Mi.751-759 (05.11.1940) Buildings Mi.751-759 Cover sent from Munster Lager to Salzhausen, featuring five stamps from the WHW - Buildings issue (Mi.751, 752, 755, 757 and 758). Ref: 25.11.1940 - 14/12 next stamp issue Mi.751 - Artushof, Danzig (Ref: 06.05.1941) Mi.751 with sheet number (Ref: 12.01.1941 - 25/102) Mi.752 - City Hall, Thorn (Ref: 31.01.1941 - 9/21) Mi.753 - Pfalz by Kaub (Ref: 25.11.1940 - 14/12) Mi.755 - Heidelberg Castle (Ref: 25.11.1940 - 14/12) Mi.756 - Porta Nigra, Trier (Ref:28.05.1941 - 4/72) Mi.757 - New German Theatre, Prague (Ref: 14.05.1941) Mi.758 - City Hall, Bremen (Ref: 30.12.1940 - 30/24) Contact Brief History to inform us of additonal information regarding this page

24th March 1940 Aumuhle See 24.03.1940 - 23/60 (K.d.F. retreat) Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

13th November 1940 Flieger Ausbildungs Regiment 82 Feldpost cover to Ernst Kramer at Flieger-Ausbildungs-Regiment 82 at Würzen (an Air Training Regiment). Ref: 13.11.1940 With a strange typewritten 'reply' to the sender... 'Message from the c.c. to Ilse Kramer From a magic bible "Der alten Weiber Philosophey" printed in Frankfurt/M. in 1571: 'If a pregnant woman carries her child in her right side and likes to eat fennel and birds and likes to hear people talk about jousting, then she is carrying a son'. Probatum sit! signed. O.L. Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

7th August 1940 NS-Frauenkalender See 07.08.1940 - 24/1 Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

19th November 1940 Mi.P230 I F Postcard Mi.P230 I F (unperforated (I) 15/15 senders message section (F = Frageteil) sent from Gmund, Niederösterreich to Bozen (Bozano), Italy. Ref: 19.11.1940 Further reaseach: Horst-Wessel Platz in Gmund FPN 38623 (Stürmmann Franz Steinmetz - 13.Kompanie, SS-Totenkopf, 1.Regiment) Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

29th March 1940 Blohm and Voss Ha 140 See 29.03.1940 - 23/62 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

