Postcard featuring Mi.479 postage stamp, the cover picture depicting a 'generic' image of either the General San Martin or General Artigas of the Hamburg-Amerika Line. The printed correspondence text states, 'An Bord....' with a blank space to add the ships name. Ref: 21.10.1933. 21st October 1933 General San Martin Postcard featuring Mi.479 postage stamp, the cover picture depicting a 'generic' image of either the General San Martin or General Artigas of the Hamburg-Amerika Line. The printed correspondence text states, 'An Bord....' with a blank space to add the ships name. Ref: 21.10.1933. General San Martin Hamburg-Amerika Linie Thuringia was an 11,251 GRT ocean liner that was built in 1922 by Howaldtswerke, Kiel, Germany for the Hamburg Amerikanische Paketfahrt AG, Hamburg. In 1930, she was renamed General San Martin . In 1934, she was chartered by Hamburg-Südamerikanische Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft and sold to them in 1936. She was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine in 1940 and served until 1945 as a barracks ship, and then as passenger ship during the evacuation of civilians from the Baltic. She was seized in May 1945 by the British at Copenhagen, Denmark, passed to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) and renamed Empire Deben . She served as a troopship until 1949, when she was scrapped. On 20th January 1940, General San Martin was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine for use as a barracks ship. She served 7th U-boat Flotilla at Königsberg. From 1st March 1941 she served 3rd U-boat Flotilla at Kiel. From 1st October 1941 she served 8th U-boat Flotilla at Königsberg and then 32nd U-boat Flotilla from August 1944. From 15th January 1945, she served 7th U-boat Flotilla at Kiel. She is also said to have seen use as a tender during World War II. From 25th January 1945, General San Martin assisted in the evacuation of civilians from the Baltic. She transported over 30,000 people in eleven voyages. From 4th April 1945, she served as a hospital ship. General San Martin was seized by the British in May 1945 at Copenhagen, Denmark. She was passed to the MoWT, which became the Ministry of Transport later that year. On 8th October, she was declared to be a prize of war. The Code Letters GQXY were allocated. Her port of registry was London. She was operated under the management of the Shaw, Savill & Albion Line. In 1946, she was renamed Empire Deben . She was used as a troopship, serving in this role until 1949. Her departure from Southampton, Hampshire on 14th September 1948 for Gibraltar, Malta and Port Said, Egypt was delayed due to engine defects. One of the apprentices who served on board Empire Deben was Dennis Scott-Masson, who was the captain of Canberra during the Falklands War. Empire Deben was scrapped in March 1949 at Newport, Monmouthshire. Source: Wikipedia Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

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Commercial postcard sent by Hagemann & Döpping to a radio shop in Sonneberg. Ref: 11.02.1933. Featuring JB: 126A ('Vermeidet/ Rundfunk=/ störungen!' - Avoid radio interference!). Stamp: Mi.465 11th February 1933 Bochmann Erfurt Commercial postcard sent by Hagemann & Döpping to a radio shop in Sonneberg. Ref: 11.02.1933. Featuring JB: 126A ('Vermeidet/ Rundfunk=/ störungen!' - Avoid radio interference!). Stamp: Mi.465 Link to Hagemann & Döpping catalogue 1931 JB:126/814 ( Vermeidet/ Rundfunk=/ störungen! ) variations Variation of JB:126A/814 cancellation. The umlaut above the 'O' has points that are wider apart on the Köln cancel than that of the Erfurt cancel, which are narrower. Variation of JB:126A/814 cancellation. The umlaut above the 'O' has points that are wider apart on the Köln cancel than that of the Erfurt cancel, which are narrower. ERFURT cancellations as featured in the Bochmann catalogues (1952) JB:Erfurt14/259 see 10.01.1937 - 27/82 JB:Erfurt21/259 see 12.03.1939 - 22/95 GENERIC CANCELLATIONS used in numerous cities including Erfurt JB:126A (Vermeidet/ Rundfunk=/ störungen!). Used in 106 places. Ref: 11.02.1933 Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

