12th January 1941 Mi.P241 Mi.P241. Semi-official postal stationery issued for Day of the Postage Stamp, 1941, with imprint 6 Pf Hindenburg medallion. Ordered by the K.d.F. Philatelists Association. the surcharge on card was for K.d.F. funds. Special cancellations produced were used in 52 cities. Stamp Day Postal Stationery Wiener Klapperpost Clapper Post, or Klapperpost in German, was an urban postal service in Vienna, the capital of Austria, and in some of the country's other cities, that began in 1772. Its name refers to a clapper (a type of rattle) with which mail carriers announced their arrival. In Vienna, it existed for more than ten years. Source: Wikipedia Official postal stationery (Mi.P241) without 6 Pf Hindenburg medallion imprint but with inscription 'Sondermarke zum Tag der Briefmarke 1941' (Special stamp for Stamp Day 1941) and Mi.762. Note: Without vertical sales text. Ref: 12.01.1941 - 32/21 Unused with commemorative cancel, postal stationery (Mi.P3) with imprint 6 Pf Hindenburg medallion overprinted with 'Lothringen'. Ref: 12.01.1941 Official postal stationery (Mi.P241) with 'Tag der Briefmarke 1943' overprinted beneath the image. Without vertical sales text. Ref: 10.01.1943 Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

Mi.773 - 778 (19.05.1941) Comradeship of the Reich Post Mi.773-778 Registered cover sent from Frankfurt to Merzig. The cover includes postage stamps Mi.774 and Mi.777 from the Comradeship of the German Reich Post issue. Ref: 14.07.1941 Mi.773 (6+9 Pf). Training camp Zeesen. Ref: 29.09.1941 - BETTER EXAMPLE AT 32/12 Mi.774 (8+12 Pf). Competition. Ref: 14.07.1941 Mi.775 (12+18 Pf). Off-road driving. Ref: 30.12.1941 - 32/12 Mi.776 (16+24 Pf). Post protection detachment. Ref: 02.08.1941 - 4/74 Mi.777 (20+30 Pf). Glider shop. Ref: 14.07.1941 Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

24th November 1941 Mautern, Stein, Krems a.D. Postcard depicting aerial views of Mautern (in the foreground), Stein (across the bridge), and Krems in the distance. All situated along the Danube (Donau) river in the Wachau valley. Ref: 24.11.1941 Mautern, Stein, and Krems a.D. Mautern a.D. In former times ships cruising the Danube had to pay a toll when they passed Mautern. The town got its name from there because toll translates as "Maut" in German. Before it got this name it was called Favianae by the Romans because it was a very important fort. Being an important merchant point in the Middle Ages, it gained additional importance as the bridge over the Danube River was built (a steelwork as of 1895). Source: Wikipedia Stein a.D. (Usually described as a suburb in the city of Krems) Krems a.D. Krems an der Donau is a town with 25,271 inhabitants (2022) in Austria, in the federal state of Lower Austria. It is the fifth-largest city of Lower Austria and is approximately 70 kilometres (43 miles) west of Vienna. Krems is a city with its own statute (or Statutarstadt ), and therefore it is both a municipality and a district. Source: Wikipedia Article on Stalag XVII-B, Krems-Gneixendorf The largest labor camp of the Ostmark, STALAG XVII B Krems-Gneixendorf, detained prisoners of war and was located here. Up to 66,000 soldiers from France, Belgium, Poland, Italy, the Soviet Union, the USA and other countries were held nearby the village of Gneixendorf. The areas in which the prisoners of war came into contact with the local population are of particular interest in the research project, especially with regards to the forced labor deployed. It were the so-called "Außenkommandos" who were assigned to agricultural and forestry enterprises as well as factories and industrial and handicraft enterprises. Forced labor also benefited the city's large-scale construction activities during the Nazi era: Among other things, forced laborers were utilized for work on expanding the harbor, building the "Schmidhütte" steel and sheet metal rolling mill and its factory housing estate in what is now the Lerchenfeld district of Krems. To accommodate them, the prisoners of war were housed in barracks or vacant premises in the immediate vicinity of their workplaces. A topic that has remained completely unexplored to this day is the conditions of life and camps of civilian forced laborers in the district, many of them from Poland and Ukraine, who had to perform forced labor in the Krems area. After 1944, Hungarian-Jewish forced laborers in particular were housed in other Nazi labor camps, including those in Langenlois, Dross, Furth, Mautern, Rossatz and Spitz an der Donau. The research project explores the traces these different Nazi forced labor camps have left behind, some of which are barely visible today, others which are visible but have not been identified in their historical dimension. Source: Dr. Edith Blaschitz, Donau University, Krems Link to page within Brief History containing postal history from Stalag XVII-B Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

