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14th November 1941 K.L. Auschwitz Envelope (type 2) sent from Auschwitz. Envelope (type 2) sent from Auschwitz. 1/1 Envelope (type 2 - non-italic text, greenish paper - also noted in blue. Simon, 1973) sent from K.L. Auschwitz to an address in Königshutte (Chorzów), Poland. Note the censor stamp (type 1 - 3 lines boxed, red - also noted in black. Simon, 1973). It is apparent that the censor hand-stamp has been applied whilst the flap has been open (the image appears on both the front and back panels), indicating that envelopes sent from Auschwitz could not be sealed before sending. Ref: Fleurs & Papillons See 16.04.1967 - 24/92 The text to the left of the senders address reads... Auschwitz Concentration Camp The following instructions must be observed in correspondence with prisoners: 1.) Every prisoner in preventive detention may receive and send two cards per month from their relatives. Letters to prisoners must be written legibly in ink and may only contain 15 lines on one page. Only normal-sized letterhead is permitted. Envelopes must be unlined. Only 5 stamps of 12 pfennigs each may be enclosed in a letter. Anything else is prohibited and subject to confiscation. Postcards have 10 lines. Photographs may not be used as postcards. 2.) Money transfers are permitted. 3.) Please ensure that the exact address, consisting of: Name, date of birth, and prisoner number, is written on the items. If the address is incorrect, the mail will be returned to the sender or destroyed. 4.) Newspapers are permitted, but may only be ordered through the post office of K.L. Auschwitz. 5.) Parcels may not be sent, as prisoners can buy anything in the camp. 6.) Requests for release from protective custody to the camp administration are not permitted. 7.) Speaking permits and visits by prisoners in concentration camps are generally not permitted. The camp Kommandant [Note camp Kommandant at this time of the envelope above was SS-Obersturmbannführer Rudolf Höss] Auschwitz Concentration Camp Auschwitz or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschwitz I, the main camp ( Stammlager ) in Oświęcim; Auschwitz II-Birkenau, a concentration and extermination camp with gas chambers; Auschwitz III-Monowitz, a labour camp for the chemical conglomerate IG Farben; and dozens of sub-camps. The camps became a major site of the Nazis' Final Solution to the Jewish question. After Germany initiated World War II by invading Poland in September 1939, the Schutzstaffel (SS) converted Auschwitz I, an army barracks, into a prisoner-of-war camp. The initial transport of political detainees to Auschwitz consisted almost solely of Poles (for whom the camp was initially established). For the first two years, the majority of inmates were Polish. In May 1940, German criminals brought to the camp as functionaries established the camp's reputation for sadism. Prisoners were beaten, tortured, and executed for the most trivial of reasons. The first gassings—of Soviet and Polish prisoners—took place in block 11 of Auschwitz I around August 1941. Construction of Auschwitz II began the following month, and from 1942 until late 1944 freight trains delivered Jews from all over German-occupied Europe to its gas chambers. Of the 1.3 million people sent to Auschwitz, 1.1 million were murdered. The number of victims includes 960,000 Jews (865,000 of whom were gassed on arrival), 74,000 non-Jewish Poles, 21,000 Romani, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and up to 15,000 others.[8] Those not gassed were murdered via starvation, exhaustion, disease, individual executions, or beatings. Others were killed during medical experiments. At least 802 prisoners tried to escape, 144 successfully, and on 7th October 1944, two Sonderkommando units, consisting of prisoners who operated the gas chambers, launched an unsuccessful uprising. After the Holocaust ended, only 789 Schutzstaffel personnel (no more than 15 percent) ever stood trial. Several were executed, including camp commandant Rudolf Höss. The Allies' failure to act on early reports of mass murder by bombing the camp or its railways remains controversial. As the Soviet Red Army approached Auschwitz in January 1945, toward the end of the war, the SS sent most of the camp's population west on a death march to camps inside Germany and Austria. Soviet troops liberated the camp on 27th January 1945, a day commemorated since 2005 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In the decades after the war, survivors such as Primo Levi, Viktor Frankl, Elie Wiesel, and Edith Eger wrote memoirs of their experiences, and the camp became a dominant symbol of the Holocaust. In 1947, Poland founded the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum on the site of Auschwitz I and II, and in 1979 it was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Auschwitz is the site of the largest mass murder in a single location in history. Source: Wikipedia (2025) Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page
