The Holocaust (1933-45) refers to Nazi Germany’s deliberate, progressive persecution and systematic murder of the Jews of Europe. Nazi antisemitism superseded traditional Judeo-Christian religious conflict by uniting a racial ideology with social Darwinism: the Jew is seen as subhuman, a disease threatening the body politic, and the cause of Germany’s problems—its economic woes, its defeat in World War I, its cultural degeneracy—and thus he must be eradicated. As soon as Hitler came to power in 1933, the Nazis commenced the organized persecution of the Jews. Jewish books were burned, and businesses boycotted. Jews were excluded from professions, public life, and from the arts. The Nuremberg laws of 1935 identified and defined a Jew based on immutable racial characteristics and lineage, less so his religion. Jews were stripped of their civil rights as German citizens. More than 120 decrees and ordinances were enacted subsequent to the Nuremberg laws. In 1938, Kristallnacht occurred, the planned pogrom that led to the destruction of synagogues, mass arrests, and the looting of Jewish businesses. Jews were murdered, and many more were interned in concentration camps that had been established for political prisoners. Jewish property was registered, confiscated, and ultimately aryanized. Life in Nazi Germany was sufficiently intolerable that more than 200,000 Jews emigrated. Hitler’s goal of making Germany “Judenrein” was proving successful.
With the Nazi’s ascension to power, other groups were imperiled as well, vulnerable to discriminatory treatment, persecution, and death; for example, the Roma and Sinti, the developmentally and physically disabled, homosexuals, and political and social "undesirables". Slavic people were considered Untermenschen, fit only for servitude in the new and expanded Reich. During this period, in direct contravention of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was also secretly building its military and preparing for an eventual war. Yet it was the Nazi’s growing confidence and skill in pruning the aryan tree of its undesirables that allowed it to create an increasingly sophisticated technical apparatus for carrying out mass murder on an industrial scale, its ultimate goal the “final solution to the Jewish question.”
--Michael D. Bulmash, K1966
Browse the Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection.
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Tarnow, Poland Postcard FeldPost to Lindau, Germany
2014.1.265
Front: 'Tarnow. UI. Krakowska' black and white photograph of a street scene. Includes a trolley, several buildings and people.Back: White postcard with black printed postcard lines. Includes writing in pencil and a black FeldPost hand stamp.
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SS Identification Card with Himmler Hand Stamp
2012.1.1
Yellow card with sepia photograph, titled "Schutzftaffel der N.S.D.A.P." with Himmler handstamp on back.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
1939 SS ID or Ausweis to SS Mann Johann Walter. He was born in 1897. Ink stamped Himmler signature. Yellow stamp at bottom indicating dues were paid for July/September 1939. His picture is on opposite side and stamped. His number of the SS Ausweis is 235210.
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Reichsparteitag (National Party Convention) Postcard
2016.1.33
Front: Red background with ‘REICHSPARTEI-TAG, NURNBERG, 2-11.SEPTEMBER’ below circular image of woman with child, 1939 at left; Back: blank postcard lines, printed stamp of Hitler at top right corner.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Also known as the Nuremberg Rally, the annual rally of the Nazi Party in Germany immortalized by Leni Riefenstahl in several films including Triumph of the Will, filmed at the 1934 event. The 1939 rally, named the “Rally of Peace,” was cancelled due to Germany’s assault on Poland, September 1, 1939, which began World War II. It was to occur on September 2. Thus the 1938 was the last annual rally.
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Postcard from a Jewish Refugee in Germany Trapped in France en Route to England
2015.2.63
Front: Tan postcard with neat blue ink cursive script vertically across the page. Some water damage on the lower left side. Back: Printed red postcard lines. Continuation of message in blue cursive ink on left side. The right side includes the address written in blue and black ink on the printed lines. Printed red stamp of a woman in classical garments holding a torch in the upper righthand corner. Black stamps across the top of the page.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Postcard sent to Dr. Martin Nathan in Tel Aviv, Palestine. Alice describes her situation calmly, with a sense of humor, but eminently realistically. She is understandably fearful, worried about the immediate future. She reports having received her Visa to England on September 1, on the outbreak of war, and left Germany on September 2nd. But she is stuck and cannot continue on her journey to England, in all probability because in wartime with a German Visa she would not be permitted to enter England as an alien of an enemy country. She reports that her stay in France is not so pleasant but that she cannot complain because the times are so serious. She is being taken care of by the local Jewish committee and has been provided with shelter. All of her belongings are in England, she thinks. Nevertheless, there is no place where she is staying to put her things. She states that no one knows what will be. She thinks that her mother was not able to escape. News from Italy arrived after Alice left. She states that an enormous sum of money is required to bring her mother to Alice, and the Committee is not able to help. She asks how Dr. Nathan is, and whether they will ever see one another again. She is afraid that this will not happen. Write me, she says, stating that she is so alone, completely dependent on the good will of strangers. One meets people who help but "there are many unpleasant matters." She concludes, "Well, we must go on. Regards to you all. Yours, Alice."