29th December 1934 Mi.P234a Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

16th August 1934 Potsdam Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

10th March 1933 News in Brief - Munich riots ← Previous Next → Riots and abuses in Munich 9th/10th March 1933 Diary entry by Walter Gyssling Dr Walter Gyssling (1903-1980), journalist; career officer, then university studies; joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in 1929; leading member of the CV bureau for resistance to antisemitism, 1930-1933; fled to Basel in March 1933 to avoid arrest; author of Der Anti-Nazi (1931). Note: The Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith (also: Zentral-Verein, Central Verein, CV, CV, C.-V.) was founded on 26th March, 1893 in Berlin. It represented the majority of assimilated bourgeois-liberal Jews in Germany, stood up for their civil rights and social equality and tried to reconcile Judaism with ' Deutschtum' (Germanness). '10th March. A night of horror lies behind us. Nothing else was ultimately to be expected. Whoever has heard the unbridled diatribes that were spoken yesterday evening in front of the Feldherrenhalle is disgusted but not surprised.' [Correctly: Feldherrnhalle (field commander's hall), a monumental loggia in Munich commissioned by King Ludwig I of Bavaria in 1841 to commemorate the Bavarian army. On 9th November 1923 sixteen participants in the Beer Hall Putsch (as well as four policemen) were killed at the sitein a clash with the Bavarian police]. 'Esser, Epp, Rohm, and whatever all the names of the 'leaders' are, have unhesitatingly poured oil on the flames. They bear the guilt for all the despicable crimes that took place last night. The workers' newspapers destroyed, the trade union premises attacked, hundreds of communist and social democrat leaders arrested. It is awful, but one is somehow used to it already, especially if one saw what happened the week after the Reichstag fire in Berlin. But that bloodthirsty criminals storm the apartments of peaceful, non-political citizens, that people are carried off and roughed up, that nothing, nothing at all, is sacred to these gangs, that was never the case in Germany until now. Today we are trying to at least get an overview of the night's events. Just now a leader of the Bavarian People's Party informs us that the current minister of police, Dr Stutzel, was taken out of his apartment during the night by SA members, brought barefoot in his pyjamas to the Brown House, and savagely beaten there. He probably would have ordered the police to march yesterday morning, had he foreseen his fate. Then a distraught friend comes and tells us that an acquaintance of his, a retailer who has never stood out politically, was assaulted in his apartment during the night by the SA. With words 'we've starved for fourteen years and you, Jewish pig, have devoured the money', the beasts literally tore off one of his arms. The advertising director of a department store was beaten, taken to a remote forest, and tied naked to a tree with rope. Of a Jewish furniture dealer one hears that, as a result of a night-time raid on his house by SA members, he now lies in a surgical ward with a fractured skull. I met the wife of a lawyer. Her husband has fled. Out of rage at this, she was viciously abused by intruding SA members. She can hardly walk. All her limbs are covered with welts and bruises. One arrest after another is reported. Not only the leaders of the left-wing parties, but also numerous Jewish retailers were simply arrested on the basis of some kind of list of proscriptions. We go to the offices of a well-known Jewish society. What we see there is an image of meaningless destruction. Doors and windows smashed, telephones and furniture demolished by axe blows, everything thrown around. Pale and crying, the employees tell us about the attack. Whatever wasn't nailed down and bolted, files, books, typewriters, money, everything was stolen. The looters did not even leave behind a single phonebook or train timetable. there I also hear more details about the despicable fate of the venerable rabbi [most likely Rabbi Leo Baerwald]. During the night, SA members took him to the Brown House, where he was greeted with the words 'here he comes, the crooked Jew-dog who will now be shot'. He was then led to the Oberwiesenfeld parade ground and placed blindfolded against a tree; an execution squad lined up and an officer commanded, 'Aim, fire!' But they did not fire. They merely wanted to give this dignified old man 'a little scare' and then let him go. Instead, another Jewish woman comes and tells about how National Socialists broke in her apartment in the night. Her husband and son were forced to sign a release with the following content: 'I, the Israelite J.L., hereby acknowledge that I am a traitor and agree to leave behind the assets that I have stolen from the German people and leave the country within four weeks.' Scarcely had they signed under the threat of drawn revolvers, when the SA explained to them that a Jew once demanded that Hitler be horsewhipped out of Germany. This utterance was now going to be avenged on them. Both were stripped naked and beaten with wire whips until they collapsed unconscious. So it continues for hours. One shocking report after another. In the end I can't take it any more and leave. Yet I am not to have any peace. On the streets it is even worse. In front of my very eyes, berated and spat at by hysterical beasts, SA members chase a man with whips in broad daylight. He wears neither shoes nor socks, no jacket, no trousers, only a shirt and torn undergarments. A placard hangs around his neck with the inscription 'I the Jew Siegel [Dr Michael Siegal (1882-1979, lawyer in Munich] will never again complain about the National Socialists'. He is one of the most respected lawyers in Munich, who had gone to the police headquarters in order to intervene on behalf of an arrested friend. After he had first been cruelly beaten, he was then hounded through the streets in the condition described above. After today, I know what a pogrom is. Gruner, 2019, pp.92-94 For more information on the Michael Siegel incident click here Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

