F03_P16: Opole and Dombrowa Jewish Ghettos
1943 January 15, Front side - Post card with "Z" (Zensur) stamp from Dombrowa ghetto.
Tan post card with printed text and outline in German using purple ink. At the top right corner, an imprinted purple 6-pfennig stamp depicting Adolf Hitler facing to the right. Overtop, a black ink cancellation from Dombrowa dated January 15, 1943. At the center, the letter "Z" stamped in purple ink.
Name/Title
F03_P16: Opole and Dombrowa Jewish GhettosEntry/Object ID
2008.4.59Scope and Content
1943 January 15, post card with "Z" (Zensur) stamp from Dombrowa ghetto.Context
The tiny town of Opole, in the Lublin vicinity of Poland, had a Jewish population of 4,325 before the German conquest, two thirds of the town’s total population. Perhaps because of its Jewish majority, in the summer of 1940 the Nazis ordered a ghetto to be constructed there, whose population more than doubled as transports of Jews arrived from Austria and elsewhere. In May of 1942, most were deported to the Sobidór death camp, and those who remained were murdered by the Nazis in late October. The small Dombrowa Jewish ghetto near Bendzin, Poland, was built in 1942. Almost immediately afterward, deportations to the Auschwitz death camp began. The Dombrowa ghetto was liquidated June 26, 1943, when the few remaining residents were dispersed to the Srodula ghetto, a stop on the way to Auschwitz. Two items of seldom seen Jewish ghetto mail: Before a March 3, 1942, Opole postal cancel was struck on the 12-grozy stamp, the post card received a March 2 postmark at the Opole postal exchange office of the Jewish Council. The purple handstamped “Z” (Zensur) on the 6-pfennig postal card canceled January 15, 1943, is the characteristic censor marking on mail that originated from the Dombrowa ghetto. The card was sent from a German Jewish man (“Israel” in the sender’s name) to a German Jewish inmate (“Sara” in the addressee’s name) of a women’s slave labor camp. At the left is a circular purple marking of the Dombrowa Jewish cultural center postal facility.Collection
Nazi Scourge II: Five Frame ExhibitCategory
Post Card
Philatelic Material