F05_P03: Undercover Address Post OFfice Box 252, Grand Central Station, New York
1941 November 28, Front side - Envelope censored in Frankfurt and again by the Commissioner for Refugee Camps in Ottawa.
Blue envelope with cursive handwriting in English using black ink. At the top right corner, a lime-green 5-pfennig stamp depicting President Paul von Hindenburg facing to the left. Above, a maroon 60-pfennig stamp of also features Hindenburg. Overtop, a cancellation dated November 28, 1941 is present. At the left side, a beige adhesive sticker with printed text in black ink.
Name/Title
F05_P03: Undercover Address Post OFfice Box 252, Grand Central Station, New YorkEntry/Object ID
2008.4.86Scope and Content
1941 November 28, envelope censored in Frankfurt and again by the Commissioner for Refugee Camps in Ottawa.Context
Under an April 2, 1940, directive of the German National Defense Ministerial Council, “Direct and indirect communications service with the enemy foreign countries is prohibited. Indirect communications service is the transmission of communications to non-hostile foreign countries, which is intended for forwarding to enemy foreign countries.” Violators of the directive “will be punished with prison, in lesser cases with arrest or with fines, insofar as a heavier punishment is not realized in accordance with other regulations, in particular the death penalty because of high treason.” Despite those potential severe penalties, Jewish organizations, relief organizations, and illegal resistance organizations all took those risks, by establishing undercover addresses in non-belligerent countries through which they could carry on clandestine communication among family members, friends, comrades, and colleagues in enemy countries. This air mail letter – canceled November 28, 1941, at Breslau, censored by Germany at Frankfurt, censored again by the Commissioner for Refugee Camps at Ottawa, Canada, and delivered by the Canadian Red Cross – used a mail drop in New York City (at a time when the United States had not yet entered the war against the Axis powers) to route a letter from a woman in Germany to a Jewish relative in a Canadian internment camp.Collection
Nazi Scourge II: Five Frame ExhibitCategory
Cover
Philatelic Material