Title

Litzmannstadt Ghetto Stamps; Full Set of Three

Authors

Object ID

2019.2.72a-c

Object Name

Stamp, Postage

Date

1944

Files

Description

Stamps featuring Mordechai Rumkowski's profile, a gear, a drafting compass, and a Star of David in three different colors: Blue, Green, and Red. They each have a number, 5, 10 and 20 respectively.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:Soon after the German occupation of the Polish city of Lodz in 1939, the name of the city was changed to Litzmannstadt. Jews were forced into a ghetto, and Mordechai Rumkowski was chosen Judenalteste, or Elder of the Jews. Rumkowski was an enormously controversial figure who believed that converting the Ghetto into an industrial center would ensure the survival of the beleaguered Jewish population. He established a postal service within the Ghetto, and the design of these stamps was chosen for correspondence exclusively within the Ghetto. They were issued on March 9, 1944, but were soon discontinued by the Germans. In these stamps Rumkowski’s profile is prominently displayed, along with industrial imagery, mirroring Rumkowski’s fantasied salvation from the ineluctable Nazi extermination of the Jews. He was ultimately deported on the last transport to Auschwitz where he and his family were murdered. Of the more than 200,000 Jews imprisoned in the Ghetto, less than 900 survived.

Dimensions

1 1/2 x 1 "

Keywords

Litzmannstadt Ghetto, Lodz, Chaim Rumkowski, Auschwitz, Judenalteste

Subcollection

Philatelic

Recommended Citation

"Litzmannstadt Ghetto Stamps; Full Set of Three" (1944). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2019.2.72a-c.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1449