The June 2-5, 2002, Pre-Long Beach Sale, Sale 14
Lot 1894
Handmade Postcard by
Dachau Prisoner Celebrating Liberation Day, 1945. Card of two leaves, the
exterior with painted and inked scene, the interior with inscription in five
lines, also in ink. The cover shows the gray walls and pavement of Dachau with
its iron gates wide open, the receding pathway leading the eye to a rising sun
in the distance. This expression of hope and joy in vivid colors compared to
the grays of the camp. Below, on a ground of barbed wire shedding large drops
of red blood, is boldly written "Dachau 1940 - 1945." Of note, on the left gate
is an inset door, over which is the infamous slogan: "Work makes you free."
Card intact, a tad yellowed and soiled, with some rubbing to the edges and
cover. This an important Holocaust artifact. However, we urge prospective
bidders to view the work and form their own opinion. In our opinion the drawing
style, the type and texture of the board, along with yellowing from age, seems
consistent with other contemporary works in paper from that period. Size: 6 x
4-1/8".
Estimated Value $250-UP.
Lot 1895
Lodz Ghetto Artifacts: a 1
Mark Note and Two Postal Items. The note a One Mark Quittung Note: with
black and green over printing, and serial number in red, and dated May 15,
1940. Face with denomination in German; the reverse with denomination and
menorah. Note faintly yellowed, otherwise near mint condition. The postal
items: a postcard addressed to a Max Winternitz(?) in Vienna, brief greetings
from Max Fûchs and wife, December 15, 1941; and a registered letter
envelope, used within Litzmannstadt, with cancelled stamp, sticker, and verso
cancellation, dated February 1, 1944. The stamp a commemorative in brown ink,
showing Hitler with flag and eagle standard, with date of January 30, 1944. In
addition to these: a parcel receipt return postcard, used within Lublin, for
the SS Concentration Camp. This with two rubber stampings, plus one in red for
the Red Cross. The cancelled stamp torn off (thought by some to be done in an
effort to discern if information was being smuggled to the prisoner). Items
very fine or better. Lot of 4 pieces. The registered envelope scarce, and the
Lublin camp card rare.
Estimated Value $250-350.
Lot 1896
Lot of Three Concentration
Camp Letters, all from Auschwitz. Poland, 1943-1944. The letters all of the
same form, which open up to a generous two page size. All correspondence
written in pencil. Each is a male prisoner writing to his wife, each of whom
live in Radom area. All items used postally, and each with red 12 pf. Hitler
stamps. Several with small violet hand stamps. Items range from fair to very
good condition, one with some recent tape reinforcements. Definately worth your
perusal. The two pages fully used in each letter -- each an archive that
shouldn't be overlooked.
Estimated Value $350-UP.
These are perhaps
the most iconic of Holocaust artifacts that can be acquired in any quantity,
and at reasonable prices. The name, Auschwitz, says it all. Each letter is not
merely a document, but a testament to those who endured, and sometimes survived
the times.
Lot 1897
Lot of Three Concentration
Camp Letters, Two being Rare. Poland, 1942-1944. One: a prisoner in the
Sachsenhausen/Oranienburg camp writes a brief letter to his wife. Two: Another
in the camp at Stutthof/Danzig camp writes, also, to his wife. Three: Again, a
letter of a prisoner in the Gross-Rosen/Schliessen camp writes to his wife in
Radom. All items used postally, most with red 12 pf. Hitler stamps. Several
with violet hand stamps warning that correspondence to be written only in
German. Items mostly good to fine condition. The Gross-Rosen poor, somewhat
tattered with old tape repairs. But this and the Stutthof letters are both
quite rare and hard to find.
Estimated Value $300-UP.
Lot 1898
Photo Lot of Germans and
Jews in Wartime Poland. Photos comprised of two groups. One with six scenes
from a camp located near Spala, during 1939/1940. This said to be a temporary
camp for Jewish and Polish citizens, along with being a residence for POW's.