27th September 1941 Wiener Messe 27.09.1941 Wiener Messe reverse.jpeg 27.09.1941 Wiener Messe reverse.jpeg 1/1 Postcard depicting the Wiener Messe south hall of the technical exhibition centre. Featuring a 6 Pf postage stamp (Mi.769) first issued on 8th March 1941 on the occasion of the Viennese Spring Fair (the stamp depicts the building on the postcard). Ref: 27.09.1941 Wiener Messe Viennese Trade Fair The first Vienna trade fair opened on 11th September 1921 after just four months of planning with the aim of leading Austria out of economic isolation after the First World War. The exhibitions (which were not open to the public) were spread across several locations in Vienna and had as their model the Messe Frankfurt, which had been relaunched three years previously. The largest area included parts of the site of the Vienna World Exhibition of 1873 in the Prater. The central building was the rotunda and its open spaces designed by John Scott Russell for the World Exhibition (which was always unsuitable for a trade fair and fell into ruins in 1921). Other venues were the Hofstallungen , the Stiftskaserne (paper fair) and the Handelsakademie (medical and surgical instruments). In the years that followed, the rotunda was used for numerous exhibitions and events. From 1921 onwards, the Vienna Trade Fair (spring fair, autumn fair) was held twice a year. As early as 1923, Wiener Messe AG received the irrevocable state award, which allowed it to permanently use the federal coat of arms in business transactions. Postcard depicting the Rotundengelände of the Wien er Messe. Sent by a member of the SS. Ref: 14.03.1940 After the fire in the Rotunda in 1937 and the 'annexation' to the National Socialist Third Reich, Vienna as a trade fair location became increasingly less important and the Vienna Trade Fair was finally closed in 1942. During the Second World War, the remaining buildings and the surrounding exhibition grounds were largely destroyed. Source: Wikipedia Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page
12th January 1941 Mi.P241 1/1 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
6th August 1941 JB: Moritzburg 1/1 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
7th April 1941 Rudolf Lipus 1/1 Feldpost postcard featuring the artwork of Rudolph Lipus (described as a 'Wachtmeister' - In the German army ground forces, the designation of the Feldwebel rank of Cavalry and Artillery was the 'Wachtmeister' until 1945). Taken from 'Soldatenblätter für Freie und Freizeit'. These soldatenblätter contained photos, stories, small removable pictures for decorating your bunker or barracks, games, tips and tricks for different things, postcards, etc. Ref: 07.04.1941 Rudolf Lipus (1893-1961) German painter and graphic artist who was particularly successful during the National Socialist era. From 1908 to 1912 he completed his first apprenticeship at the Leipzig publishing house CG Röder, after which Lipus studied painting and graphics at the Leipzig Academy for Graphic Arts, including with Alois Kolb. During the First World War he worked as a trench illustrator and received a prize from a competition for a war memorial sheet. He completed his studies after the end of the World War, and from then on he worked as a freelance graphic artist, ex-librist and landscape and portrait painter and became a permanent employee of the Leipziger Illustrierte Zeitung . During the Nazi era, Lipus was regularly represented at the annual exhibitions in the Munich House of German Art. With the advent of the Second World War he was initially integrated into a war reporter company as a painter, before being assigned as a war painter to an army propaganda company from 1942 onwards, the 'Fine Artists Squadron' of the Potsdam Propaganda Operations Department, which was directly subordinate to the Wehrmacht High Command. His propaganda images glorifying war are among the best-known examples of this genre, including Tanks in Battle , Fighters , German Artillery on the Advance , German Non-Commissioned Officer after the Street Fight , Through the Russian Steppe , Reconnaissance Pilots , In Firing Position , and In Combat Formation . Between 1941 and 1944 he was represented with 20 pictures at the “'Great German Art Exhibition', making him the most prolific painter of propaganda pictures of that time. The buyers of the works included Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels and Albert Speer. In 1943 he lost his studio and most of his works. In 1944 he was represented at the art exhibition Reichsführer SS in Breslau 'German Artists and the SS'. After 1945, he worked as a book illustrator for the publishing house Volk und Wissen and as a press illustrator, without much success . Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page
14th December 1941 'Hein Godenwind' 14.12.1941 Hein Godenwind reverse.jpeg 14.12.1941 Hein Godenwind reverse.jpeg 1/1 Postcard depicting the 'Hein Godenwind'. the address to the reverse indicates the recipient, a woman, was part of the K.H.D. (Kriegshilfsdienst). Ref: 14.12.1941 Hien Godenwind The Hein Godenwind was a full-length ship built in 1902 at the French shipyard Chantiers et Ateliers de Penhoët in Saint-Nazaire as Maréchal Souchet . The ship was used as the first floating youth hostel in the port of Hamburg from 1933 to 1939. In July 1924 the ship was sold to Germany to the F. Laeisz shipping company in Hamburg and continued to be used as a cargo sailing vessel as Pellworm . The Pellworm was decommissioned in May 1925 and sold to the Syndikat shipping company. After being converted into a residential