F09_P05: Rescuing Jews from the Holocaust Dr. Abraham Silberschein and Saly Mayer
1941 October 27, Front side - Post card to Relico in Geneva from a Jew in Poland as receipt from parcel of food.
Tan post card with printed text and outline in French using black ink. A purple 30-złoty stamp depicting the Church of Visitationists in Lublin, Poland. Overtop is a black ink overprint cancellation dated October 27, 1941. Directly to the left is a red overprint Reichsadler stamp.
Name/Title
F09_P05: Rescuing Jews from the Holocaust Dr. Abraham Silberschein and Saly MayerEntry/Object ID
2007.9.5Scope and Content
1941 October 27, post card to Relico in Geneva from a Jew in Poland as receipt from parcel of food.Context
Dr. Abraham Silberschein established the Relief Committee for the War-Stricken Jewish Population (RELICO) at Geneva, Switzerland, in September 1939. Quickly moving beyond relief work, he turned his efforts to helping Jews emigrate from Nazi territory and to informing the world at large about the Holocaust. As president of the Schweizerischer Israelitischer Gemeindebund (Federation of Swiss Jewish Communities), Saly Mayer assisted Jewish refugees who had fled from Germany and other Nazi-occupied countries. He also represented the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Europe. By bribing Nazi officials with money brought illegally from the United States in 1942, he stopped deportation of Jews from Slovakia. In 1944 he arranged for a shipment of tractors to the Nazis in exchange for Heinrich Himmler's pledge to end the deportation of Jews from Budapest. In their zeal to rescue Jews by any means necessary, both men clashed with other Jewish leaders. Top: An October 27, 1941, return card to Relico in Geneva from a Jew in Poland, censored at Frankfurt, recorded receipt of a relief parcel of food. Bottom: August 25, 1944, postal card from Seldi Blum, a Jewish woman inmate at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, to Saly Mayer. Bergen-Belsen was the holding center for German Jews who were awaiting permission to emigrate.Collection
Nazi Scourge I: Primary ExhibitionCategory
Post Card
Philatelic Material