During this period emigration of Jews from Germany and Austria was closed down even as anti-Semitism became more extreme. With the advent of World War II on September 1, 1939, Jews fell increasingly under Nazi control as more European territory was conquered. Jews were placed in ghettos under brutal and appalling living conditions: slave labor, starvation and disease were rife, and many Jews perished, or were eventually sent to killing centers. Major ghettos included Warsaw, Lodz, and Lublin, but there were as many as 1000 ghettos in all. The Gestapo and the SS became organs of terror. Opponents of the Nazis were sent to concentration camps, and many never emerged. The Nazis utilized the Einsatzgruppen, mobile killing units following the Wehrmacht into the Soviet Union, murdering Jews and other groups targeted for elimination. The Einsatzgruppen, along with their local minions, ultimately murdered 1,500,000 Jews.
--Michael D. Bulmash, K1966
This collection features: correspondence and representative covers from many ghettos—including smaller ones-- established under the Nazis; a rare stamp from the ghetto of Czestochowa (Tschenstochau) in Poland; ghetto scrip; a selection of undercover mail covers; and the passport of a woman who had been a passenger on the St.Louis in 1939.
Browse the Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection.
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Daimler-Benz Truck with Four German Soldiers
Front: Sepia colored photograph with scalloped edges. Shows four soldiers in heavy coats and hats standing and sitting around a black truck with Mercedes Benz decoration on front. Technical information about the truck is printed on its door.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Technical data about truck painted on door.
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Ukrainian Document Acknowleging Laws That State Who Must Be Considered Jewish
Front: Light brown paper with columns of printed text in German, Ukrainian and Polish.Back: Continuation of text.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Document issued in Ukrainian, Polish and German languages. One side states the infamous laws that state who must be considered Jewish. The second part is to be signed and states that the signer is acquainted with the laws and is not Jewish. Either the paper had to be signed to join the Ukrainian SS Division "Galichina" or that all Ukrainians working for the Germans had to sign it.
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Telegram from Auschwitz
Telegram: 'Deutsche Post Osten' printed at top center. Envelope: 'Telegramm' printed above gold rectangle with black outline. Back: 'Inliegend Telegramm!' at top center.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Telegram from commandant reporting death of inmate.
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Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism Postage Stamp
Purple stamp of a soldier looking through binoculars.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A stamp commemorating the Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism (Légion des Volontaires Français contre le Bolchévisme). The Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism was a collaborationist French militia founded July 8, 1941.It was officially known to the Germans as Infantry Regiment (Infanteriereregiment) 638. It had no formal link with the Vichy regime, even though it was recognized as an "association of public usefullness" by Pierre Laval's government in February 1943. Philippe Pétain, head of state of Vichy France, personally disapproved of Frenchmen wearing German uniforms. The Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism volunteered to fight against the USSR on the Eastern Front.
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Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism
Black stamp of a soldier and a tank.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A stamp commemorating the Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism (Légion des Volontaires Français contre le Bolchévisme). The Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism was a collaborationist French militia founded July 8, 1941.It was officially known to the Germans as Infantry Regiment (Infanteriereregiment) 638. It had no formal link with the Vichy regime, even though it was recognized as an "association of public usefullness" by Pierre Laval's government in February 1943. Philippe Pétain, head of state of Vichy France, personally disapproved of Frenchmen wearing German uniforms. The Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism volunteered to fight against the USSR on the Eastern Front.
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Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism Postage Stamp
Green stamp depicting two soldiers firing a cannon.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A stamp from the Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism (Légion des Volontaires Français contre le Bolchévisme). The Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism was a collaborationist French militia founded July 8, 1941. Philippe Pétain, head of state of Vichy France, personally disapproved of Frenchmen wearing German uniforms and never went beyond individual and informal words of support to some specific officers. The Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism volunteered to fight against the USSR on the Eastern Front. It was officially known to the Germans as Infantry Regiment (Infanteriereregiment) 638.
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Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism Postage Stamp
Red stamp of soldiers on horses.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A stamp from the Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism (Légion des Volontaires Français contre le Bolchévisme). The Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism was a collaborationist French militia founded July 8, 1941. Philippe Pétain, head of state of Vichy France, personally disapproved of Frenchmen wearing German uniforms and never went beyond individual and informal words of support to some specific officers. The Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism volunteered to fight against the USSR on the Eastern Front. It was officially known to the Germans as Infantry Regiment (Infanteriereregiment) 638.
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Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism Postage Stamp
Blue stamp of soldiers saluting and carrying flags.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A stamp from the Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism (Légion des Volontaires Français contre le Bolchévisme). The Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism was a collaborationist French militia founded July 8, 1941. Philippe Pétain, head of state of Vichy France, personally disapproved of Frenchmen wearing German uniforms and never went beyond individual and informal words of support to some specific officers. The Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism volunteered to fight against the USSR on the Eastern Front. It was officially known to the Germans as Infantry Regiment (Infanteriereregiment) 638.
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Life Insurance Document for Margot Loewenstein
Typewritten document in black and blue with a large red Star of David stamp with the word "Jude."
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A very distrurbing set of three typed documents (2012.1.44, 2012.1.45, 2012.1.46) from Berlin. Each is ominously stamped "Jude" in a large red Star of David, concerning the life insurance policy of one Margot Lowenstein of Hamburg, who fled Nazi Germany in August 1939 for England. Under German law, Jews who left the country or were forcibly deported were forced to forfeit any benefits or monies due on existing life insurance poliices. The document, loosely translated in part, reads: "According to our records, the claimant is a Jew who has left the country and has forfeited her German nationality. At present the above policy is due... We waive the certificate of insurance in the interest of the Reich..." This is a morbid reminder of the lengths the Nazi regime went to bilk every last penny out of their political and cultural enemies.