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Identification Card for Irene Erdheim, a Jewish Woman from Vienna, Austria
2016.1.03
Interior: black and white photograph on left side with green 'Deutsches Reich 50' postage stamp below, 'CARTE D'IDENTITE' in bold with several handwritten lines below on right
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Identification card for Irene Erdheim, who had worked at the German post office in Vienna, was able to leave Vienna as a Jewish refugee for Palestine by 1940.
[Related items: 2016.1.02, 2016.1.04]
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Postcard from Soviet Occupied Lvov to Basel, Switzerland
2014.1.55
Front: Black printed postcard lines with typewritten address. Includes a blue postal stamp, black hand stamp and pencil writing.Back: Typewritten message with handwritten signature.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: The city of Lvov in southeastern Poland was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1939, under the terms of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact of August 1939. There were over 200,000 Jews in Lvov in September 1939, many of whom were refugees from German-occupied Poland. The Germans subsequently occupied Lvov after the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.
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Hitler and Mussolini Meeting in Munich in June, 1940
2015.2.23
Front: Black and white photograph of Hitler and Mussolini standing in the backseat of a black Mercedez Benz, with a crowd of soldiers in the street behind them. Back: Blank postcard lines. Upper righthand corner has a red a French stamp for the Legion Tricolore, which shows a man on the left in profile, and a group of soldiers. On top of that is a black circular handstamp.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Real photo postcard of Hitler and Mussolini in the former's Mercedes Benz in June, 1940 with French Legion Tricolore stamp which were formed by the collaborationist Vichy government and considered independent of German control. Opposition from Germany forced the Legion to disband after six months.
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Hashomer Hatzair Membership from Lodz, Poland
2015.2.47
Front: Green card. One side has Hebrew text in black, other side has text in Polish. Both have serial number 1437. Back: Left side includes black and white photo of Tainara, who had dark hair and wore black. Beneath is printed text in Polish and Hebrew, and her name and location written in black ink. Two circular, purple handstamps. The right side contains a grid with Hebrew characters in each box.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Hashomer Hatzair is the oldest worldwide Socialist-Zionist youth movement in existence, believing that immigration to Palestine and learning agriculture for kibbutz life was the way to save Jewish youth. Initially based in Eastern Europe, there were over 70,000 members by the time of this woman's membership. During the Holocaust, members focused on resistance against Nazis. Mordechai Anielewicz, a leader of the ZOB, the Jewish Combat Organization and martyr of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, was as well a member of Hashomer Hatzair. Other members were active in Jewish resistance in other European countries. The infamous Nazi collaborator Abraham Gancwajch had been head of Hashomer Hatzair in Lodz prior to moving to Warsaw.
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Dr. Goebbels Spricht Postcard Set
2014.1.26a-g
Series of black and white Heinrich Hoffmann real photo postcards of Joseph Goebbels in various poses during a speech given in 1940.
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Censored Envelope from A.J.C. Huyton Internment Camp for Jewish Refugees
2014.1.50
Front: White envelope with censor sticker.Back: Address written in black ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
A 1940 censored cover without stamp to Mrs. Lea Frucht in London, sent by Dr. Leopold Frucht in A.J.C. Huyton, an early internment camp for German Jewish refugees.
Huyton was an internment camp near Liverpool holding Jewish refugee civilians from Austria or Germany who were considered possible enemy aliens and thus posed possible threats to security. They lived for a period of time behind barbed wire surrounding old council houses near Liverpool. Dr. Frucht had been interned here for a time, and sends this censored letter to his wife Lea in London in 1940.
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Letter from Berlin, Plotzensee Prison
2014.1.78
Front: Printed lines and text with handwritten message in black ink. Interior & Back : continuation of message.
Information Provided Michael D. Bulmash:
Under the Nazi regime, Plotzensee housed both criminals and those deemed enemies of the state. One of eleven execution sites, criminals were beheaded by guillotine (after 1937) or by hanging (after 1942). Among those executed in Plotzensee were members of resistance organizations including the Red Orchestra, the Stauffenberg co-conspirators, and Marianne Baum of the Baum Group. Approximately 300 women were executed at Plotzensee, including the anti-Nazi German nurse Gertrud Seele.
