1944 Germany Theresienstadt Ghetto postcard Cover Anton Marek paul markova

Item Specifics

Country

Germany

Condition

Cover (Postal History)

Stamp Format

Single

Item Description

 Up for auction is a beautiful postcard cover from a  prisoner in the fortress prison of the concentration camp in Theresienstadt concentration camp ghetto in Czechoslovakia, then known as Bohemia, Moravia. Postmarked April 13, 1944. Priced to sell.. This cover is the
preprinted card issued by concentration camp officials to inform senders of packages to the prisoners. The sender is a prisoner named Anton Marek. Addressed to Paul Markova in Saxony.

The camp is described as follows:

The Theresienstadt "camp-ghetto" existed for three and a half years,
between November 24, 1941 and May 9, 1945. During its existence,
Theresienstadt served three purposes:

1) First, Theresienstadt served as a transit
camp for Czech Jews whom the Germans deported to killing centers,
concentration camps, and forced-labor camps in German-occupied Poland,
Belorussia, and the Baltic States.

2) Second, it was a ghetto-labor camp to which the SS deported and
then incarcerated certain categories of German, Austrian, and Czech
Jews, based on their age, disability as a result of past military
service, or domestic celebrity in the arts and other cultural life. To
mislead about or conceal the physical annihilation of the Jews deported
from the Greater German Reich, the Nazi regime employed the general
fiction, primarily inside Germany, that the deported Jews would be
deployed at productive labor in the East. Since it seemed implausible
that elderly Jews could be used for forced labor, the Nazis used
Theresienstadt to hide the nature of the deportations.

3) Third, Theresienstadt served as a holding pen for Jews in the
above-mentioned groups. It was expected that that poor conditions there
would hasten the deaths of many deportees, until the SS and police could
deport the survivors to killing centers in the East.

Neither a "ghetto" as such nor strictly a concentration camp,
Theresienstadt served as a “settlement,” an assembly camp, and a
concentration camp, and thus had recognizable features of both ghettos
and concentration camps. In its function as a tool of deception,
Theresienstadt was a unique facility.

Nazi Deception
Theresienstadt served an important propaganda
function for the Germans. The publicly stated purpose for the
deportation of the Jews from Germany was their "resettlement to the
east," where they would be compelled to perform forced labor. Since it
seemed implausible that elderly Jews could be used for forced labor, the
Nazis used the Theresienstadt ghetto to hide the nature of the
deportations. In Nazi propaganda, Theresienstadt was cynically described
as a "spa town" where elderly German Jews could "retire" in safety. The
deportations to Theresienstadt were, however, part of the Nazi strategy
of deception. The ghetto was in reality a collection center for
deportations to ghettos
and killing
centers in Nazi-occupied eastern Europe.

Succumbing to pressure following the deportation of Danish Jews to
Theresienstadt, the Germans permitted the International Red
Cross to visit in June 1944. It was all an elaborate hoax. The
Germans intensified deportations from the ghetto shortly before the
visit, and the ghetto itself was "beautified." Gardens were planted,
houses painted, and barracks renovated. The Nazis staged social and
cultural events for the visiting dignitaries. Once the visit was over,
the Germans resumed deportations from Theresienstadt, which did not end
until October 1944.

Deportations From Theresienstadt
Beginning in 1942, SS
authorities deported Jews from Theresienstadt to other ghettos,
concentration camps, and extermination camps in Nazi-occupied eastern
Europe. German authorities either murdered the Jews upon their arrival
in the ghettos of Riga,
Warsaw,
Lodz,
Minsk,
and Bialystok,
or deported them further to extermination camps. Transports also left
Theresienstadt directly for the extermination camps of Auschwitz,
Majdanek,
and Treblinka.
In the ghetto itself, tens of thousands of people died, mostly from
disease or starvation. In 1942, the death rate within the ghetto was so
high that the Germans built--to the south of the ghetto--a crematorium
capable of handling almost 200 bodies a day.

Of the approximately 140,000 Jews transferred to Theresienstadt,
nearly 90,000 were deported to points further east and almost certain
death. Roughly 33,000 died in Theresienstadt itself.

Cultural Life at Theresienstadt
Despite the terrible living
conditions and the constant threat of deportation, Theresienstadt had a
highly developed cultural
life. Outstanding Jewish artists, mainly from Czechoslovakia,
Austria, and Germany, created drawings and paintings, some of them
clandestine depictions of the ghetto's harsh reality. Writers,
professors, musicians, and actors gave lectures, concerts, and theater
performances. The ghetto maintained a lending library of 60,000 volumes.

Fifteen thousand children passed through Theresienstadt. Although
forbidden to do so, they attended school. They painted pictures, wrote
poetry, and otherwise tried to maintain a vestige of normalcy.
Approximately 90 percent of these children perished in death camps.

For the serious collector of Judaica and Holocaust related philately this is an exceptional item. Cover is in excellent condition.

Shipping
will be a flat $4.00 within the continental U.S. for USPS mail with insurance. Overseas airmail shipping is $14.00. Insurance and registered mail fees included. Questions? Please contact me at: azteccollectables at hotmail.com. Check out my
other online auctions of rare and vintage stamps. Please make pay arrangements within 72 hours of winning
the auction. I will combine shipping on multiple wins, if you want combined shipping wait until I invoice you. 

Seller Information

Seller

AztecCollectables (3387)

Registered Since

11/23/2011

Feedback

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Store

Aztec Collectables

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Item Location

Florida, United States

Ships To

Worldwide

Returns Accepted

No