Two scenes include a view of the camp, and group shots of soldiers and
officers. Another view shows a work detail of prisoners shouldering a long tree
trunk. Another view with distant scene of along line of men in a queue. The
last two, a view of smiling women and children at the soup kitchen, along with
this a less happy line of male prisoners in the soup line. In the second group
are three views, said to be from Zambrow, in Poland. One picture depicts a well
dressed Jew, in trousers, braces, and polished shoes, digging a pit under
military supervision, with towns people looking on in the back. Another a
market scene, with smiling Jewish citizens and German soldiers holding geese
and chickens. The last a Jewish man, apparently dead, on the ground. This with
hard to decipher penciled inscription on the back. Lot of 9 pieces, all very
fine or better. Photos range from: 2-1/2 x 3-5/8" to 2-5/8 x 3-3/4".
Interesting material here.
Estimated Value $300-UP.
Lot 1899
Prisoner of War Postcards
and ID tags. Lot of ten postcards mailed from prisoner of war camps, two
postal receipts for mailing to POW camps, two work camp or prisoner of war camp
metal badges and two SS identification badges. The postcards, addressed to
Paris, Bialystok, Krakow, among other cities, are stamped with various
"approved by censor" marks. One assumes these are typical of many such letters,
containing concerns about family welfare and the like. A letter from a French
prisoner to his mother reveals other worries, "...The news of the
bombardment of Paris by the RAF has caused much emotion here...the bombardment
confirms for me the total ineptitude of the British in military matters...I
worry about the conduct of the war..." The metal badges have embossed
legends, one is from Stalag 344, another from a work camp run by the SS and the
other two from SS battalions.
Estimated Value $350-UP.
Lot 1900
World War II Era.
Attractive Group of Polish-related Philatelic Items, c. 1941. Among the
material here, most is devoted to postcards or souvenir sheets with
Reich/General Government or General Government stamps, often paired with
special pictorial cancellations: e.g., Munich, Lublin, Radom, etc. One, from
Krakow, with Red Cross overprint, and another with Reich's overprints. A
similar elaborately ornamented card for the Reich's Philatelic Organization
with militaristic cancellation from Breslau, but without stamp. Also included,
a tourist postcard showing folk dance scene, "La nationale danse polonaise,"
with General Government stamp. Another such stamp, clipped from envelope, dated
May 8, 1941, with ghetto cancellation in Hebrew. Among the remaining pieces,
two early racist stickers from the infant National Socialist party, then in
Munich: one showing heroic German paratroopers, the other exhorting "... the
name of civilization." and showing three African soldiers from the French
colonies. A varied and intriguing lot, worth your examination. Some items
definitely rare! Conditions from fine to choice. Lot of 16 pieces.
Estimated Value $250-UP.
Lot 1901
WWI Era Anti-Semetic
German Postcard, along with Polish Judaica Ephemera. The postcard by F.
Preiss of Berlin, and sent by a soldier undoubtedly stationed on the eastern
front. Post marked September 22, 1916, the card sends "Greetings from Russian
Poland," and depicts the two notable life forms of the region -- the
Russo-Polish Jew and the "Russo-Polish louse (bestia pisacca)." Also from
Poland two rare postal or periodical stickers. In blue ink, one for the
"Achi-Ezer" Charitable Institution, Lublin, 1917. This with vignette showing
bearded man in suit handing bread to a bereft woman flanked by two children.
The second a round sticker in red ink, ca. 1920's or 30's, issued by Warsaw's
"Linas Hacedek" United Institution. This with a scene of a doctor tending to an
elderly man in a hospital bed. From the WW II period are several items. One a
postcard-size photo of Polish workers in a German labor camp, wearing the
infamous striped jackets. Also a small photo scene from a ghetto in
Sicierniewice: several men by a horse drawn wagon, the horse looking half
starved. From Krakow, a stamped letter (8-9-39) addressed to Paul Rehfeldt,
HICEM Group Leader, in London. Last, a parcel receipt card, with Red Cross
stamp, from the SS Camp in Lublin. Two minor stains on WW I postcard, otherwise
it and most pieces very fine. The stickers better. The latter around 1-1/2" in
size. Lot of 7 pieces. Peruse carefully, some items rare and desirable.
Estimated Value $350-UP.
Lot 1902
Arbeitsbücher.
Lot of seven identity cards/books. 1). Deutsche Arbeitsfront Mitgliedsbuch
for Therese Weiss of Vienna. Book includes several pages of receipt stamps for
membership dues to the Worker's Front, dated December 1939- September 1944. 2).
