Authors

Object ID

2012.1.519&.520

Object Name

Correspondence

Date

5-7-1940

Files

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Description

Envelope: Tan envelope addressed to Georg Eckstein, New York City. Includes censor tape on back.Letter: Typewritten letter in German on onionskin paper.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: One of two letters to George Eckstein (2012.1.517 & 2012.1.519). Eckstein was a Jew who escaped from Nazi Europe and who attempted to aid others in their attempts to flee. The airmail envelope was postmarked from Brunn, old capital of the Austrian crownland of Moravia and (at the time the letter was mailed) part of the Nazi Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (formerly Czechoslovakia). Although the envelope was passed by Nazi censors, it lacks the typical identifying numbers of individual censors. The letter passed through the Protectorate's mail system, the day Hitler planned to begin invasions of Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg. These invasions began on May 9, when this letter passed through Frankfurt. This signaled the beginning of the war on the Western Front.In this letter a European Jew asked Eckstein to help arrange for the writer's relatives in the United States to pay for tickets to the US, as his family was destitute. He did not want American immigration authorities to believe that his family would add to the welfare roll if the local Jewish congregation bought the tickets.

Dimensions

4 1/2 x 6 1/2"

Keywords

Georg Eckstein, Brunn, Austria, Moravia, New York, Reich Seal, Censor

Subcollection

Early

Correspondence to George Eckstein

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