Official publicity postcard for the film 'Hitlerjunge Quex' (1933). Ref: 09.09.1933 (Fleurs & Papillons) 9th September 1933 Hitlerjunge Quex Official publicity postcard for the film 'Hitlerjunge Quex' (1933). Ref: 09.09.1933 (Fleurs & Papillons) Hitlerjunge Quex (1933) Hitlerjunge Quex , (Hitler Youth Quex), is a 1933 German film directed by Hans Steinhoff, based on the similarly named 1932 novel Der Hitlerjunge Quex by Karl Aloys Schenzinger. It was released in the United States as Our Flag Leads Us Forward. Synopsis Heini Völker is a teenage boy, living in poverty with his mother and father. Heini's father, a veteran of the Great War, is an out-of-work supporter of the Communist Party. The organizer for the local communist chapter, a man named Stoppel, befriends Heini and invites him to an outing in the country, promising him swimming, camping and games. Heini accepts and duly turns up at the railway station the next day. The Hitler Youth are also there, taking the same train. When the communists arrive at their own camp, there is only smoking, drinking, and dancing. Boys and girls play games like cards, unlike the games which Heini expected. Heini doesn't feel welcome, and wanders away. In another part of the forest, Heini comes across the Hitler Youth camping by a lake where they are holding a midsummer bonfire. Heini watches them from a distance, but is caught by them, and taken into the camp, but they recognised him as having travelled with the communists, and so they send him away as well. Heini sees them doing all the things that he hoped to participate in, i.e. camping and swimming. He is enamored by their singing. In the morning, Heini watches the Hitler Youth's morning activities, but Stoppel comes looking for him. He hides from Stoppel and instead catches a ride into town from a stranger. When Heini returns to his home, he tells his mother about the Hitler Youth, and sings one of their songs to her, but his father overhears it and beats him for it. Heini wants to join the Hitler Youth and visits one of the Hitler Youth members' home, promising to come to the opening of their new club house. However, he arrives late, just as the communists are attacking the Hitler Youth members. Even though he had nothing to do with the attack, he is among those arrested by the police. The police arrest some of the Hitler Youth, but no communists. When the police let him go, he is recognised by the Hitler Youth members, who accuse him of colluding with the communists during the attack. Stoppel is impressed by the fact that Heini didn't tell the police that the communists were the ones who started the ruckus. He confides in him that the communists plan to attack the Hitler Youth later that day, but Heini is distraught and threatens to tell the Hitler Youth about the attack. He attempts to warn Ulla by telephone, but Fritz dismisses the matter. Heini also informs the police, but they do not believe him either. In the end, Ulla seems to have convinced Fritz to do something, as the communists' weapons store is blown up. Stoppel realises that Heini must have warned the Hitler Youth, and he goes to Heini's house and hints to his mother that he is going to kill him. However, later Stoppel has a change of heart and orders the communists not to retaliate against Heini. Heini's mother is so distraught that she decides to kill her son and herself by shutting the windows and leaving the gas on in their apartment at night. She is killed, but Heini survives. Heini's father happens to meet Heini's Hitler Youth troop leader, Kass, when both men go to see Heini at the hospital. It is here that Heini's father reveals that he was injured in the war, and that that is the reason he could not work. Kass attempts to convince Heini's father to join the Nazis. Heini decides to move into a hostel run by the Hitler Youth, where he discovers to his dismay that not all members of Hitler Youth have such high moral values as he had thought. They call him Quex, originally as an insult, a shortening of 'Quecksilber' (quicksilver). The Hitler Youth leader takes care not to send Heini to the district where the communists live, but they find out where he is staying. Stoppel seeks Heini out on the street, and tries to convince him to return to the communists. Heini refuses, and Stoppel warns him not to return to the communist district. One day, one of the Hitler Youth is beaten up by the communists while putting up posters, and Heini convinces his leader to allow him to visit the communist district to hand out flyers. However, his fellow Hitler Youth Grundler has been taken in by the communist girl Gerda, and throws all the flyers in the river. Heini then offers to reprint all the posters during the night and puts up the posters before the morning. The communists hear about this and chase him and stab him. The Hitler Youth find him lying face-down dying. The character of Wilde was played by Karl Meixner, of whom Jay Baird said that he looked like 'a Nazi version of the incarnation of the 'Jewish-Bolshevik' will to destruction'. The film allows some sympathy for communists. Heini's father, though violent and drunk, has become a communist because of his, and the workers', desperate condition. In one scene, his argument for his son being with him revolves around his sufferings in the war and his unemployment. Stoppel, the communist who invited Heini to a Communist Youth outing, while saying that he has to be eliminated, takes no part in the killing, Quex having made a strong impression on him. Hitlerjunge Quex was approved by the censors on 7th September 1933, presented to Hitler at the Ufa-Phoebus Palace in Munich on 12th September, and premiered at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin on 19th September. Thousands of Hitler Youth members lined the streets during the Munich showing. Rudolf Hess, Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Göring, Robert Ley, Ernst Röhm, and other high Nazi functionaries also attended the Munich showing. It was premiered in the United States as Our Flag Leads Us Forward at the Yorkville Theatre on the Upper East Side of Manhattan on 6th July 1934 and in March 1942 in Paris as Le jeune hitlérien. Over 20 million people saw the film and it was still being show at the Hitler Youth's jugendfilmstunden [de] by 1942. Goebbels reflected on the film as follows: 'If Hitler Youth Quex represents the first large-scale attempt to depict the ideas and world of National Socialism with the art of cinema, then one must say that this attempt, given the possibilities of modern technology, is a full-fledged success.' By January 1934 it had been viewed by a million people. It was banned in Germany after World War II. 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Cover featuring stamps from two separate issues: the 5 Pf (Mi.411), definitive stamp from 1st September 1928, the 10 Pf (Mi.435), from the issue displayed here and dating from 8th February 1930. Ref: 23.03.1933 - 10/74 8th February 1930 Mi.435-437: German Presidents Cover featuring stamps from two separate issues: the 5 Pf (Mi.411), definitive stamp from 1st September 1928, the 10 Pf (Mi.435), from the issue displayed here and dating from 8th February 1930. Ref: 23.03.1933 - 10/74 Mi.435-437: German Presidents Issued: 8th February 1930 and September 1930 Notes: Colour change on values. See Mi.410-422: German Presidents for more details. Quantity issued: Unknown. Ebert design valid until 30th June 1934, Hindenburg design valid until 31st December 1935. Mi.435 (5 Pf, Ebert. 08.02). Ref: 23.03.1933 - 10/74 Mi.436 (20 Pf, Ebert) Mi.437 (80 Pf, Ebert)

