested if any other member could expand on our geographic (and philatelic) knowledge of this subject.”, Ben Beede says:

“With respect to Steve Clark’s article about the Swiss medical missions on the Russian Front, I want to mention a fairly detailed article on pages 38 to 42 of the Mitteilungsblatt No. 118/94 of the Motivgruppe Rotes Kreuz about the subject. I think other issues of the Red Cross study group publication have information about the medical missions. An inquiry with the group might be useful”.

Our thanks go to Ben Beede for his input in our ‘Enquiries’ section and for the above information.

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Germany in Turmoil 1918 – 1933

The Rise of National Socialism by Tony Hickey

Part 1 On the 9th November 1918, with Socialist uprisings in Berlin and other large cities in Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm II consented to abdicate. General Wilhelm Groener informed him that the officers and men of the army would return home in good order under Hindenburg’s command, but would not fight for Wilhelm’s throne. On the 10th November 1918 the ex-Kaiser, now as an ordinary citizen, crossed the border into neutral Holland. Upon the conclusion of the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919, article 227 expressly provided for the prosecution of Wilhelm but Queen Wilhelmina refused to extradite him.

The Naval Order of the 24th October 1918 and the preparations to sail and engage the British Fleet triggered a mutiny which precipitated a General Revolution in Germany that swept away the old parliamentary system and made way for a Social Democratic Government. The Nationalistic Parties that also emerged through the Kaiser’s abdication and Germany’s defeat all promoted the same myth that the German Army had not been defeated in the field as it still occupied parts of Belgium and Northern France but “Stabbed in the Back” by politicians in Berlin and the German delegation that had signed the armistice at Compiègne. These men were to become known as “The November Criminals”. Federal elections were held in Germany on the 19th January 1919, although members of the standing army in the East voted on the 2nd February. These elections were the first of the new Weimar Republic following World War I and the Revolution of 1918–1919. It was also the first German election held using proportional representation and with women’s suffrage. The “Weimar Republic” was so named, as for safety reasons, due the “Red Insurrection” in Berlin, the new government sat in Weimar.

The Bolshevik Threat

They shall not rob us of our homeland!

Above: A demonstration of German sailors in Wilhelmshaven in November 1918.

Above: A caricature of the Kaiser crossing the Dutch border.

Translation: Out into the distance

out into the wide world everything is now “bankrupt”

but I have a lot of money!

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News Sheet No.173 June 2018 Germany in Turmoil 1918 – 1933, The Rise of National Socialism (cont.)

Founded in Munich by Anton Drexler in early 1919, the German Workers Party was created as a means to draw workers away from communism and into völkisch nationalism. It emerged from the German nationalist, racist and populist Freikorps paramilitary culture, which fought against the communist uprisings in post-war Germany. Corporal Hitler was assigned by the army to keep an eye on some of these emerging political parties and visited a meeting of the Munich based DAP in July 1919. At another meeting of the party in September, Hitler made such an impressive speech that Drexler persuaded him to join the party as member No. 555 (to look bigger than they were party membership numbering started at 500). Among early members of the party were Ernst Rӧhm, Rudolf Hess, Dietrich Eckhart, Hans Frank and Alfred Rosenberg. In general, the manifesto was anti-Semitic, anti-capitalist, anti-democratic, anti-Marxist and anti-liberal. To increase its appeal to larger segments of the population, on the same day as Hitler’s Hofbräuhaus speech on the 24th February 1920, the DAP changed its name to the National-sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (“National Socialist German Workers’ Party”). The word “Socialist” was added by the party’s executive committee, over Hitler’s objections, to help appeal to left-wing workers. Hitler’s talent as an orator and his ability to draw new members, combined with his characteristic ruthlessness, soon made him the dominant figure, and on the 29th July 1921, he replaced Drexler as party chairman by a vote of 533 to 1.

