F08_P07: Ostarbeiter Slave Labor
1943 July 27, Front side - Post card canceled at Lauf with destination addressed to occupied Ukrainian territory.
Tan post card (appears yellow via scan) with printed text and outline in German using black ink. Cursive handwriting in black ink is present overall. At the top right corner a black 6-pfennig imprinted stamp depicting Adolf Hitler facing to the right. Overtop is a green ink cancellation from Lauf dated July 27, 1943. At the left side are two overprint stamps. One is the Ostarbeitlager or East working camp. The other is a stamp with the letters Ab in a circle. The foundation is promptly working to update this scan.
Name/Title
F08_P07: Ostarbeiter Slave LaborEntry/Object ID
2007.8.7Scope and Content
1943 July 27, post card canceled at Lauf with destination addressed to occupied Ukrainian territory.Context
The Nazis began large-scale recruitment of slave laborers from conquered Soviet territories in early 1942, reaching a total of one million by summer of that year, and two million a year later. Sent to work in German factories, they were forced to wear identifying "OST" (East) badges, the only group besides Jews to suffer this indignity. Initially they had no mail privileges, but starting November 25, 1942, each Ostarbeiter (literally, East worker) could send home two postal cards or reply cards each month at domestic German rates. Cards were provided by camp commandants and factory managers, collected by the employers, and posted as a group (at a post office only, not a letterbox). All were censored at Berlin. Two pieces of Ostarbeiter mail: A single 6-pfennig card canceled July 27, 1943, at Lauf, and the query portion of a 6-pfennig-plus-6-pfennig reply card canceled September 19, 1943, at Beeskow, both to destinations in occupied Ukraine. One wrote, "I live in the town of Lauf, 17 kilometers from Nürnberg. I'm working at a factory 11 hours. We are fed 300 grams of bread in the day, in the morning - tea, at dinner - cabbage, evening - tea. It rains here quite often. I am the only one from the Kaharlink district. I rue very much that I did not listen to Miwra; I repent very much, but it is too late."Collection
Nazi Scourge I: Primary ExhibitionCategory
Post Card
Philatelic Material