Title
Czestochowa Ghetto Stamp
Object ID
2015.2.141
Object Name
Stamp, Postage
Date
1941
Files
Download Full Text (540 KB)
Description
White stamp printed with green. Depicts a man looking down at a woman holding a child, with another child standing next to her. Includes green text above the figures, and red and purple hand stamps.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
20 Gr. Green local issue from the Czestochowa Ghetto. Only 17 of these stamps are known to exist. Expertized by T. Gryzewski. Czestochowa (Tschenstochau in Polish) was in the Kielce district of Poland. Approximately 26,000 Jews constituted 20 percent of the population prior to World War II. As with other large Polish Jewish enclaves, Czestochowa had an active Jewish community. With the German occupation in September 1939, a Judenrat was formed and the Nazis terrorized the Jewish community. The Judenrat had a huge responsibility supplying medical treatment and food for so many people. In April 1941 a ghetto was created. Jews from other towns and villages were herded in along with local inhabitants. The ghetto was liquidated by October 1942 during Operation Reinhard. More than 40,000 Jews were transported in cattle cars to the death camp of Treblinka. The Germans were aided in this Aktion by Ukrainian and Latvian auxiliaries (Hiwis) known as Trawniki men. A Jewish underground existed in the city and there was a history of resistance by an indigenous Jewish Fighting Organization of 300 members in 1943.
Dimensions
1 1/2 x 1 1/4"
Keywords
Stamp, Czestochowa, Ghetto, Tschenstochau, Kielce, Poland, Judenrat, Operation Reinhard, Deportation, Treblinka, Hiwis, Trawniki, Jewish Fighting Organization, Gryzewski
Subcollection
Ghettos, Philatelic
Recommended Citation
"Czestochowa Ghetto Stamp" (1941). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2015.2.141.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/231