The committee was dissolved, and Hitler was granted nearly absolute power as the party’s sole leader, a post he would hold for the remainder of his life. He soon acquired the title Führer (“leader”). His aims were the overthrow of the Weimar Republic, which he saw as controlled by the socialists, Jews and the “November criminals” who had betrayed the German soldiers in 1918 and to repudiate the Treaty of Versailles. The SA (“storm troopers”, also known as “Brownshirts”) were founded as a party militia in 1921 and began violent attacks on other parties. Following the French occupation of the Ruhr in 1923, Albert Leo Schlageter led a group of nationalists in sabotage operations against the occupying force. The group managed to derail a number of trains but on the 7th April 1923 information on Schlageter and his activities was obtained by the French, and he was arrested the following day. Tried by court-martial he was condemned to death and executed on Golzheimer Heath near Düsseldorf on the 26th May. Schlageter was elevated to the level of folk hero by the National Socialists and a Monument was erected on his place of execution.

Inscription on the card; Black the Future, Red the Present,

Gold the Past.

Left: A propaganda postcard which reads – “The Cry for Help

Rhein u. Essen No

You Must Never Forget”.

Adolf Hitler.

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In the summer of 1923 Hitler mounted a furious propaganda campaign in Bavaria against the Weimar Republic and aligned the party with Erich von Ludendorff, the distinguished 1st World War General who had became a prominent nationalist leader and a promoter of the Stab-in-the-back myth. This stated that the German loss in World War I was caused by the betrayal of the German Army by Marxists, Bolsheviks, and Jews who were furthermore responsible for the disadvantageous settlement negotiated for Germany in the Treaty of Versailles. He took part in Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch in November 1923, and in 1925, he ran unsuccessfully for the office of President of Germany against his former superior Hindenburg.

The 1st National Socialist Party Day had been held on the 28th February 1923 in Munich, the founding city of the movement but in September, Hitler along with other nationalistic parties and para-military groups were invited to a “German Day” in Nuremburg. Hitler was so impressed with the city and its facilities for holding mass meetings, he decided that all future National Socialist Rallies would be held there. In 1923 the Weimar Republic was teetering on the brink of a very large cliff with problems such as hyperinflation, attempted revolutions and public discontent, pushing it increasingly towards the edge. In January 1921 there were 64 marks to the dollar. By November 1923 this had changed to 4,200,000,000,000 marks to the dollar. By October 1923 the NSDAP had approximately 80,000 members, mostly in Bavaria, and Hitler felt confident enough to stage a “Putsch” against the Bavarian government, and if successful, march on Berlin.

At a meeting on the evening of the 8th November at the Burgerbrau Keller a speech was being given by the State Commissioner for Bavaria, Gustav Ritter von Kahr. Also on the platform were Colonel Hans von Seisser, Chief of the Bavarian State Police and General Otto von Lessow, Commander of the Army in Bavaria. During the meeting Hitler fired a shot in the ceiling announcing that the hall was surrounded by 600 armed SA troopers and the “National Revolution” has broken out, no one is allowed to leave. Kahr, Seisser and Lessow were taken to a back room, and under duress, promised to co-operate with the Putsch but while Hitler was talking to the crowd they slipped out of the Keller and informed the authorities in Berlin. By early morning Hitler realised that the coup had failed but Ludendorff convinced him to carry on. At 11a.m. on the 9th November the assembled Nazis and other Nationalistic groups marched to the centre of Munich (see post card at right). They were met in the Odeon Platz by about 100 armed police. It is not known who fired first but within a few minutes 4 policemen and 16 Nazis were dead. The Putsch was over.

Deutsche Tag Nuremberg 1st – 2nd September 1923

Right: Erich von Ludendorff with Adolf Hitler.

A patriotic postcard commemorating the march in Munich in 1923.

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Accused of Treason.

From left to right: Pernet - Weber - Frick - Kriebel – Ludendorff - Hitler - Brückner - Rӧhm – Wagner.

Heinz Pernet: was a Lieutenant in the army and Ludendorff’s Stepson. Friedrich Weber: leader of the Oberland League (Freikorps Oberland). Wilhelm Frick: was head of the Criminal Police Security Service and aided the Putsch. Hermann Kriebel: retired Lieutenant Colonel, leader of the Kampfbund. Erich Ludendorff: former Quartermaster General under Hindenburg. Adolf Hitler. Wilhelm Brückner: was leader of the SA Regiment in Munich. Ernst Rӧhm: led the Reichskriegsflagge Militia. Robert Wagner: was a Lieutenant at the Central Infantry School in Munich.