Postcard, featuring an 'Esperanto' label, sent from Wiesbaden to Kramfors (with redirection), in Sweden. The message reads: 'Dear Mr. Melander! Thanking you very much for your postcard of 2/25, I am letting you know that I unfortunately cannot correspond with you, but I will inform the group members here of your wish on Monday, the 12th of April. So, please be patient until then. At the same time, I am sending you a brochure about Wiesbaden with an Esperanto text.' Ref: 01.03.1934 1st March 1934 Esperanto Postcard, featuring an 'Esperanto' label, sent from Wiesbaden to Kramfors (with redirection), in Sweden. The message reads: 'Dear Mr. Melander! Thanking you very much for your postcard of 2/25, I am letting you know that I unfortunately cannot correspond with you, but I will inform the group members here of your wish on Monday, the 12th of April. So, please be patient until then. At the same time, I am sending you a brochure about Wiesbaden with an Esperanto text.' Ref: 01.03.1934 Esperanto was never the future? 'German has overtaken French to become the most sought-after language by UK employers, according to research. Job vacancies specifying German language skills as a requirement rose by more than 11 per cent in the past three years, according to the online job site Indeed .' Taken from The 'i' newspaper, 10th April 2019 Further Esperanto covers and postcards with the Brief History collection Cover sent from Germany to Canada, with the Esperanto message, 'The easy-to-learn international auxiliary language opens up the whole world to you'. Ref: 13.06.1934 A series of three covers commemorating the international convention of Ido (reformed Esperanto) at St. Gallen, Switzerland, 1939. Ref: 28.08.1939 Ref: 22.09.1939 Ref: 19.11.1939 Re-purposed 'feldpostkarte' self-addressed to Adelbert Geiger, 'Privat-Esperanto-Schule' in Fellbach. Featuring the image of L.L.Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto. Ref: 16.05.1948 - 15/17 L. L. Zamenhof (1859-1917) From Wikipedia: Zamenhof worked as an ophthalmologist who lived for most of his life in Warsaw. He is best known as the creator of Esperanto, the most widely used constructed international auxiliary language. Zamenhof first developed the Esperanto language in 1873 while still in school. He grew up fascinated by the idea of a world without war and believed that this could happen with the help of a new international auxiliary language. The language would be a tool to gather people together through neutral, fair, equitable communication. He successfully formed a community which has survived to this day despite the World Wars of the 20th century, and which continues making attempts to reform the language or create more modern IALs (the only other language like Esperanto at the time was Volapük). In light of his achievements, and his support of intercultural dialogue, UNESCO selected Zamenhof as one of its eminent personalities of 2017, on the 100th anniversary of his death. As of 2019, there are a minimum of 2 million people speaking Esperanto, including an estimated 1,000 native speakers. Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

Cover posted from Marburg featuring two Weimar Republic stamps, Mi.411 (5 Pf first issued 01.09.1928) and Mi.435 (10 Pf first issued 08.02.1930). Ref: 23.03.1933 - 10/74 23rd March 1933 Mi.410-422 (1928) Cover posted from Marburg featuring two Weimar Republic stamps, Mi.411 (5 Pf first issued 01.09.1928) and Mi.435 (10 Pf first issued 08.02.1930). Ref: 23.03.1933 - 10/74 Mi.410 - 422 (First issued 1st September 1928) German presidents (II) Notes: Designer: ?. Letterpress printing. Sheets 10 x 10, rolls and stamp booklets. Waffle watermark (x - vertical), Mi.412 (x, also y - horizontal - rare). Perf. 14:14¼. Quantity issued: Unknown. Ebert design valid until 30th June 1934, Hindenburg design valid until 31st December 1935 Mi.410 (3 pf - Friedrich Ebert, 1st German president). Ref: 02.04.1933 Mi.411 (5 Pf - Paul von Hindenburg, 2nd German president). Ref: 23.03.1933 - 10/74 Mi.412 (8 pf - Friedrich Ebert, 1st German president). Ref: 08.05.1933 Mi.413 (8 pf - Friedrich Ebert, 1st German president). Ref: Mi.414 (15 Pf - Paul von Hindenburg, 2nd German president). Ref: 09.03.1933 Mi.415 (20 pf - Friedrich Ebert, 1st German president). Ref: Mi.416 (25 Pf - Paul von Hindenburg, 2nd German president). Ref: Mi.417 (30 pf - Friedrich Ebert, 1st German president). Ref: 21.04.1933 - 9/23 Mi.418 (40 Pf - Paul von Hindenburg, 2nd German president). Ref: 23.01.1933 - 9/22 Mi.419 (45 pf - Friedrich Ebert, 1st German president). Ref: Mi.420 (50 Pf - Paul von Hindenburg, 2nd German president). Ref: 11.03.1935 Mi.421 (60 pf - Friedrich Ebert, 1st German president). Ref: Mi.422 Poor example (80 Pf - Paul von Hindenburg, 2nd German president). Ref: 17.01.1934 - 1/4 Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