16th June 1941 Mi.Block 9A Belgium Winterhulp Belgium — German Occupation, 1941. Complete perforated miniature sheet of nine Secours d'Hiver / Winterhulp (Winter Relief) semi-postal charity stamps, issued by the Belgian Postal Administration in May 1941. The nine stamps depict the arms or emblems of Belgium's nine provincial capitals and carry compulsory charity surcharges for Belgian Winter Relief. This was the second version of designs first issued in December 1940. The sheet is the perforated form (Michel Block 9A) and bears multiple BRUXELLES–BRUSSEL 1 cancellations dated 16 June 1941, during its period of postal validity. The arrangement of the cancellations indicates that the complete sheet was most probably philatelically cancelled rather than used conventionally for postage. Secours d'Hiver/Winterhulp was a Belgian wartime relief organisation established under the conditions of German occupation to provide material assistance to civilians suffering wartime hardship. Ref: 16.06.1941 - 35/37 Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

27th November 1941 Submariners uniform Postcard depicting sailors of the Kriegsmarine waving from a U-Boat. the caption reads, 'Frohe Heimkehr' ('Happy homecoming' - although the vessel appears to be sailing out to sea. Therefore, 'Happy returns' may be more appropriate). Ref: 27.11.1941 Submariners uniform Due to the arduous nature of U-boat duty, uniforms varied greatly depending upon the actions and activity of the service member. All submarine personnel were required to maintain standard Navy uniforms, with the undress service uniform being the most commonly worn when on shore. Upon departure and return to base, especially when the submarine was visible to onlookers, officers would wear a modified version of the service uniform to consist of the blue service coat along with grey all weather over-trousers. Commanders who had earned the Knight's Cross would often wear tin copies for the ceremonial entrance and exit to port. All medals, ribbons, and badges were removed once fully underway at sea. The standard 'patrol uniform' consisted of a grey-brown denim jacket for officers and chiefs while a grey all weather smock coat was worn by enlisted personnel. Some of the original U-boat uniforms had been issued from British stocks abandoned at Dunkirk. U-boat personnel were also issued a variety of weather clothing to include fleece lined footwear and all weather over-trousers of brown or grey leather. As an unwritten rule, the captain of any submarine wore a white peaked cap in contrast to officers and chiefs who wore blue service caps. Lookouts wore oilskins and sou'westers on duty while sailors in the control center and on deck were required to wear garrison covers. Dress restrictions for engineering and torpedo man personnel, who often worked in cramped and humid conditions, were far more lax and most in these duties wore comfortable civilian clothes. An unofficial modicum for the ship's Chief engineer was the 'checkered shirt' which was a comfortable working shirt often worn with pants and suspenders. Source: Wikipedia Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

30th May 1941 Winston Churchill Postcard depicting Winston Churchill (photographed by Cecil Beaton in 1940) at his desk in the Cabinet Room of 10 Downing Street. The image is accompanied by part of Churchill's speech, broadcast from London on 9th February 1941. The rather innocuous correspondence is given a certain levity with the addition of 'Sorry I cannot get views'. Ref: 30.05.1941 Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965) 'GIVE US THE TOOLS' Speech broadcast from London on 9th February 1941. This was in reply to President Roosevelts letter of introduction. Five months have passed since I spoke to the British nation and the Empire on the broadcast. In wartime there is a lot to be said for the motto: 'Deeds, not words.' All the same, it is a good thing to look around from time to time and take stock, and certainly our affairs have prospered in several directions during these last four or five months, far better than most of us would have ventured to hope. We stood our ground and faced the two Dictators in the hour of what seemed their overwhelming triumph, and we have shown ourselves capable, so far, of standing up against them alone. After the heavy defeats of the German air force by our fighters in August and September, Herr Hitler did not dare attempt the invasion of this Island, although he had every need to do so and although he had made vast preparations. Baffled in this mighty project, he sought to break the spirit of the British nation by the bombing, first of London, and afterwards of our great cities. It has now been proved, to the admiration of the world, and of our friends in the United States, that this form of blackmail by murder and terrorism, so far from weakening the spirit of the British nation, has only roused it to a more intense and universal flame than was ever seen before in any modern community. The whole British Empire has been proud of the Mother Country, and they long to be with us over here in even larger numbers. We have been deeply conscious of the love for us which has flowed from the Dominions of the Crown across the broad ocean spaces. There