F06_P13: Warsaw Jewish Ghetto

1942 January 10, Front side - Post card from Warsaw to Switzerland.: Tan post card with printed German in purple ink as the outline. Cursive handwriting in black ink and pencil is present. An imprinted purple 30-pfennig stamp appears in the top right corner depicting the Church of Visitationists in Lublin, Poland. There are two stamps depicting the Reichsadler upside down in red ink at the top edge.
1942 January 10, Front side - Post card from Warsaw to Switzerland.

Tan post card with printed German in purple ink as the outline. Cursive handwriting in black ink and pencil is present. An imprinted purple 30-pfennig stamp appears in the top right corner depicting the Church of Visitationists in Lublin, Poland. There are two stamps depicting the Reichsadler upside down in red ink at the top edge.

Name/Title

F06_P13: Warsaw Jewish Ghetto

Entry/Object ID

2007.6.13

Scope and Content

1942 January 10, post card from Warsaw to Switzerland.

Context

The Jewish ghetto in Warsaw, the largest in occupied Europe, home to the largest Jewish community, was surrounded by an 18-kilometer wall and sealed to the outside world during November 1940. At its peak, half a million Jews lived in the Warsaw ghetto. Deportations to the Treblinka extermination camp began on July 23, 1942, and continued until September 21; 254,000 Warsaw Jews were gassed to death in that operation. When Nazi forces arrived to liquidate the ghetto on April 19, 1943, the Jewish Combat Organization arose in revolt. The outnumbered and outgunned ghetto fighters carried on their insurrection for three weeks but were finally defeated on May 10, 1943. Above: A June 9, 1941*, postal card from a Warsaw ghetto resident to Alfred Schwarcbaum at Lausanne, Switzerland. It was first censored by the Jewish Council, which applied the small boxed "Judenrat Warschau" mark at the upper left, and then by the Nazis, who applied the red roller censor mark at Frankfurt. Below: A February 26, 1941, postal card from Soviet Lithuania to a Warsaw ghetto resident; German postal censorship at Königsberg. The double-circular violet "S.P.D.Z" [Jewish Postal Agency] handstamp indicates that a 30-groschen payment was collected on delivery for the carrier's and forwarding fees. *Context displays incorrect date on the exhibit page. The change is reflected with the correct date (January 10, 1942) on CatalogIt.

Collection

Nazi Scourge I: Primary Exhibition

Category

Post Card
Philatelic Material

Lexicon

Nomenclature 4.0

Nomenclature Primary Object Term

Postcard

Nomenclature Sub-Class

Writing Media

Nomenclature Class

Written Communication T&E

Nomenclature Category

Category 06: Tools & Equipment for Communication

Archive Details

Date(s) of Creation

circa 1942 - Jan 1942

Primary Language

Polish, German

Ethnography

Cultural Region

Region

Central Europe

Continent

Europe

Dimensions

Dimension Description

Measurement of the full length and width of the archive.

Width

4-1/8 in

Length

5-3/4 in

Relationships

Related Places

Place

City

Warsaw

Country

Poland

Continent

Europe

* Untyped Place

Church of the Visitationists

Region

Central Europe

General Notes

Note Type

Cataloging Note

Note

C. Walrich - Updated (Dec 22 2025) C. Walrich - Back-Up Materials (Mar 11 2026) C. Walrich - Back-Up PDF (May 7 2026) C. Walrich - Updated Context (May 12 2026)