On the 26th February 1924, Hitler and his co-conspirators were brought to trial for high treason. Hitler took full blame for the Putsch. His courtroom behaviour with his fervently anti-communist stance combined with outright nationalism made a deep impression on the court with some Germans considering him a national hero. Due to his patriotic speech to the court, Hitler was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment for treason, while his co-defendants also received light sentences, apart from Ludendorff who was set free. On the 1st April 1924 Hitler was sent to Landsberg Prison where he settled down in a very comfortable cell to ponder his mistakes. It was here that he vowed to achieve power by constitutional means and only then change Germany into a one party state.

To be continued…..

Left: Landsberg am Lech is in southwest Bavaria, approximately 65 kilometers west of Munich and 35 kilometers south of Augsburg. It is the capital of the district of Landsberg am Lech.

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The Special Cancels and Serienstempel for the

Hitler Youth Part 4:

Here are 21 more of the special cancels for our files:

Bochmann: Berchtesgaden #4

Bochmann: Bremen #19 Bochmann:

Breitenbrunn #1 Bochmann: Diekirch #1

Bochmann: Duisburg #5

Bochmann: Heidelberg #17

Bochmann: Klagenfurt #8 Bochmann:

Johanngeorgenstadt #3 Bochmann:

Jugendkammhaus #1

Bochmann:

Konigsdorf #4 Bochmann:

Konigsberg #18

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News Sheet No.173 June 2018 The Special Cancels and Serienstempel for the Hitler Youth, Part 4 (cont.)

Below is a table of cancels still needed with ‘Bochmann’ catalogue numbers:

Town/City Bo.# Town/City Bo.#Camburg (Saale) 1 Linz (Donau) 2 8 Hamburg / Η1Η 81 Nordseebad Norderney (H-J with hyphen) 6-I Kassel 7 22 Potsdam (Reichsjugendtag 2.10.1932) N/L Königsdorf Sonderpostamt / über / Bad Tolz 6 Salzburg 2 17

Our thanks go to John Rawlings, Tony Hickey and Tony Torres for sending in their examples for our records.


Bochmann: Landsberg #2

Bochmann: Lenggries #2

Bochmann: Munchen #70 Bochmann:

Nideggen #2 Bochmann:

Ostseebad Muritz #2

Bochmann: Saalfeld 2 #11

Bochmann:

Reit i Winkl #2 Bochmann:

Wendisch Buchholz #1

Bochmann: Zell am See #2

Bochmann:

Esch – Alzig #1

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K.d.F. Cruise Mail 1935 The “Columbus” – The Odd One Out

by John Rawlings

For many years now German sea mail, particularly covers and cards posted on board those liners chartered by the German Labour Front to provide holiday cruises for German workers during the period 1934 – 1939, have been one of my favourite collecting areas and, some years ago, I spent many fruitful hours in the Newspaper Library in Colindale, and the Weiner Library, searching for facts, dates and detailed accounts relating to this very popular service. Eventually my findings enabled me to write the monograph on the subject published by the G & C.P.S. in 2005. At the time I had but one regret. In all my years of searching in dealers’ boxes, both here and at many major stamp fairs in Germany itself, I had been completely unable to find any items that could definitely be said to have been posted on one particular ship that, in September 1935, had, according to shipping reports in several different contemporary German newspapers, undertaken just one cruise for the K.d.F. The vessel was the Norddeutscherlloyd liner “Columbus”, shown in its cruising livery in Fig.1 below.

According to the German shipping reports she had returned to her home port in Bremerhaven on 22nd September 1935 after successfully completing this cruise and I would, therefore, have expected to find some reference to the voyage and the handstamp used in the ship’s post office at the time online, or at least in one or more of the detailed handbooks (such as the Kludas series) and catalogues devoted to German maritime postal history. I use a computer and I have most of the books on my own library shelves but I have been completely unable to find a relevant entry in any of these potential sources. Such was the position when, on page 30 of my monograph, I came to hazard a guess about the handstamp most likely to have been used in the Sea or Ship post office on board the “Columbus” on this particular cruise and, on checking through my own albums, it seemed odds on that it would have been the handstamp shown in Fig.2 on the next page, a ‘Norwegenfahrt’ canceller that had been used aboard the very same ship only about a month earlier. Even now I still think that this was the instrument that would have been used under normal circumstances but, when quite recently at Sindelfingen, I was lucky enough to discover that mail from this cruise did exist after all, and I managed to find, not one but two, commercially used cards from this cruise (see Fig.3 on next page) both of which bore a strike of the ship’s ‘High Seas’ cachet. I noticed that both cards had been cancelled in, and forwarded from, Bremerhaven itself and this finally convinced me that by far the most likely explanation was that the post office on the “Columbus” on that particular cruise must have had no appropriate special handstamp available on board and that we would probably never know for sure why this was.