is the first of our war aims: to be worthy of that love, and to preserve it. All through these dark winter months the enemy has had the power to drop three or four tons of bombs upon us for every ton we could send to Germany in return. We are arranging so that presently this will be rather the other way round; but, meanwhile, London and our big cities have had to stand their pounding. They remind me of the British squares at Waterloo. They are not squares of soldiers; they do not wear scarlet coats. They are just ordinary English, Scottish, and Welsh folk—men, women, and children—standing steadfastly together. But their spirit is the same, their glory is the same; and, in the end, their victory will be greater than far-famed Waterloo. More than two-thirds of the winter has now gone, and so far we have had no serious epidemic; indeed, there is no increase of illness in spite of the improvised conditions of the shelters. That is most creditable to our local, medical, and sanitary authorities, to our devoted nursing staff, and to the Ministry of Health, whose head, Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, is now going to Canada in the important office of High Commissioner. There is another thing which surprised me when I asked about it. In spite of all these new war-time offenses and prosecutions of all kinds; in spite of all the opportunities for looting and disorder, there has been less crime this winter and there are now fewer prisoners in our jails than in the years of peace. We have broken the back of the winter. The daylight grows. The Royal Air Force grows, and is already certainly master of the daylight air. The attacks may be sharper, but they will be shorter; there will be more opportunities for work and service of all kinds; more opportunities for life. So, if our first victory was the repulse of the invader, our second was the frustration of his acts of terror and torture against our people at home. Meanwhile, abroad, in October, a wonderful thing happened. One of the two Dictators—the crafty, cold-blooded, black-hearted Italian, who had thought to gain an Empire on the cheap by stabbing fallen France in the back—got into trouble. Without the slightest provocation, spurred on by lust of power and brutish greed, Mussolini attacked and invaded Greece, only to be hurled back ignominiously by the heroic Greek Army; who, I will say, with your consent, have revived before our eyes the glories which, from the classic age, gild their native land. While Signor Mussolini was writhing and smarting under the Greek lash in Albania, Generals Wavell and Wilson, who were charged with the defense of Egypt and of the Suez Canal in accordance with our treaty obligations, whose task seemed at one time so difficult, had received very powerful reinforcements of men, cannon, equipment and, above all, tanks, which we had sent from our island in spite of the invasion threat. Large numbers of troops from India, Australia, and New Zealand had also reached them. Forthwith began that series of victories in Libya which have broken irretrievably the Italian military power on the African Continent. Here then, in Libya, is the third considerable event upon which we may dwell with some satisfaction. It is just exactly two months ago, to a day, that I was waiting anxiously, but also eagerly, for the news of the great counter-stroke which had been planned against the Italian invaders of Egypt. The secret had been well kept. The preparations had been well made. But to leap across those seventy miles of desert, and attack an army of ten or eleven divisions, equipped with all the appliances of modern war, who had been fortifying themselves for three months—that was a most hazardous adventure. When the brilliant decisive victory at Sidi Barrani, with its tens of thousands of prisoners, proved that we had quality, maneuvering power and weapons superior to the enemy, who had boasted so much of his virility and his military virtues, it was evident that all the other Italian forces in eastern Libya were in great danger. They could not easily beat a retreat along the coastal road without running the risk of being caught in the open of our armored divisions and brigades ranging far out into the desert in tremendous swoops and scoops. They had to expose themselves to being attacked piecemeal. General Wavell—nay, all our leaders, and all their lithe, active, ardent men, British, Australian, Indian, in the Imperial Army—saw their opportunity. At that time I ventured to draw General Wavell's attention to the seventh chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew, at the seventh verse, where, as you all know—or ought to know—it is written: 'Ask, and it shall be given; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.' The Army of the Nile has asked, and it was given; they sought, and they have found; they knocked, and it has been opened unto them. In barely eight weeks, by a campaign which will long be studied as a model of the military art, an advance of over 400 miles has been made. The whole Italian Army in the east of Libya, which was reputed