ship with space for 1200 people, it was used in the port of Hamburg. At the beginning of the 1930s, the Hamburg Port Operations Association took over the ship, which donated it to the Nordmark Gau of the Reich Association of German Youth Hostels in 1933. After another renovation by Blohm & Voss, it was put into service as a floating youth hostel on 8th April 1934 under the name Hein Godenwind . It provided accommodation for 514 people. At the beginning of 1939 the ship was placed under the control of the Hamburg Naval Office and used as an office ship. From November 1939 it served as a living ship for the crew of the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper , which required some modifications by Blohm & Voss. It then served again as an office ship and for supervising the construction of the battleship Bismarck . In 1942 it was subordinated to the 8th Warship Construction Training Department. During the air raids on Hamburg in the summer of 1943, the ship was hit on 25th July and caught fire. As a result, it sank to the bottom of the harbour basin. It was raised at the beginning of 1944 and the Hulk was taken to the Curonian Lagoon in February as a target ship for the German Luftwaffe. It was later sunk there during Luftwaffe exercises. Source: Wikipedia Kriegshilfsdienst (K.H.D.) At the beginning of the Second World War, the war relief service was introduced as a temporary measure for high school students. For example, students were used to distribute ration cards. On 29th July 1941, Hitler issued a decree on the 'Reich Labor Service of Female Youth' that women had to do an additional six months of military service in addition to the six months of Reich Labor Service. The work was paid 45 Reichsmarks per month. Officially, military service should be carried out at social institutions, in hospitals and with needy families, at authorities and at Wehrmacht offices. In fact, of the 50,000 women recruited in the winter of 1942/43, 30,000 worked in transport companies and the armaments industry. Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page
5th November 1941 Freiburg City Theatre Envelope sent from the Freiburg City Theatre. Reverse. Envelope sent from the Freiburg City Theatre. Reverse. 1/1 Cover bearing the hand-stamp of the Freiburg City Theatre. The envelope contains a small 'onion-skin' memo regarding a future performance. Ref: 05.11.1941 - 22/63 The printed memo complete in hand script informing the corespondent of a performance of 'Troubadour' (misspelt?) at 8pm (?) on Thursday 6th November 1941. Signed on behalf of the theatre by 'Schleer'. Note: there appear to be a number of musical connections to this surname in the Freiburg area. Ref: 05.11.1941 - 22/63 Freiburg City Theatre Freiburg Theatre, sometimes also referred to as Stadttheater Freiburg (Freiburg municipal theatre), formerly Städtische Bühnen (Municipal Stages) Freiburg, is the oldest and biggest theatre in Freiburg im Breisgau. It is located in Bertoldstraße, on the edge of Freiburg's historic city centre, and unites four venues under one roof: the Großes Haus (main stage), the Kleines Haus (small stage), the Kammerbühne (chamber stage) and the Werkraum (workshop). The Winterer Foyer additionally hosts author readings, such as the Litera-Tour, chambermusic concerts and evening lectures on current affairs, such as the Dream School series. Since September 2005 the theatre has been under independent ownership. On 14th April, 1917, the south front of the theatre was damaged during an air raid. In January 1919 theatre performances could start again. In 1936 a new stage, the 'Kammerspiele' (Chamber Theatre), opened with the performance of the play Der Brandner Kaspar schaut ins Paradies by Joseph Maria Lutz. In the summer of 1939 Joseph Schlippe, the head of the city’s building department, redesigned the auditorium completely in the Neoclassicist style typical of the Nazi era. Most of the Art Nouveau stucco was removed so that the whole room appeared in a starkly stripped-down style. On 1st September 1944, Freiburg Theatre, like all German theatres, was shut down. A few months later, in November 1944, Freiburg was bombed and the theatre was badly damaged. Performances were resumed in October 1945 with Nathan the Wise by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. The plays were performed in any undamaged halls in the city centre and in the Wiehre. In 1946, the Chamber Theatre moved to a new location in the Wiehre. Soon after the Second World War the original building was rebuilt by the mayor, Hoffmann. To promote the quick reconstruction of the theatre, the mayor himself put on piano concerts and so collected 120,000 German marks to finance the project. In December 1949 the Großes Haus (main stage) reopened with a performance of Richard Wagner's The Mastersingers of Nuremberg . The lower levels of the building had been reconstructed quite simply and now housed the two cinemas Kamera (today's Winterer Foyer) and Kurbel (today's small stage) – the commercial use of the building was intended to finance further reconstruction. The Chamber Theatre in the Wiehre was abandoned in 1958, but the Kammertheater (Chamber Theatre) opened in the main theatre with Max Frisch's The Fire Raisers . Source: Wikipedia Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page