Fig.1 The German liner “Columbus”.

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News Sheet No.173 June 2018 K.d.F. Cruise Mail 1935. The “Columbus” – The Odd One Out (cont.)

Fig.2 Card posted on the “Columbus” on 4th August 1935, while the ship was in the fiords on a commercial cruise for the company.

Fig.3 Cards written on board the “Columbus” on 19th September 1935 (the first day of the cruise) and cancelled in, and forwarded from, Bremerhaven on the day after the cruise ended.

Fig.4 “High Seas” cachet used on mail posted on board the “Columbus” during the inter-war period.

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News Sheet No.173 June 2018 K.d.F. Cruise Mail 1935. The “Columbus” – The Odd One Out (cont.) My own interpretation of the facts as outlined earlier cannot be proven, perhaps these two cards (shown in Fig.3 on the previous page) were posted too late for official processing on board and others will eventually be found bearing an official cruise handstamp, but, until such items come to light we have only the known facts regarding the chartering itself to guide us. Early in September 1935 the Labour Front leader, Robert Ley, suddenly seems to have realised that he needed to lay on another K.d.F. cruise for about 1750 people. Who they were and why Ley seems to have felt that he needed to go to such lengths to accommodate them we do not know, but, if he thought that he stood a good chance of finding a sizeable ship with at least a six day gap in its schedules barely four weeks before the end of the cruising season, he must soon have discovered that he had left it too late. Frantic calls to the three shipping lines whose chartered vessels currently carried K.d.F. tourists would, initially, have established that they had no gaps in their schedules during the following four weeks and, in any case, there were only three vessels in the entire German merchant fleet at the time that could accommodate such a large number of passengers. These were all transatlantic liners owned by the Norddeutscherlloyd. When the telephone in the Lloyd’s head office in Berlin rang, on or about 7th September 1935, and Ley made his plea for the company’s assistance, the board of directors must have felt in something of a dilemma. Here was a high ranking official in Hitler’s new government asking for their assistance and, as the company who already had four ships engaged in the K.d.F. cruise service, they must have been anxious to do all they could to oblige. An emergency meeting of the board must have been quickly convened and it must have soon become clear that, without disrupting the transatlantic service to New York by the withdrawal of the “Bremen” or the “Europa” their only option was to use the “Columbus” if that were at all possible. Certainly the ship would be ideally suited to the task, the 32,354 ton liner had a top speed of 22 knots and could accommodate almost exactly the required number of passengers. The problem was that, even as they spoke, the “Columbus” was on its way to New York where she was due to dock on 8th September and, whatever she did in the following week, the firm needed her back in New York by the end of the month. Both parties must then have made some rapid calculations, the Lloyd to decide how many days they could guarantee for the required cruise and how, in doing so, they could convince their potential customer that some of their decisions were being made out of respect for, and loyalty to, the Party rather than company profit. They would also have known that, between 10th and 16th September Ley would be committed to the Nazi Party Rally in Nuremberg but that he fully intended to be on board the liner if a cruise did prove possible. A rapid decision was essential and, as the “Columbus” left the channel ports and headed for New York with cargo and passengers the directors decided that the only way they could find the time for even a short cruise would be to instruct the captain to forget his originally intended programme; make his stay in New York just sufficient to take on fuel and provisions; and then return to Bremerhaven, without passengers, on the following day if possible. The captain followed his instructions to the letter and, in its lightened condition, the “Columbus” was back in Bremerhaven on 16th September after a 7 day crossing. Ley would have been delighted to hear the news and to know that there would now be a six-day ‘window’ from 16th to the 22nd September which would allow two days for the liner to take on fuel and supplies and for Ley himself to travel from Nuremberg to Bremerhaven and still leave time for a short, four day cruise. Ideally, of course he would have preferred a 6 day cruise but, beggars can’t be choosers and he would have had no real option but to accept. The cruise was to consist of a brief trip to the planned fleet manoeuvres off Heligoland followed by two to three days in the Norwegian fiords and, probably because Ley’s planned flight from Nuremberg was not scheduled to arrive in Bremerhaven until 8:20 p.m. it would probably have been dark before the liner left port. Two days in port to take on board all the fuel and provisions needed for such a short cruise should have been more than adequate but, for some unknown reason, seems not to have been enough for the small team of trained crew in charge of the ship’s post office, if our present understanding of the situation is correct. They seem to have forgotten to collect the special handstamp normally used on such a cruise. The omission may only have come to light on the following day as passengers tried to post cards to family and friends and, from the two specimen cards currently available to us (Fig.3), it would seem that, as a result, it is almost certain that the small team of postal staff were instructed to accept all cards and letters handed over the counter during the four days, provide each item with a strike of a ship’s ‘High Seas’ cachet and then put them into a sack so that all the mail could be handed in to the port post office in Bremerhaven on their return and then cancelled and forwarded from there. What I would love to know now is whether any other members have any items of mail from this cruise; who these passengers were; and why these arrangements were such a ‘last minute’ affair. If anyone can throw any light on the matter, I hope they will drop us a line.