Postcard depicting Gauleiter Josef Wagner (1889-1945). Taken from the postcard series published for the 'Winterhilfswerk der Deutschen Volkes 1933/34'. Ref: 21.11.1934 21st November 1934 Josef Wagner Postcard depicting Gauleiter Josef Wagner (1889-1945). Taken from the postcard series published for the 'Winterhilfswerk der Deutschen Volkes 1933/34'. Ref: 21.11.1934 Josef Wagner (1899 - 1945) Josef Wagner was from 1931 the Nazi Gauleiter of Gau Westphalia-South and, as of December 1934, also of Gau Silesia. He was also the Reichskommissar for Pricing from October 1936. In 1941, he was dismissed from his offices, then expelled from the Nazi Party (NSDAP), imprisoned by the Gestapo, and likely executed around the time of end of the war in Europe. After the Nazi seizure of power in January 1933, Wagner became a City Councilor in Bochum on 12th March and was appointed to the Westphalia Landtag , which on 10th April appointed him to the Prussian State Council where he was named First Vice-president until the council was dissolved in July. He was reappointed on 14th September to the reconstituted Council, now stripped of significant legislative functions and merely an advisory body to Prussian Minister-President Hermann Göring. On 25th September 1933, Wagner joined the Sturmabteilung (SA) with the rank of SA- Gruppenführer and was assigned to the SA Westphalia Group. In October 1933, he was made a member of the Academy for German Law. In 1934 he was made a member of the Prussian Provincial Council for Westphalia. On 12th December 1934, after the removal of Helmuth Brückner, Wagner was also appointed as Gauleiter of Gau Silesia with its capital at Breslau (today Wrocław, Poland). Retaining his Gauleiter position in Westphalia-South, he was one of only a very few Gauleiters to simultaneously head two Gaue. In addition, he succeeded Brückner as Oberpräsident (High President) of the Prussian provinces of Lower Silesia and Upper Silesia. He thus united under his control the highest party and governmental offices in the two provinces. After the two provinces were united into the Province of Silesia on 1st April 1938, Wagner became its Oberpräsident until the province was split again on 27th January 1941. From 12th June 1935 he also served as the President of the Prussian Provincial Council for both Silesian provinces and, during their union, for the united Silesia. On 29th October 1936, Wagner was appointed Reichskommissar for Pricing, an important position for managing the economy under Göring's Four Year Plan. He was charged with ensuring stable wholesale and retail prices for both raw materials and finished goods, and decreed that after 26th November 1936, any increase in prices was forbidden. However, within a few months he had to back off this absolute mandate due to market forces. As the scarcity of raw materials grew, he had to allow price increases for industries dependent on expensive raw material imports. On 9th November 1937, he was promoted to SA- Obergruppenführer . On the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe on 1st September 1939, he was named Reich Defense Commissioner for Wehrkreis (Military District) VIII, which included not only Gau Silesia, but the eastern sections of Reichsgau Sudetenland. It was headquartered in Breslau. In this position, he had responsibility for civil defence and evacuation measures, as well as administration of wartime rationing and suppression of black market activity. After the conquest of Poland on 8th October 1939, Germany annexed large parts of the country, with East Upper Silesia being made part of Wagner's Gau of Silesia. Two days later, Wagner conferred with Adolf Eichmann who outlined the ruthless Nisko Plan to deport an estimated 70,000 to 80,000 Jews to the Lublin District. Wagner agreed to cooperate with the plan and the first deportations began on 20th October from Kattowitz (today, Katowice). Deportations continued until early 1940, aimed at expropriating Jews and Poles, and resettling the area with Germans. On 20th April 1940 Wagner was made an Obergruppenführer in the National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK). On 15th November 1940, he assumed the responsibility of Housing Commissioner for his two Gaue. Then on 15th January 1941 he was appointed Staatssekretär (State Secretary) to Göring in the Four Year Plan. Wagner, now at the peak of his career, had made powerful enemies, including SS Chief Heinrich Himmler and Martin Bormann, head of the Party Chancellery. In addition, his Deputy Gauleiter in Silesia, Fritz Bracht, was plotting against him. Bormann began agitating for Wagner's removal