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Resident Registration Form for Jews
Form with black printed text and information filled in with black ink. Titled, "Anmeldung zur polizeilichen Einwohnererfassung." Includes a red "Jude" stamp at top with two Stars of David. Back consists of printed text.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: An Anmeldung was a resident registration form. This document was used to register Jews and their possessions in occupied Poland. Handstamped "Jude" by Nazi police and flanked by two Mogen Davids. A bilingual form was created enabling Nazis to register Jews and their belongings. Questions six and seven related to religion and ethnicity; question eleven asked for details of any business owned; question twelve pertained to home ownership. After blitzkrieg against Poland, Himmler ordered the registration of all Jews and other declared enemies of the state.
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"Fremdenpass" (Alien Passport) for Bernard Fenster
Grey cover with Nazi eagled titled, "Deutsches Reich Fremdenpass. Interior includes a black and white photograph of, and various biographical information about Bernard Fenster.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Nazi issued alien passport to a Jew named Bernard Fenster. Issued in Vienna in July of 1939 and good for one year. With heavy black stripe on cover to make this more noticeable by the SS. Has his picture in which his left ear is prominently shown as this was part of the Nazi propaganda that Jews could be distinguished by their left ear. With various handstamps, one Swedish adhesive revenue and finally entry into the US in early 1940.
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Testimony Signed by Karl Hermann Frank
White paper with printed and handwritten German. Includes three signatures on the bottom right including one from Karl Hermann Frank.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Karl Hermann Frank (1898-1946) was SS Obergruppenfuhrer and a prominent Sudeten German Nazi official in Czechoslovakia serving under Reich protector Reinhard Heydrich until the latter's assassination. Frank was instrumental in implementing Hitler's orders of revenge, which included the destruction of the Czech villages of Lidice and Lezaky, the murder of their male inhabitants, and the deportation of women and young adults to concentration camps. Frank was executed in 1946. Document signed twice by Frank, adding his title as deputy Gauleiter and his SS number, in which he swears: "I am German, of Aryan lineage..." he attests that he is not a Freemason nor member of any secret society, and vows his allegiance to the state.
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Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski
Black and white photograph of a man in glasses in Nazi uniform.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski was highly regarded by Hitler for his brutality and improvisational skills. As SS general and general of the Waffen-SS assigned to the Russian front, Bach-Zelewski was a leader of the Einsatzgruppen, and was thus responsible for many atrocities on the eastern front in which he took a personal part. In October 1941, after 35,000 people had been executed in Riga, he proudly wrote "there is not a Jew left in Estonia." He actively participated in massacres of Jews in Minsk and Mogilev in Russia. Bach-Zelewski claimed to have told Himmler that the firing squads were having a deleterious effects on the assassins, after which Himmler consulted about other methods to murder Jews, leading to the focus on gas as a more industrial solution to the Jewish problem.
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Poland Occupation Coupons
Blue coupons on serated paper, each titled, "Generalgouvernement." Each has an illustration of farmwork or livestock.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Coupons from occupied Poland, the General Government, which served as money for forced labor in the General Gouvernment.
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Oranienburg Lagergeld Money
Piece of paer money with black background. Includes two illustrations of German officers and Nazi insignia. Titled, "Lagergeld des Konzentrationslagers Oranienburg" and worth 50 pfg.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A fifty pfennig banknote issued by and used at the German concentration camp, Oranienburg, later commonly called Sachsenhausen. The note measures 5'' x 3 1/2'' and on both sides pictures the German eagle and Swastika device, two armed German soldiers facing center, and a strand of barbed wire. Sachsenhausen was used primarily for political prisoners and was the scene of a huge counterfeiting effort to undermine the British Pound (operation Bernhard).
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Message from Female Prisoner on FKL Auschwitz Stationery
Front: ‘F.K.L. Auschwitz’ printed in bold at top left; Back: handwritten message in pencil.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Frauen Konzentrationslager (FKL) Auschwitz/ Women’s Concentration Camp Auschwitz prisoner mail on camp stationery card. FKL Auschwitz was established as a subcamp of Frauen-Konzentrationslager Ravensbrueck housed at Auschwitz before becoming integrated with the Auschwitz camp proper at Birkenau (Auschwitz II). Stamp has been removed (censors did this to check for hidden messages) and another, uncanceled Mohemia Moravia applied. FKL imprinted covers are extremely scarce.
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Government Notice of Typhus in Radom, Poland Poster
Tan poster with text in German and Polish. The German side is titled, "Anordnung" and the Polish side is titled, "Zarządzenie."
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Poster order in Radom District forbidding beggars to go house to house due to the danger of Typhus, with severe penalties for anyone violating the order. From the General Government in Poland.
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Ukraine Nazi Occupation 1942-1945 Banknote 50 Karbovanets
Green banknote marked with "50 Fünfzig" red number "40-006583" in bottom right on front.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: These notes were in circulation for three years during the Nazi occupation of the Ukraine. The Reichskommissariat Ukraine issued notes in Karbovanets, pegged to the German Reichsmark, thus replacing the Russian ruble. This note would have been equivalent to 5 Reichsmarks. It depicts a miner.