Use of Mi.468 (5 Pf, von Hindenburg) on registered commercial cover addressed to the Braunschweigische Lebensversicherungs-Bank A.-G., Betrieb Leipzig, at Dresdner Straße 1. The company traced its origins to an institution founded in Braunschweig in 1806 and adopted the name appearing on this cover in 1920. In 1928 it was acquired by publishing entrepreneur Kurt Herrmann, at which time its insurance portfolio amounted to approximately 100 million marks. During the Third Reich it was renamed Braunschweigische Lebensversicherung AG in 1937 and subsequently expanded through the acquisition of other German insurance companies. Of particular interest to Brief History is the date: 23rd January 1933, exactly one week before Adolf Hitler's appointment as Chancellor on 30th January. The cover therefore provides a useful piece of ordinary German commercial postal history from the final days immediately preceding the National Socialist seizure of governmental power. 23.01.1933 - 9/22 1st October 1932 Mi.467-473: von Hindenburg Use of Mi.468 (5 Pf, von Hindenburg) on registered commercial cover addressed to the Braunschweigische Lebensversicherungs-Bank A.-G., Betrieb Leipzig, at Dresdner Straße 1. The company traced its origins to an institution founded in Braunschweig in 1806 and adopted the name appearing on this cover in 1920. In 1928 it was acquired by publishing entrepreneur Kurt Herrmann, at which time its insurance portfolio amounted to approximately 100 million marks. During the Third Reich it was renamed Braunschweigische Lebensversicherung AG in 1937 and subsequently expanded through the acquisition of other German insurance companies. Of particular interest to Brief History is the date: 23rd January 1933, exactly one week before Adolf Hitler's appointment as Chancellor on 30th January. The cover therefore provides a useful piece of ordinary German commercial postal history from the final days immediately preceding the National Socialist seizure of governmental power. 23.01.1933 - 9/22 Mi.467 - 473: von Hindenburg Issued: 1st October 1932 Notes: Designer: prof. Goetz. Letterpress printing. Sheets 10 x 10, rolls and stamp booklets. Waffle watermark (upright). Perf. 14x14¼. Quantity issued: Unknown. Valid until May 1945 (obliterated until mid August 1945) Mi.467 (4 Pf) Mi.468 (5 Pf). Ref: 17.01.1934 - 1/4 (Link) Mi.469 (12 Pf) Mi.470 (15 Pf) Mi.471 (25 Pf) Mi.472 (40 Pf). Ref: 17.01.1934 - 1/4 (Link) Mi.473 (50 Pf)

Official correspondence sent from the district court in Wittstock. The letter states, 'A copy of the birth certificate of Alfred Granzow, born 7 December 1924 in Blandikow, is requested free of charge.' The Official postage stamps are Mi.116 X a (8 Pf - 1927) and Mi.127 X (4 Pf - 1931). Ref: 06.04.1933 6th April 1933 6th April 1933 Official correspondence sent from the district court in Wittstock. The letter states, 'A copy of the birth certificate of Alfred Granzow, born 7 December 1924 in Blandikow, is requested free of charge.' The Official postage stamps are Mi.116 X a (8 Pf - 1927) and Mi.127 X (4 Pf - 1931). Ref: 06.04.1933 Link to Official Stamps (1927-1933) Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