Robert Ley

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Overprinted Polish Stamps for use in the General Government

by Bob Jones

Part 1:

First provisional issues: Stamps of Germany overprinted for use in the east.

After the invasion of Poland in 1939, the Reichspost scrambled to find acceptable stamps for use in their new territory. At first they simply used the stamps of Germany proper, the Hindenburg Medallion Head definitive series, with a simple currency overprint along with ‘Deutsche Post OSTEN’ printed at the State Printing Works in Vienna (Figs.1 & 2 shown below). These 13 stamps (the first provisional issues) are shown below with 11 ‘Groschen’ and 2 ‘Zloty’ values. These stamps were valid from 1st December 1939 to 30th September 1940.

Along with these stamps, postal stationery cards also received this temporary measure with the overprinted indicia on 2 cards (shown below as Figs.4 & 5) with the same validity dates as the stamps.

These stamps and cards are the only philatelic items overprinted specially for the ‘Deutsche Post Osten’ for use in the General Government. Hence all such items will be for the General Government specifically.

Type ‘a’ overprints for ‘Groschen & ZLOTY’ values.

Fig.1 Fig.2

Fig.3 The overprinted Hindenburg Medallion Head definitives (Mi 1-13).

Fig.4 12 Groschen postal card (Mi P1) Fig.5 30 Groschen postal card (Mi P2)

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News Sheet No.173 June 2018 Overprinted Polish Stamps for use in the General Government, Part 1 (cont.) Plans to issue the Hindenburg definitives described here in the General Government on December 1st 1940 in the hope that the quantity printed would tide them over until their own new designs became available soon proved unrealistic - the volume of outward mail was far too large. Therefore German officials checked stocks of existing Polish stamps, such as those shown below, and decided to use them instead, after first applying overprints and new values (see below).

Second Provisional Issues: Stamps of Poland Overprinted for use in the General Government

Issued: 18th March 1940.

Valid until: 30th November 1941.

Design: 1937 Stamps of Poland (Mi 319 & 320): Portrait of Field Marshal Śmigły-Rydz.

Printing: Overprint in black at the State Printing Works, Vienna for use in the General Government.

Format: Sheets of 100 (10 x 10).

Watermark: None.

Gum: Yellowish smooth.

Perforation: 12½ x 12¾.

Values: (Mi 14) 24Gr on 25Gr blackish blue-grey: (Mi 15) 50Gr on 55Gr dark violet-ultramarine:

Field Marshal Śmigły-Rydz. same as (Mi 14).

Varieties: (Mi 14 I) Shading to left of head and shoulder in horizontal lines only (rarer). (Mi 14 II) Shading to left of head in crosshatch.

One type of overprint was used on these stamps. They differ only in the value.

Type ‘b’: ‘General Gouvernement’ in two lines with a single obliteration bar

either side of the word ‘General’ above a Reich eagle with no feathers on body and values beneath with denomination between

values (GR.).

Originally, these two stamps were issued by the Polish P.O. on 30th June (25Gr) and 6th August

(55Gr) 1937.