Arbeitsbuch für Ausländer, issued to Szeliga Wladrjslawa (Polish) in
1944 and assigning her to farm work. 3). Arbeitsbuch für Ausländer,
issued to Feliks Sladaj (Polish) in 1943, listing him as a farmer. 4).
Deutsches Reich Arbeitsbuch for Theodor Olesch (of the "Grossdeutsches Reich"),
issued in Kattowitz, May 1940. 5). Identity card for Irmgard Kissel, issued in
July of 1944, valid until July of 1949. 6). Arbeitskarte for Polish worker
Roman Dziub of Blanowice. 7). Arbeitskarte for Paul Penczek of Kopciowitz,
Poland, authorizing him to work for I.G. Farben in Dormagen. Conditions vary,
there is the expected wear with soil. Fair to very good.
Estimated Value
$350-UP.
Lot 1903
Interesting and Colorful
Lot of Third Reich Postal Items. Among the items are two commemorative
postal covers, one cancelled in Kattowitz and the other from Lamsdorf, show the
various military forces and their equipment valiantly displayed to their
propagandistic best. One set apparently for Germany itself, the stamps
inscribed as "Deutches Reich," the other for occupied or "reacquired"
territories and denoted as "Gross Deutches Reich." Also, a Polish mail sticker,
postally cancelled, showing a red-starred Russian barbarian tearing Christ from
the cross, and labeled "Antichrist = Bolshevik." Other items include: an unused
telegram envelope with cellophane window; and a similar official business
envelope, cancelled in Breslau. On a more human level, a hand drawn Mother's
Day card from a border guard in Saarbrucken -- a heartfelt work of nâive
art, expressing "joy and bliss" to his mother. Also a photograph of a stalwart
female postal employee, wearing Reich's patches and badge on her uniform.
Interestingly, an attempt was made to ink out the swastikas and those emblems.
Lastly, a good-sized folded map showing the numerical codes for the postal
zones in the expanding Reich (ca. 1944). Items mostly letter or postcard size.
Map, about 36" x 48". Small items intact, and in fine to very fine condition.
Map show modest use, but with some heavy fold marks, and a little taped
repairs. Worth a close look. Some striking material here.
Estimated Value
$250-450.
Lot 1904
Lot of Nazi Propoganda.
Lot of five. Three issues of the Soldaten Zeitung, Krakow edition, from
October 1939. Published just weeks after the surrender of Poland, these issues
are full of the expected propaganda and reports of Nazi successes in Wilna as
well as various aspects of international reaction to Nazi movements. Toning,
some tears, very good condition, overall. The last two items in this lot are
books published by the Niebelungen Publishers, Berlin. The first, Raubstaat
Polen, was published in 1939 immediately after the invasion of Poland.
Using Nazi world view to justify the invasion, the book is obvious propaganda
propagating the idea of "Lebensraum" and the injustice of the Versailles
Treaty. Foxing and cover wear/soil, otherwise good to very good condition. The
second, Warum Krieg mit Stalin?, published shortly after the invasion of
the Soviet Union in June of 1941, serves much the same function -- relaying
Nazi justifications for the invasion and stressing the greater good of the Nazi
policy (an interesting section of the book relates how horrible the Soviets
invasion of Finland was, ignoring the fact that at the same time the Nazis were
subjugating Poland). Foxing and cover wear/soil, some paper loss at spine; good
condition.
Estimated Value $300-400.
Lot 1905
Nazi Bureaucracy for
Volksdeutsche. Lot of twelve items, most of them related to the position of
ethnic Germans in Eastern Europe. 1).Stammbuch for Heinrich (Heinz) Kraus of
Reichenberg, the Sudetenland. Seven page document outlining membership in the
NSDAP and various responsibilities undertaken as a member. 2). Completed
questionnaire for Pole Paul Redlich to ascertain his family's eligibility to be
considered member of the German "Volk". Minor foxing throughout. 3). Birth
Certificate for Anna Oeter, born in Zossen, May 26, 1942. 4). A group of five
documents of soldier Christian Barth, outlining the Russian-born German's
family background and eligibility. 5). Identity/duty card for Herbert Schroter
of Breslau. 6). Two anti-"Bolshevik" flyers likely printed for sympathetic
"Volk" inside of Russia. 7). Printed ration card for a soldier on leave --
valid for two weeks.
Conditions vary, there is toning throughout and
scattered minor foxing.
Estimated Value $350-UP.