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Josef Tiso Postcard
2012.1.373
Postcard with black and white photograph of Josef Tito, an older man wearing black. Includes blank postcard lines on back.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Josef Tiso (1887-1947) was a Slovak politician and priest, head of the Nazi satellite Slovak state and involved in the deportation and massacre of Jews. He was convicted and hanged at war's end.
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Fragebogen, or Questionnaire Asking for Ancestry and Profession for Jew, Stamped with “Jude”
2012.1.502
Tan document with title, "Fragebogen zur erstmaligen Meldung der Heilberufe." Includes a black and white photograph of a balding man in a suit, a purple "JUDE" stamp, as well as three pages of printed and typewritten text.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: The Fragebogen stamped “Jude” in purple was required documentation by the Nazis in advance of other actions to be taken upon Jews individually or collectively.
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Horst Wessel Dachau Street Sign
2012.1.541
Black metal sign reading, "24 Horst Wessel-Strasse."
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A small metal street sign from the concentration camp of Dachau. The streets in Dachau were named after so-called Nazi heroes, and this particular example identifies the address "24 Horst Wessel Strasse." Horst Ludwig Wessel (1907-1930) was a German Nazi activist who was made a posthumous hero of the Nazi movement following his violent death in 1940. He was the author of the lyrics to the Nazi Party anthem "Die Fahnehoch" ("The Flag on High"), usually known as the "Horst Wessel Song."
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Printed Ordinance Defining Jews: Imposed on France and Belgium After October 1940
2021.1.8
One typewritten ordinance without enumeration.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
The Nazi Party Nuremberg Laws of 1935 - the Reich Citizenship Law and the Blood Protection Act - essentially deprived Jews of German citizenship and civil rights, including the right to vote or hold public office. Marriage between Jews and citizens of German blood was forbidden. These efforts were consistent with, and derived from, the Nazi definition of Jews as a distinct racial entity and not merely a religious category. The Nuremberg Laws were subsequently imposed on German-occupied countries throughout Europe. As in Nazi Germany, defining the Jew in France and Belgium - both countries occupied in 1940 - was therefore an important first step in life and freedom of movement. Ordinances, typically unfurled slowly, would include - but were hardly limited to - curfews, rules on use of public transportation, prohibitions on seating and shopping, loss of typewriters, bicycles and furs. Jewish businesses were aryanized. Jews were required to wear the odious Star of David badge.
Consistent with Nazi racial theory, a Jew would be defined minimally as having at least one Jewish grandparent. A full Jew (Volljuden) had three Jewish grandparents. The effort to define part-Jews or “Mischinge” (Mongrels) was more controversial among the Nazi cognoscenti. A first-degree Mischlinge possessed two Jewish grandparents but neither practiced their faith nor married a Jewish spouse. Second degree Mischlinge, on the other hand, had only one Jewish grandparent. Thus defined, Jews become instated in Nazi Germany as subjects of the state, deprived of legal and civil rights, excluded from participating in German economic and political life, subject to persecution and punishment for perceived infractions of the ever-expanding ordinances, and ultimately death.
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Streetcar in Krakow with Sections for Jews and Non-Jews
2014.1.236
Front: A black and white photo of a streetcar filled with people. Includes arrows and numbers pointing to a sign on the streetcar. Back: Includes a pasted caption, as well as various stamps and markings with information about the photo.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Edited wire photo with information verso: photo of streetcar in Krakow, Poland, with sections marked for Jews ("fur Juden") and non-Jews ("Nichtjuden"), with a comparison to American Jim Crow laws: "a familiar symbol of race prejudice in our own country."
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Letter From Josef Tiso
2012.1.372
Tan paper with "Prezident Slovenskej Republiky" (President of the Slovak Republic) letterhead. Includes typewritten message and signature in faint ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Josef Tiso (1887-1947) was a Slovak politician and priest, head of the Nazi satellite Slovak state and involved in the deportation and massacre of Jews. He was convicted and hanged at war's end. This letter was written on Presidential letterhead to General Lieutenant Franz Barackhausen, German General of Artillery, in part "... Please accept my heartfelt thanks for your friendly new year's wishes which I sincerely reciprocate..." At the time of this letter, Franz Barackhausen was serving as head of the German military mission in Slovakia.