to exceed 150,000 men, has been captured or destroyed. The entire province of Cyrenaica—nearly as big as England and Wales—has been conquered. The unhappy Arab tribes, who have for thirty years suffered from the cruelty of Italian rule, carried in some cases to the point of methodical extermination, these Bedouin survivors have at last seen their oppressors in disorderly flight, or led off in endless droves as prisoners of war. Egypt and the Suez Canal are safe, and the port, the base and the airfields of Benghazi constitute a strategic point of high consequence to the whole of the war in the Eastern Mediterranean. Distinguished Americans have come over to see things here at the front, and to find out how the United States can help us best and soonest. In Mr. Hopkins who has been my frequent companion during the last three weeks, we have the Envoy of the President, a President who has been newly re-elected to his august office. In Mr. Wendell Willkie, we have welcomed the champion of the great Republican Party. We may be sure that they will both tell the truth about what they have seen over here, and more than that we do not ask. The rest we leave with good confidence to the judgment of the President the Congress and the people of the United States. I have been so very careful, since I have been Prime Minister, not to encourage false hopes or prophesy smooth and easy things, and yet the tale that I have to tell today is one which must justly and rightly give us cause for deep thankfulness, and also, I think, for strong comfort and even rejoicing. But now I must dwell upon the more serious, darker and more dangerous aspects of the vast scene of the war. We must all of us have been asking ourselves: What has that wicked man whose crime-stained regime and system are at bay and in the toils what has he been preparing during these winter months? What new devilry is he planning? What new small country will he overrun or strike down? What fresh form of assault will he make upon our island home and fortress; which, let there be no mistake about it, is all that stands between him and the dominion of the world? We may be sure that the war is soon going to enter upon a phase of greater Violence... We saw what happened last May in the Low Countries, how they hoped for the best: how they clung to their neutrality: how woefully they were deceived, overwhelmed, plundered, enslaved and since starved. We know how we and the French suffered when, at the last moment, at the urgent belated appeal of the King of the Belgians, we went to his aid. Of course, if all the Balkan people stood together and acted together, aided by Britain and Turkey, it would be many months before a German army and air force of sufficient strength to overcome them could be assembled in the southeast of Europe. And in those months much might happen. Much will certainly happen as American aid becomes effective, as our air power grows, as we become a well-armed nation, and as our armies in the East increase in strength. But nothing is more certain than that, if the countries of southeastern Europe allow themselves to be pulled to pieces one by one, they will share the fate of Denmark, Holland, and Belgium. And none can tell how long it will be before the hour of their deliverance strikes. One of our difficulties is to convince some of these neutral countries in Europe that we are going to win. We think it astonishing that they should be so dense as not to see it as clearly as we do ourselves. But after all, the fate of this war is going to be settled by what happens on the oceans, in the air. and above all-in this Island. It seems now to be certain that the Government and people of the United States intend to supply us with all that is necessary for victory. In the last war the United States sent two million men across the Atlantic. But this is not a war of vast armies, firing immense masses of shells at one another. We do not need the gallant armies which are forming throughout the American Union. We do not need them this year, nor next year; nor any year that I can foresee. But we do need most urgently an immense and continuous supply of war materials and technical apparatus of all kinds. We need them here and we need to bring them here. We shall need a great mass of shipping in 1942, far more than we can build ourselves, if we are to maintain and augment our war effort in the West and in the East. These facts are, of course, all well known to the enemy, and we must therefore expect that Herr Hitler will do his utmost to prey upon our shipping and to reduce the volume of American supplies entering these Islands. Having conquered France and Norway, his clutching fingers reach out on both sides of us into the ocean. I have never underrated this danger, and you know I have never concealed it from you. Therefore. I hope you will believe me when I say that 1 have complete confidence in the Royal Navy, aided by the Air Force of the Coastal Command, and that in one way or another I am sure they will be able to meet every changing phase of this truly mortal struggle, and that sustained