The Holocaust Issues - Lodz Ghetto
During World war II, Hitler setup a campaign of industrial proportions to exterminate Jews and this campaign came to be known as the 'Final solution' or better known as The Holocaust.The two well known issues of the holocaust are depicted here, on these very pages.
One issue came from the Lodz ghetto which was the one of the largest of all the Jewish ghettos in Poland and the another one came from the relatively seemingly peaceful camp of Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia.
Lodz before the German invasion was a very enterprising town, mostly run by Jews.The town had huge factories,operas and synagogues and was in fact second only to Warsaw, the capital of Poland in terms of business and prosperity.
In 1939 the German war machine overran Poland and occupied the cities.Lodz was one of them.Many Jewsih folks knew what was coming as they were already aware of Hitler's designs and so escaped into Western Europe or Russia.But a lot many held on.
Lodz was quickly renamed to Litzmannstadt after the German general Litzmann.By 1940 the SS issued an order to form the Ghetto and subsequently followed it up with an enclosure wall 6 ft. high and over 10 miles long.
Mordechai Rumkowski, one of the most energetic and learnt of the Jewish lot was assigned the task of communicating with the SS and running the ghetto.The ghetto was so huge that the Nazi's saw reason in establishing some sort of puppet governance through the likes of Rumkowski.
Over a period of time, Rumkowski established a postal system along with other governance aids like the Police,Detectives etc.
Lodz came out with the first issue consisting of 2 stamps, valued 5pf and 10pf.Sometime later the second issue also came out designed by Pinchas Szaar and these stamps bear the image of Rumkowski with a face value of 5pf, 10pf and 20pf.
Lodz ghetto was finally liquidated in 1944 and with almost a quarter of a million jews, Runkowski was also cast into the gas chamber at Auschwitz by the Nazi's.The contribution to history provided by Lodz Ghetton and the man who ran it is immense. |
The Holocaust Issues - Theresienstadt
Theresienstadt or Terezin is a small town in Czechoslovakia some 50 km north of Prague named in the honor of Emperess Maria Theresa. During WW II the Nazis overran this town as part of their war campaign and set it up as a sort of show case camp for the international Red Cross Society to come and inspect.
The original inhabitants were forced out of the town and replaced with Jews from all over Europe.
Most of them were always kept hungry and abused by the Nazi's.This town served as the final stop before they were deported to Auschwitz.It came to be known as the "Waiting Room of Auschwitz".
Since the town was getting bigger and bigger with all the Jews being brought in, the need to issue a stamp was realized to support the internal postal system.Thus came into existence a 10½ perforated or imperforated issue depicting a brilliant landscape of the countryside. |