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News Sheet No.173 June 2018 Overprinted Polish Stamps for use in the General Government, Part 1 (cont.) General interest:

Edward Śmigly-Rydz was born 11th March 1886 in Lapszyn near Brzezany, Galicia (now Ukraine). During the Polish-Soviet War (1919-1921), Rydz commanded Polish armies in several offensives. Among the victorious engagements, he captured Wilno and Dünaburg. It was at this time he adopted the ‘Śmigly’ into his name which in Polish means ‘agile’. After many earlier successes as an army commander during the Polish-Soviet War, Rydz succeeded Józef Piłsudski as General Inspector of the Armed Forces in 1935, following Piłsudski’s death.

He served in the capacity of General Inspector of the Polish Armed Forces during the Invasion of Poland in 1939, which marked the beginning of World War II. After severe fighting against the invading German army, Rydz was forced south with remnants of his forces. On the 17th September, Russia joined the invasion of Poland from the east (part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) and when defense no longer proved feasible, Poland was now decisively defeated. In the early hours of the 18th September, Marshal Edward Śmigly-Rydz, the Commander-in-Chief of Poland’s armed forces, crossed the Czeremosz bridge onto Romanian territory where he was held at an internment camp and began a two-year period of exile. On 27th October, he relinquished his function as the Commander-in-Chief and Inspector General of the Armed Forces. Śmigly-Rydz was transferred from the internment camp to the villa of a former Romanian prime minister in Dragoslavele, from where he escaped on 10th December 1940 and crossed illegally into Hungary. Śmigly-Rydz left Hungary on 25th October 1941, and travelling through Slovakia, reached Poland. On 30th October, in strict secrecy, Śmigly-Rydz came back to Warsaw to participate in the resistance movement as a common underground soldier, thus voluntarily suspending his rank of Marshal of Poland. He died suddenly of a heart attack on 2nd December 1941.

Marshal Edward Śmigły-Rydz.

Józef Piłsudski and Edward Śmigly-Rydz.

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News Sheet No.173 June 2018 Overprinted Polish Stamps for use in the General Government, Part 1 (cont.)

Issued: 18th March 1940.

Valid until: 30th November 1941.

Design: 1938 Stamps of Poland (Mi 325): Portrait of President Ignacy Mościcki.

Printing: Overprint in black at the State Printing Works, Vienna for use in the General Government.

Format: Sheets of 100 (10 x 10).

Watermark: None.

Perforation: 12½ x 12¾.

Gum: Yellowish smooth.

Value: (Mi 16) 40Gr on 30Gr violet-purple: President Ignacy Mościcki.

Varieties: (Mi 16 I) Overprint applied with a metal stamp. (Mi 16 II) Overprint applied with a rubber stamp.

The metal stamping is more crisp and defined and an imprint visible from the back of the stamp can be easily seen. The rubber stamping is slightly blurred at the edges and no imprint is seen on the back of the stamp.

The overprint used on this stamp is type ‘c’.

This stamp was originally issued by the Polish P.O. as a two stamp set (15Gr & 30GR) on 1st February 1938 for the occasion of the 70th Birthday of President Ignacy Mościcki.

Type ‘c’: Identical to overprint ‘b’ used on the previous two stamps but without the obliteration bars

either side of the word ‘General’

17

News Sheet No.173 June 2018 Overprinted Polish Stamps for use in the General Government, Part 1 (cont.)

General interest:

Ignacy Mościcki born on 1st December 1867 in Mierzanowo, a small village near Ciechanów, Poland. He joined the Polish Socialist Party in the early 1890s and was involved in an attempt on the life of the governor general of Warsaw. Sought by the Russian police for that involvement, Mościcki fled to England (1892), where he met Piłsudski. He returned to the European continent in 1897. After World War I Mościcki served the new Polish state by restoring synthetic nitrogen production at Królewska Huta (now Chorzów), Upper Silesia, at a plant that had been stripped by the Germans. After the Piłsudski coup d’état in May 1926, Mościcki was elected as president of the republic in June, in which post he served Piłsudski faithfully. He served another term as president from 1933. Following Piłsudski’s death in 1935, Mościcki’s politics became much more liberal. Mościcki remained president until September 1939, when, after the German and Soviet occupation of Poland in September 1939, Mościcki fled to Romania, where he was interned briefly, and was forced by France to resign his office. He transferred it to Władysław Raczkiewicz, after his first choice was rejected by the French government.