by the courage of our merchant seamen, and of the dockers and workmen of all our ports, we shall outwit, outmaneuver, outfight and outlast the worst that the enemy's malice and ingenuity can contrive. I have left the greatest issue to the end. You will have seen that Sir John Dill, our principal military adviser, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, has warned us all that Hitler may be forced, by the strategic, economic and political stresses in Europe, to try to invade these Islands in the near future. That is a warning which no one should disregard. Naturally, we are working night and day to have everything ready. Of course, we are far stronger than we ever were before, incomparably stronger than we were in July, August and September. But most of all I put my faith in the simple unaffected resolve to conquer or die which will animate and inspire nearly four million Britons with serviceable weapons in their hands. It is not an easy military operation to invade an island like Great Britain, without the command of the sea and without the command of the air, and then to face what will be waiting for the invader here. But I must drop one word of caution; for, next to cowardice and treachery, overconfidence, leading to neglect or slothfulness, is the worst of martial crimes. Therefore, I drop one word of caution. A Nazi invasion of Great Britain last autumn would have been a more or less improvised affair. Hitler took it for granted that when France gave in we should give in; but we did not give in. And he had to think again. An invasion now will be supported by a much more carefully prepared tackle and equipment of landing craft and other apparatus, all of which will have been planned and manufactured in the winter months. We must all be prepared to meet gas attacks, parachute attacks, and glider attacks, with constancy, forethought, and practiced skill. In order to win the war Hitler must destroy Great Britain. He may carry havoc into the Balkan States; he may tear great provinces out of Russia, he may march to the Caspian; he may march to the gates of India. All this will avail him nothing. It may spend his curse more widely throughout Europe and Asia, but it will not avert his doom. With every month that passes the many proud and once happy countries he is now holding down by brute force and vile intrigue are learning to hate the Prussian yoke and the Nazi name as nothing has ever been hated so fiercely and so widely among men before. And all the time, masters of the sea and air, the British Empire—nay, in a certain sense, the whole English-speaking world—will be on his track, bearing with them the swords of justice. The other day, President Roosevelt gave his opponent in the late Presidential Election [Mr. Wendell Willkie] a letter of introduction to me, and in it he wrote out a verse, in his own handwriting, from Longfellow, which he said, "applies to you people as it does to us." Here is the verse: ...Sail on, O Ship of State! Sail on, O Union, strong and great! Humanity with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years, Is hanging breathless on thy fate! What is the answer that I shall give, in your name, to this great man, the thrice-chosen head of a nation of a hundred and thirty millions? Here is the answer which I will give to President Roosevelt: Put your confidence in us. Give us your faith and your blessing, and, under Providence, all will be well. We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle, nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools, and we will finish the job. Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

30th March 1941 7th KWHW Strassensammlung Commemorative postcard issued for the 7th KWHW Winterhilfswerk street collection, sponsored by the KdF 'Strength through Joy' collectors' groups. There are four postcards in the set. This one is titled 'Fingerhut' (Foxglove). The selling price is indicated as 25 Pf. Rarely seen postally used. Ref: 30.01.1941, SSB41/3ii Further postcards in the series of four Huflattich (Coltsfoot). Featuring Mi.751 (3 Pf - Winter Relief Issue, Nov. 1940). Ref: 30.03.1941, SSB41/3iii Birke (Birch). Featuring Mi.751 (3 Pf - Winter Relief Issue, Nov. 1940). Ref: 29.03.1941, SSB41/3i Wegwarte und Mohn (Chicory and poppy). Featuring Mi.751 (3 Pf - Winter Relief Issue, Nov. 1940). Ref: 29.03.1941, SSB41/3iv Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

Mi.763 (30.01.1941) Mi.763 See 32/34, 35, 36 Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

