Holocaust Home Page

HOLOCAUST PHILATELIC & RELATED MATERIALS

Home Page

(For latest changes and updates, go to Changes & Updates)

This section of the site contains philatelic and related materials pertaining to the elaborate system of concentration camps, labor camps and ghettos created by the Nazis in furtherance of their goal of exterminating the Jews of Europe. My inspiration and model for this effort is the outstanding work done by Henry Schwab in his book, The Echoes That Remain, published by the Cardinal Spellman Philatelic Museum (1992). Please see Spellman Museum of Stamps and Postal History. Other major reference works are as follows:

Sam Simon, Handbook of the Mail in the Concentration Camps 1933-1945 and Related Material, (1973). Referred to as "Simon".

Erik Lordahl, German Concentration Camps 1933-1945, History and Inmate Mail (2000). Referred to as Lordahl.

As surprising as it might seem, the Nazis permitted mail into and from the camps and ghettos they established. These postal systems continued to the very end of the war. Of course, all such mail was highly censored in order to prevent the outside world from learning the true facts as to what was happening. The regulations governing mail into the camps were fairly standard from camp to camp. The following regulations from Dachau are a good example (Feig, Hitlers Death Camps, P.52):

"The following regulations are to be observed when writing to prisoners:

Each prisoner may receive two letters or cards per month from relatives and send two letters or cards to relatives. The letters sent to prisoners must be legible and written with ink and there may only be 15 lines per side. Only letter paper of normal size is permitted. Envelopes must be unsealed. Only 5 12pfennig stamps may be included with each letter. Everything else is forbidden and is subject to seizure. Postcards can have 10 lines. Photographs may not be used as postcards.

Money sent by money order is permitted, but must include the exact last and first name of the prisoner, his birth date and prison number.

Newspapers are permitted, but must be ordered through the Dachau Concentration Camp post office.

Packages may be sent through the mail, as long as they remain few in number.

Release requests from "protective custody" to the camp management are useless.

The opportunity to speak with or visit prisoners is absolutely forbidden.

All mail will be destroyed which does not meet these regulations."