In December 1939 Ignacy Mościcki moved to Switzerland, where he lived until his death on 2nd October 1946 in Versoix near Geneva, at the age of 79.


Polish President Ignacy Mościcki

President Ignacy Mościcki on an official trip to the Port of Gdynia in 1937.

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New Books This is our first foray into the realm of new books submitted by our membership that they find may be of interest to other members. If any members have other books of interest, please submit them to me for insertion in future News Sheets. Ed.

“The Paper Trail: World War II in Holland and its Colonies as seen through Mail and Documents”: Kees Adema RDP, FRPSL & Jeffrey Groeneveld. This book tells the story of the postal history of Holland and its Colonies during World War II in a fresh and compelling way. The book is not intended to cover historical or philatelic ground that has already been well trodden, but to weave together the evidence of mail and other documents – letters, cards, diaries, cards, photographs, personal memorabilia and the like – into a distinctive narrative. The focus is on the lives and experiences of ordinary people, individually and collectively, and the impact upon them of occupation, unprovoked and accidental bombing, famine (at times), and in many cases persecution, forcible removal and, at worst, extermination in the concentration camps. The authors have drawn material both from their own extensive collections and also from other collectors and institutions who have generously shared their holdings.

A myriad of correspondence has been unearthed from family records and, through this book, brought to a wider public for the first time. The war in Europe profoundly affected the Dutch people in many ways. Less familiar to many is the experience of the Dutch East Indies, which was occupied by the Japanese for over three years and endured horrendous suffering. (The Dutch Colonies in the western hemisphere, Suriname and the Antilles, were not occupied and are therefore only lightly touched upon in this account.) The authors’ approach is broadly chronological – starting with the events leading up to war, the severing of postal connections within and beyond Europe, the entry into the war of the USA, the refugee camps and the ghettos, censorship and control over mail by the occupying powers, and later liberation and eventual adjustment to post-war conditions. Kees Adema and Jeffrey Groeneveld, both members of the Dutch Academy for philately, are ideally equipped to undertake a project on this scale. Kees has four books to his credit, including the “Times of Turmoil” trilogy on the Napoleonic Wars, for which he received the Society’s Crawford Medal, and has written countless articles on postal history. Jeffrey Groeneveld has written extensively about World War II, is a contributing columnist to the Dutch monthly Filatelie, and, as does Kees, regularly gives presentations about the subject. World War II is very personal to both authors. While Kees’s family lived in Arnhem during Operation Market Garden, Jeffrey’s was in the Dutch East Indies during the Japanese occupation. Their family backgrounds add a strong element of poignancy to their story, which will not escape the reader. Published by the Royal Philatelic Society London, February 2018. 702p. ISBN 978-Q-900631-92-4. American letter size hardback with dust jacket. Price £70 retail, £63 to members (of the RPSL) plus packing and shipping.

The Paper Trail was officially presented on 30th March at the Regional Meeting of the Royal Philatelic Society of London (RPSL) in the Netherlands. Co-authors Kees Adema RDP FRPSL and Jeffrey Groeneveld were present for the book signing.

Review by Rainer von Scharpen for the AIJP

“The Membership Dues Stamps of the N.S.D.A.P.”: Robert W. Jones. Until now the only published catalogue of the N.S.D.A.P. membership dues stamps has been the 1995 Martin Erler book ‘The Stamps of the NSDAP (Nazi Party) and its Sub-Organisations’ with 92 stamps identified including the overprinted and auxiliary stamps. This book identifies a total of 345 stamps with 215 shown in full colour, and a new catalogue numbering system beneficial to the collector. Also shown are different types of membership cards and 6 different styles of membership books. With information found over many years of searching and the invaluable help from fellow collectors from around the world has helped to produce a book with information found nowhere else! This book has 86 pages and ‘Spiro’ bound so that it can lay flat on a table. Professionally printed in A4 size. The book is available from me at £21.75 per copy and £2.60 postage in the U.K., £5.95 for the E.U. & £9.15 for the rest of the world.