6th August 1941 Bochmann Moritzburg Postcard depicting the castle Schloss Moritzburg. Featuring commemorative cancel JB:Moritzburg1/539. Ref: 06.08.1941 MORITZBURG cancellation as featured in the Bochmann catalogues (1952) Note: This is the only special cancellation of the 3rd Reich period. This design was used between 1936-1950 JB:Moritzburg1/539 - 'Jagdschloß/ Wildpark/ Ausflugsort/ Sommerfrische'. Ref: 06.08.1941 Moritzburg Castle Moritzburg Castle or Moritzburg Palace is a Baroque palace in Moritzburg, in the German state of Saxony, about 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) northwest of the Saxon capital, Dresden. The castle has four round towers and lies on a symmetrical artificial island. It is named after Duke Moritz of Saxony, who had a hunting lodge built there between 1542 and 1546. The surrounding woodlands and lakes were a favourite hunting area of the electors and kings of Saxony. Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony, who lived in the castle between 1933 and 1945, was the last resident of the House of Wettin. He was dispossessed in 1945 by the postwar Soviet administration. Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony Ernst Heinrich opposed the Nazis after they formed a government on 30th January 1933. However, he failed to read the political situation correctly. He believed that Hitler could be stopped by the conservative political opposition and, in the spring of 1933, he joined Der Stahlhelm , hoping he could escape the influence of the Nazis. On 1st July 1934, during the Night of the Long Knives, he was arrested. He was interned in the concentration camp in Hohnstein for five days. After his release, Ernst Heinrich retired to Moritzburg Castle in Saxony. He was an avid hunter and had to keep in touch with Nazi leaders such as Hermann Göring, who, as Master of the Hunt, was interested in the forests owned by the Wettins, and Martin Mutschmann, the Nazi governor of Saxony. In 1938, he received King Carol II of Romania in his castle, and in 1939 he had extensive political discussions with Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, who had been mayor of Leipzig and was later active in the German resistance. A few weeks before the outbreak of World War II, Ernst Heinrich was drafted into the Abwehr group IV in Dresden. In 1943, he openly expressed doubts that the death of his brother Georg, Crown Prince of Saxony had been an accident. The Gestapo then arrested and questioned him. However, there were no further personal consequences, as the Nazis were still reluctant to confront a member of a former royal family. Ernst Heinrich was an admirer of the art of Käthe Kollwitz. After she lost her home when Berlin was bombed in 1943, he invited her to move to Moritzburg, where she lived and worked at the Rudenhof , a mansion in the immediate vicinity of the castle, until she died in April 1945. In February 1945, nearby Dresden was bombed. In March 1945, Ernst Heinrich fled to Sigmaringen to escape the advancing Red Army. Before he left, Ernst Heinrich and his sons buried most of their valuables in 40 crates in the Königswald forest. Most of this treasure was found by the Red Army and carried off to the Soviet Union. However, three crates full of treasure were rediscovered in 1995. Source: Wikipedia Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

16th June 1941 Neugersdorf Postcard depicting a view of Neugersdorf (looking down Hauptstrasse). Ref: 16.06.1941 Neugersdorf From Wikipedia: Neugersdorf is a town in the district Görlitz, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the border with the Czech Republic, 4 km south of Ebersbach, and 17 km northwest of Zittau. Since 1st January 2011, it has been a part of the Ebersbach-Neugersdorf municipality for administrative purposes. It has many wooded areas and country trails. Born in Neugersdorf: Margot Dreschel (1908–1945), Nazi concentration camp guard executed for war crimes. Margot Elisabeth Dreschel, also spelled Drechsler, or Drexler (17th May 1908 – May/June 1945), was a prison guard at Nazi concentration camps during World War II . For her role in the Holocaust , she was sentenced to death and hanged. Before her enlistment as an SS auxiliary, she worked at an office in Berlin . On 31st January 1941, Dreschel arrived at Ravensbrück concentration camp to receive guard training. At first she was an Aufseherin , a lower-ranking female guard at Ravensbrück camp in charge of interned women. She trained under Oberaufseherin (Senior Overseer) Johanna Langefeld in 1941, and quickly became an SS-Rapportführerin (Report Overseer), a higher-ranked guard. On 27th April 1942, Dreschel was selected for transfer to the newly opened Auschwitz II – Birkenau concentration camp in occupied Poland . Dreschel began her duties at Birkenau in August 1942 as soon as the women's camp was established there, with women transferred from Auschwitz to Birkenau during expansion. She served under Maria Mandel and worked as an associate of Dr Mengele . Dreschel was head of all camp offices in Auschwitz. Her appearance was reportedly repellent, as one female Auschwitz prisoner recounted: 'camp leader Dreschel was there, her buck teeth sticking out, even when her mouth is closed.' Inmates described her as vulgar, thin and ugly. After the war, many survivors testified of her notoriously brutal beatings. She carried out indoor selections wearing a white coat and white gloves, disguised as a doctor. 