Hagibor

One of the very first covers I obtained in the area of the Holocaust is picture below. It intrigued me because it had the Hebrew word Hagibor, meaning “strength” in the address. At a stamp club meeting I showed this cover, and a gentlemen in the audience explained that Hagibor was a soccer camp for Jewish youth from all over Europe and was located outside of Prague. I could not figure out what this had to do with the Holocaust. So I went to Spertus College Library to research this, and I found an article that indicated that Hagibor was a special camp (Sonderlager) for spouses of mixed marriages.

The article also stated that mail from the Hagibor Camp is generally written on postcards, and the messages consist of no more than 32 words. The censor numbered each word and placed his initials on the card.

This postal card was sent to Hagibor and has a circular date stamp of March 4, 1945.  The markings indicate that the card should be written in German, and there is also a marking from the Prague Jewish Council.

I searched for several years to finding a postcard with numbered words, as described in the article. At one show I picked up this card and recognized the return address as Hagibor Camp. I held the card afraid to turn it over. Finally I did!

This postal card has a circular date stamp Prague, November 27, 1944, and handstamp indicating that all correspondence should be in German.

Kleine Festung

The Kleine Festung or “Little Fortress” was a prison in Theresienstadt and contained all the non-Jewish prisoners. Ironically, mail from the Kleine Festung received the Theresienstadt cancellation, by mail from the ghetto did not.

This postcard that was mailed from the Kleine Festung has a circular Theresienstadt cancel dated January 5, 1942. The third line in the return address indicates that the card is from the Kleine Festung.

Theresienstadt

Terezín was a garrison town built between 1780 and 1790 and named for the queen mother Maria Teresa. The Nazis, upon taking over Czechoslovakia, converted the town into a walled ghetto for Jews and the area known as the Kleine Festung, or “Little Fortress,” became a prison for enemies of the state. The Nazis called the new ghetto Theresienstadt.

It soon became “home” for a great number of Jews from occupied Czechoslovakia. Also the Nazis needed a place to put prominent citizens and veterans of WWI, so Theresienstadt became the place for them, as well. The 7,000 non-Jewish Czechs living in Terezín were expelled by the Nazis in the spring of 1942.

During the winter of 1943, the International Red Cross requested an opportunity to inspect the camp. Germany agreed, but only on the condition that the inspection team wait until the following summer. Jewish laborers immediately began to transform the edifice of Theresienstadt from a dirty, dingy camp to a bright, sunny, cheerful Jewish “town.” The Jewish prisoners planted flowers, painted, and scraped. Overcrowding was a problem, and the Nazis did not want the Red Cross team to report these conditions to the world. Instead, they shipped thousands of new arrivals directly to death camps in Eastern Europe instead of sending them to Theresienstadt first.

They also erected fake shops and cafés to imply that the Jews lived in relative comfort. The Danish Jews whom the Red Cross visited lived in freshly painted rooms, and there were not more than three in a room. The guests enjoyed the performance of a children’s opera, Brundar, which was written by inmate Hans Krása. The hoax worked, and the Red Cross produced a positive report about their experience at Theresienstadt.

After the Red Cross visit, the Nazis began to dissolve the camp, sending more and more Jews to Auschwitz until October of 1944, when only 400 people were left in the camp.

Küstrin

Küstrin was a Judenlager (Jewish work camp) located near the town of the same name. Prisoners processed wool, which was used to fabricate military uniforms. The camp opened in January 1943 and was liquidated by the end of 1943.

This postcard was sent from Küstrin camp, which is indicated in the third line down in the return address by the word Judenlager. The card was postmarked June 23, 1943.

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I turned over the card and found a written message containing 30 words, each having a number above it, and the censor’s initials.

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Wittenberge

Kumärkische Zellwolle und Zellulose Aktiongesellschaft was company factory, a Judenlager (Jewish work camp) that specialized in making rayon and cellulose. It was located in Wittenberge, Germany. This subcamp of Neuengamme opened in August 1942 and closed in February 1945.

This spectacular cover has a handstamped return address that includes the word Judenlager. It was canceled on August 12, 1942, in Wittenberge. A cancel reads “Wittenberge IBZ Potsdam, Sewing machine.” The card is addressed to Samuel Rosenthal’s in-laws who lived in Geneva, Switzerland. He is pleading with them to do something to get him out. Married before the war, he had been separated from his wife and child.

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Jewish Work Camps

The Nazis set up a system of concentration camps that encompassed the whole Reich. In Germany and each of the occupied countries, they set up an extensive system of camps and subcamps. The structure of the camp system comprised 16 basic or main camps and hundreds of subcamps that fit into a variety of categories. One such category of subcamps was the Judenarbeitslager (Jewish work camp).

The Judenarbeitslager utilized Jews as slave laborers. The work consisted largely of manual labor, but sometimes their skills were put to use to produce a product or clothing. Most of the time they were worked to death.

Berlin Cancellation

The mail from Theresienstadt was collected in a central office and shipped to the Jewish councils in either Prague or Berlin to be posted and distributed. It appears that Jewish mail going out of Theresienstadt did not receive a cancel from that city, only from Berlin or Prague.

This post card was sent from a Theresienstadt address. It was transported to Berlin and canceled with a Berlin circular July 29, 1943. A handstamp from the Jewish Council of Berlin was placed on the card, which was then sent on to Hamburg.

Eichenwald

Eichenwald was located in the Polish occupied territory near Posen. Established in July 1941, it served several companies, including Phillipp Holzmann, Katz, and Sager & Wörner. The camp closed August of 1943.

This postal card has an additional 12-pfg stamp. It was sent to Dubova and was censored through the Vienna office of the OKW. The third line of the return address indicates the Judenarbeitslager.

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