Payment can be made via personal cheque (made out to me – Robert W. Jones) or via Paypal to my email address: [email protected]

19


Germany & Colonies Philatelic Society’s Annual General Meeting Weekend Friday 5th – Sunday 7th October 2018

As at the beginning of April, as I write this, I have received 38 bookings for our AGM weekend (Friday 5th to Sunday 7th October 2018) with others promised. We need more. Should you have mislaid the booking form, which was enclosed with the February issue of Germania, a copy can be downloaded from our website at https://www.germanphilately.org/services-and-events.html.

For those of you who have already booked and paid a deposit (rather than the full amount) please ensure your balances reach me by no later than 31st July 2018. I also need all Saturday evening dinner menu choices by the same date. Please make a diary note to do this on time to avoid me having to chase payments and menu choices which is time-consuming.

Giles du Boulay

To be held at the Best Western Stoke-on-Trent Moat House

Etruria Hall, Festival Way Stoke-on-Trent

Staffordshire ST1 5BQ Tel: 01782 609988

www.bestwestern.co.uk/hotels/best-western-plus-stoke-on-trent-moat-house Etruria Hall was built between 1768-1771 by Joseph

Pickford for Josiah Wedgwood (the hotel accommodation is in the adjoining and

interconnected building)

UP TO 20% DISCOUNT ON CATALOGUES/ALBUMS/LEAVES/MOUNTS ETC.

(including coin collecting accessories)

I AM NOW TAKING ORDERS FOR MICHEL DEUTSCHLAND SPEZIAL BAND 1 and 2, 2018

ABOUT £89.00 less 20% = £71.20 + postage per vol.

Prinz exhibition protectors identical (tested by a member!) to Venus large exhibition protectors (286×230mm) but cheaper:

(Venus £9.95 less 20% = £7.96 per 50) Prinz £8.00 per 50 less 20% = £6.40 + postage

Giles du Boulay, 8 Malvern Road, AYLESBURY, Bucks., HP20 1QF

Tel: 01296 488703 E-mail: [email protected]

G &CPS: www.germanphilately.org

SAVE MONEY – 20% DISCOUNT – SAVE MONEY

20


Diary Dates for Regional Meetings The following dates have been arranged for G & C.P.S. regional meetings with intended displays for the coming weeks. Please show your support and try to attend your local meeting. For location of venues and regional organisers, please go to the G & C.P.S. website at: www.germanphilatley.org London Group 2nd June “Triumph and disaster: The Reichspost at war 1939-45” a display by John

Rawlings.

Scottish Group 9th June Joint Meeting with the Tyne-Tees Group, Royal Station Hotel, Newcastle upon Tyne.

Tyne-Tees Group 9th June Joint Meeting with the Scottish Group, Royal Station Hotel, Newcastle upon Tyne.

South East Group 7th July “Postal rates and services, December 1923 to May 1945” a display by Rex Dixon.

South West Group 14th July “Third Reich” a display by Geoff Richardson.

T.R.S.G. (London) 14th July Members’ displays.

South Central Group 21st July “German Winter Relief” a display by Rex Dixon.

North West Group 1st Sept “Böhmen & Mähren” a display by David Cleaver.

Midlands Group No meeting planned until October. Details will be announced in September’s issue.

Dates, times, venues and speakers correct at the time of going to press (17th May 2018). However, please contact the regional organiser(s) for confirmation of the above details.

EPILOGUE Well that’s June’s edition sorted and now September’s issue becomes my new priority. The ‘Special Cancels and Serienstempel for the Hitler Youth’ will probably come to an end as a series as there will only be about half a dozen or so cancels left to find. However, we do have the ‘Part 2’ of Tony Hickey’s article ‘Germany in Turmoil 1918 – 1933, The Rise of National Socialism’ to come and ‘Part 2’ of the ‘Overprinted Polish Stamps for use in the General Government’ article by myself to start with. It would be great if a few more members could put something together for me to print! Our membership is still growing and my hope is that maybe some of them can help with articles. Of course, as always, small articles and ‘Enquiries’ are always welcome. Read any good books lately? Don’t forget that we have our new section ‘New Books’ that our members can also contribute to. As always, I am here to help any up and coming writers among you that might need a little advice or general help with any articles you plan to write. Cheers and good luck, (editor)

‘Writer’s block’ can be devastating….

Don’t let it happen to you….

Send us your articles and enquiries NOW !!!

…. and avoid the ‘blockage’

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