'Once Mrs Drechaler [Dreschler] came, with her huge bloodhound, undressed everybody, took away even our shoes, and we had to stand for hours completely naked, none of us were thinking of life any more, the gas chamber seemed unavoidable.' —  War Crimes Trials. Protocol 3309 , SS Female Overseers in Auschwitz. Dreschel regularly moved between the Auschwitz I camp and Birkenau , and involved herself in selections of women and children to be either exploited as slave labor, or murdered in the gas chambers . On 1st November 1944, she went to Flossenbürg concentration camp as an Oberaufseherin and as a trainer of enlisted overseers. In January 1945, she was moved back to the Ravensbrück subcamp at Neustadt-Glewe . Dreschel fled from Ravensbrück in April 1945 as Nazi Germany surrendered. In May 1945, several former Auschwitz prisoners recognised her on a road from Pirna to Bautzen in the Soviet zone, and took her to the Soviet Military Police. The Soviets condemned her to death and executed her in May or June 1945 by hanging in Bautzen . Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

27th September 1941 Vienna Postcard depicting a roof-top view of Vienna, with emphasis on a Hochhaus (tower block) located on the Herrengasse. Ref: 27.09.1941 - 36/34 Also see 28/40 (Rathaus) Vienna Link to map of Vienna (Herrengasse) For special cancels see here Vienna (German: Wien) is the capital, most populous city, and one of nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. Its larger metropolitan area has a population of nearly 2.9 million, representing nearly one-third of the country's population. Vienna is the cultural, economic, and political center of the country, the fifth-largest city by population in the European Union, and the most-populous of the cities on the Danube river. The city of Vienna became the center of socialist politics from 1919 to 1934, a period referred to as Red Vienna ( Das rote Wien ). After a new breed of socialist politicians won the local elections they engaged in a brief but ambitious municipal experiment. Social democrats had won an absolute majority in the May 1919 municipal election and ruled the city council with 100 of the 165 seats. Jakob Reumann was appointed by the city council as city mayor. The theoretical foundations of so-called Austromarxism were established by Otto Bauer, Karl Renner, and Max Adler. In the Austrian Civil War of 1934 Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss sent the Austrian Armed Forces to shell civilian housing such as the Karl Marx-Hof occupied by the Republikanischer Schutzbund, the socialist militia. In 1938, after a triumphant entry into Austria, the Austrian-born German Chancellor Adolf Hitler spoke to Austrian Germans from the balcony of the Neue Burg, a part of the Hofburg at the Heldenplatz. In the ensuing days the new Nazi authorities oversaw the harassment of Viennese Jews, the looting of their homes, and their on-going deportation and murder. Between 1938 (after the Anschluss) and the end of the Second World War in 1945, Vienna lost its status as a capital to Berlin, because Austria ceased to exist and became part of Nazi Germany. During the November pogroms on 9th November 1938, 92 synagogues in Vienna were destroyed. Only the city temple in the 1st district was spared, as the data of all Jews in Vienna were collected in the adjacent archives. Adolf Eichmann held office in the expropriated Palais Rothschild and organised the expropriation and persecution of the Jews. Of the almost 200,000 Jews in Vienna, around 120,000 were driven to emigrate and around 65,000 were killed. After the end of the war, the Jewish population of Vienna was only about 5,000. Vienna was also the center of the important resistance group around Heinrich Maier, which provided the Allies with plans for V-1, V-2 rockets, Peenemünde, Tiger tanks, Messerschmitt Bf 109, Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet and other aircraft. The information was important to Operation Crossbow and Operation Hydra, both preliminary missions for Operation Overlord. In addition, factory locations for war-essential products were communicated as targets for the Allied Air Force. The group was exposed and most of its members were executed after months of torture by the Gestapo in Vienna. The group around the later executed Karl Burian even tried to blow up the Gestapo headquarters in the Hotel Metropole. On 2nd April 1945, the Soviet Red Army launched the Vienna Offensive against the Germans holding the city and besieged it. British and American air-raids, as well as artillery duels between the Red Army and the SS and Wehrmacht, crippled infrastructure, such as tram services and water- and power-distribution, and destroyed or damaged thousands of public and private buildings. The Red Army was helped by an Austrian resistance group in the German Wehrmacht. The group tried under the code name Radetzky to prevent the destruction and fighting in the city. Vienna fell eleven days later. At the end of the war, Austria again became separated from Germany, and Vienna regained its status as the capital city of the Republic of Austria, but the Soviet hold on the city remained until 1955, when Austria regained full sovereignty. Source: Wikipedia Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

27th November 1941 Vitus Berings