as Gauleiter of Silesia as early as December 1939, using the large increase in territory and population resulting from the annexed Polish lands to justify dividing the large Gau. Adolf Hitler at first was hesitant but was eventually persuaded. On 9th January 1941, Wagner was removed as Gauleiter of Gau Silesia and it was divided into two separate Gaue on 27th January. Bracht succeeded him in Gau Upper Silesia and Karl Hanke in Gau Lower Silesia. Wagner was also replaced as Oberpräsident , with Bracht and Hanke succeeding him in this capacity in the two new provinces of Upper and Lower Silesia. Bormann, one of the most rabidly anti-religious Nazis, opposed Wagner who was known to be a Catholic and who was accused of having ties to Catholic Action, a group opposed to the regime. Relationships with any religious organisations were strictly forbidden for high Party functionaries. In addition, it was known that Wagner had sent his children to Catholic schools. There was a report that his wife had genuflected to the Pope at a Vatican reception. Finally, a letter that Wagner's wife had sent to their pregnant daughter, Gerda, had been brought by Himmler to Bormann's attention. In it, Frau Wagner forbade on religious grounds, her daughter's planned marriage to the child's father, a member of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler who had left the Church. All this ran counter to the Nazi anti-Catholic doctrine, and Bormann used it to attack Wagner. [See Pope Pius XI] Subsequently, on 9th November 1941 at the annual Beer Hall Putsch anniversary celebration in Munich's Führerbau with all the Gauleiters and Reichsleiters present, Hitler personally dismissed Wagner as Gauleiter of Gau Westphalia-South. After Bormann read the contents of Frau Wagner's letter, Hitler publicly denounced Wagner and ordered him to leave the hall. Wagner requested the floor to defend himself, which further enraged Hitler who announced that he was dismissing Wagner from all his offices, and then had him removed from the hall. Wagner immediately was replaced as Gauleiter in Westphalia-South by Paul Giesler, a functionary in Bormann's Chancellery. Interestingly, Giesler, at Wagner's instigation, had been dismissed as SA- Führer in Westphalia-South in July 1934 and brought up on charges before the Supreme Party Court in connection with the Roehm Purge. On 26th November, Wagner was also expelled from the Reichstag . On Hitler's orders, Wagner subsequently was brought up on charges before the Supreme Party Court, which was headed by Walter Buch, and which had jurisdiction over matters of Party membership. Wagner put up a persuasive defense and, surprisingly, in a 6th February 1942 decision, the Court acquitted him and refused to expel him from the Party. This infuriated Bormann and Hitler who refused to endorse the decision. The matter, however, was allowed to simmer over the spring and summer until the autumn when Hitler summoned Buch to his headquarters, furiously berated him, and ordered him to reverse the decision immediately. That same day, Buch wrote to Wagner expelling him from the Party effective forthwith, 12th October 1942. At the direction of Himmler, Wagner was placed under Gestapo surveillance in October 1943. Suspected of involvement in the attempt on Hitler's life at the Wolf's Lair on 20th July 1944, he was arrested by the Gestapo in late July and sent to a concentration camp. His name had appeared in a document prepared by the conspirators. It referred to 'upright and capable' individuals who should be approached to be 'convinced of the necessity of such a step and to support it. e.g. Gauleiter Wagner.' Wagner was moved to a police prison in Potsdam and then to the underground prison at Gestapo headquarters on 8 Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse in Berlin. The circumstances of Wagner's death are unclear. The most widely accepted account is that he was hanged by the Gestapo in the closing weeks of the war on 22nd April 1945. An observer allegedly informed the family of the execution the same month. An alternative version by a fellow prisoner claims that Wagner survived until the prison was liberated by Red Army forces on 2nd May, but was accidentally shot by a Russian soldier. Source: Wikipedia Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

13th June 1934 Mi.P182 I Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

LX5 (1.29) Ref: 17.04.1933 17th April 1933 Telegram LX5 (1.29) LX5 (1.29) Ref: 17.04.1933 Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

30th August 1935 Beposta 1935 Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page