'Ross' Verlag postcard depicting film actor Willy Fritsch. Ref: 10.03.1933 10th March 1933 Willy Fritsch 'Ross' Verlag postcard depicting film actor Willy Fritsch. Ref: 10.03.1933 Willy Fritsch Willy Fritsch (1901 - 1973) was a German theatre and film actor, a popular leading man and character actor from the silent-film era to the early 1960s. He was born Wilhelm Egon Fritz Fritsch, the only son of a factory owner in Kattowitz (present-day Katowice) in the Prussian province of Silesia. After the bankruptcy of his father in 1912, the family moved to Berlin, where Fritsch Sr. worked as an employee of the Siemens-Schuckert company. Young Willy originally planned an apprenticeship as a mechanic, but soon began working as an extra at the Großes Schauspielhaus theatre. From 1919 he attended Max Reinhardt's drama school at the Deutsches Theater, where he debuted with small roles and played as understudy at times side by side with Marlene Dietrich (i.e. Spring Awakening ). He made his feature debut in films as a supporting player in 1920's Miss Venus and got his first important engagement in His Mysterious Adventure three years later. In 1925, Fritsch gained international attention by playing the leading role in the silent film A Waltz Dream directed by Ludwig Berger. Afterwards he was offered a United Artists contract, but refused to move to the United States, being concerned about his limited English. His career was pushed now through the UFA film company by being cast as a juvenile lover in silent comedies such as Chaste Susanne (1926), The Last Waltz (1927), Hungarian Rhapsody (1928), and Her Dark Secret (1929). Fritsch also starred in two silent films directed by Fritz Lang: the thriller Spies (1928) and the sci-fi film Woman in the Moon (1929), where he played serious characters. Again, these films gained him international success. In 1929, he spoke the first sentence in a German talkie: 'I'm saving money to buy a horse!' ( Melodie des Herzens / Melody of the Heart , 1929)). Shortly after that, he was paired again with Lilian Harvey, whom he had already played together with twice during the mid-1920s. Their joint musical love comedy Waltz of Love (1930) was such a huge success that its producer Erich Pommer decided to continue making films with the 'perfect couple' Harvey/Fritsch. Thereupon, they appeared regularly together in UFA movies such as The Three from the Filling Station (1930), Congress Dances by Erik Charell (1931) and A Blonde Dream (1932), but Fritsch was also playing in several movies at the side of Käthe von Nagy (i.e. in Billy Wilder's screenwriting debut Her Grace Commands , 1931 or I by Day, You by Night , 1932). He mainly starred in the German versions and was sometimes replaced by Henri Garat unless his movies were dubbed. In his musical comedies, Fritsch also turned out to be a good singer performing popular German film songs written by Werner Richard Heymann or Friedrich Holländer. At the end of the Weimar era, he was one of the best paid actors in Germany, drawing large crowds of fans wherever he appeared. Even palm court music was composed for him: Ich bin in Willy Fritsch verliebt (I'm In Love With Willy Fritsch) , 1931. Besides, Friedrich Holländer dedicated a Couplet to him the same year: Gebet einer 15 3/4-Jährigen - Warum ist der Willy Fritsch so schön? ( Prayer Of A 15 3/4 Year Old: Why Willy Fritsch Is Such A Cutie ) was written for the opening of the famous Tingel Tangel Theater in Berlin. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Fritsch was able to continue his career in Germany. In the mid-1930s, he was the leading actor in highly successful comedies such as Amphitryon (1935) directed by Reinhold Schünzel or Lucky Kids (1936, director Paul Martin), the latter a German adaption of Frank Capra's film It Happened One Night . By the end of the decade, he starred in two more comedies together with Lilian Harvey ( Seven Slaps , 1937 and Woman At The Wheel , 1939) before Harvey emigrated to France. In 1940, Fritsch also played the leading role in the first German coloured motion picture Women Are Better Diplomats . Though he had joined the NSDAP in response to the pressure put on him to do so, Fritsch avoided getting involved in Nazi propaganda, other than his appearance in the 1944 aviator movie Junge Adler [de] which earned him an entry on Goebbels' Gottbegnadeten list. Starring in Austrian originated comedies such as Vienna Blood (1942) directed by Willi Forst or A Salzburg Comedy (1943) written by Erich Kästner, he managed to survive the Hitler era without any loss of prestige, even while being watched by the secret police (Gestapo) for his 'lack of political reliability' despite his party membership. After the war, he moved to Hamburg and continued to appear in movies such as Film Without A Title (1948) together with Hildegard Knef, as well as in several German blockbusters such as The Heath Is Green (1951) and When the White Lilacs Bloom Again (1953) side by side with young Romy Schneider. In 1958, Fritsch starred in the German version of Mit Eva fing die Sünde an [de] , which was later adapted and filled with additional scenes by Francis Ford Coppola for his debut release of The Bellboy And The Playgirls (1962). Fritsch's final film was 1964's I Learned It from Father (Das hab' ich von Papa gelernt) directed by Axel von Ambesser, in which he performed together with his son Thomas. Fritsch was married to artistic dancer Dinah Grace in 1937 and became a father of two sons. The younger one, Thomas Fritsch, was a successful actor as well. Fritsch died of a heart attack aged 72 and was buried at Ohlsdorf Cemetery in Hamburg. Source: Wikipedia (2024) Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page