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Breckinridge Long Signed Letter on U.S. Department of State Letterhead, with Embossed Crest
2016.1.18
Typewritten letter to Mr. Basil O'Connor, singed by Breckinridge Long.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Long sends his thanks to Basil (Doc) O'Connor, FDR's law partner and close personal advisor, for a congratulatory note regarding Long's recent appointment as Assistant Secretary of State. Long's responsibilities in his new role included overseeing immigration policy, including the admission to the United States of refugees from Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe. However, Long obstructed rescue efforts, restricted immigration of European refugees - especially Jews - seeking to avoid persecution and murder in Europe, and falsified figures of refugees actually admitted to the United States. He forbade consuls to accept information from unofficial sources on what was in fact happening to the Jews in Europe under Hitler. Josiah DuBois, Jr.'s heroic exposure of Long's obstructionist efforts to deny American visas to Jews led ultimately to his demotion in 1944. It is estimated that under Long's tenure, 90 percent of the quota places available to these immigrants were never filled, placing 190,000 people in jeopardy who might have been saved from the Nazi atrocities. Long retired to his Laurel, Maryland, Georgian Manor house where he bred horses, rode to hounds and was an active participant in Southern Maryland society.
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"Nisko Plan" Postcard
2019.2.69
Brown postcard, no image, handwritten front and back. Front has magenta stamp in top right corner and "Nisko - 1. Feb, 1940" stamped on it.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:Rare Postcard with straight line cachet of Nisko Ghetto, referred to as the ”Nisko Plan” to resettle Jews from German-occupied areas to territory in Eastern Poland near Lublin, part of the Generalgouvernement. The Nazi elite devised The Nisko Plan, to be distinguished from the so-called “Madagascar” Plan to resettle Jews on a reservation in Madagascar. Both “Plans” were formulated prior to the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. Nisko would be a transit camp for Jews, administered by Germans. The Jews would ultimately be resettled in the Lublin district. Jews were transported from Bohemia and Moravia, Vienna and Katowice: in all, approximately 95,000 Jews. Upon arrival they were forced to set up barracks in the swampy fields. Himmler and Hitler eventually closed the Nisko reservation in April, 1940, a few months after this postcard was written. The Madagascar Plan was also discarded. As the Shoah Resource Center states, “Hitler turned his attention to deadlier means of solving the ‘Jewish question.’”
The 15 pfennig Hindenburg stamp is overprinted with Deutsche Post Osten/30 Groschen. Adolf Bander in the Ghetto writes to an M. Fintner in Brunn. Mr. Bander’s address is Zentralstelle fur JudenSeidlung Nisko am San.
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Citizenship Certificate
2014.1.436
Black border with 'Deutches Reich' at top along with eagle seal and 'Staatsangehörigfeitsausweis'.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
A Third Reich citizenship document for Theofil Anders from 1940. With such a document, Mr. Anders's citizenship is proven authentic.
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Georg and Hedwig Hirschfeld Letter
2012.1.510
White letter with title, "Gemeinnükige Kleingärtner = Genossenschaft m. b. h., Quedlinburg a Harz." Includes a typewritten message.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
One of two documents (2012.1.510 & 2012.1.511) relating to German Jewish couple Georg and Hedwig Hirschfeld. Georg Hirschfeld was a well-known author who lived in Munich. The couple sold their house to a German named Gottschalk. After the house was sold, the Hirschfelds were unable to find a flat due to the Nazi law involving "tenancies with Jews." Mrs. Hirschfeld tried everything to get an accommodation for herself and her husband. She finally tried to get an accommodation in a summer house through a German allotment club.
This first letter is a very kind response by a German to Mrs. Hirschfeld. A translation follows: "Dear Mrs. Hirschfeld! We received your letter from 12.2.1940 and unfortunately have to inform you that we are not able to bestow upon you an accommodation in our allotment club. Due to the law Tenancies with Jews from 30.4.1939 it is against the law for German nationals to live together with Jews. The common housing shortage and actual war situation make it impossible to accommodate you and your husband in a Jewish house. Perhaps you should seek to talk again with SS-Hauptsturmführer Berg and ask him if there is a possibility to accommodate you at the newly established Ghetto at Litzmannstadt. Dear Mrs. Hirschfeld, we are so sorry that we cannot give you a more positive response. With best regards and Heil Hitler.”
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Georg and Hedwig Hirschfeld Letter
2012.1.511
A typewritten letter on thin paper. Includes several underlined lines and handwritten notes.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
One of two documents (2012.1.510 & 2012.1.511) relating to German Jewish couple: Georg and Hedwig Hirschfeld. Georg Hirschfeld was a well-known author who lived in Munich. The couple sold their house to a German named Gottschalk. After the house was sold, the Hirschfelds were unable to find a flat due to the Nazi law involving "tenancies with Jews." Mrs. Hirschfeld tried everything to get an accommodation for herself and her husband. She finally tried to get an accommodation in a summer house through a German allotment club. The first letter (2012.1.510) was a very kind response by a German to Mrs. Hirschfeld.
This second letter was written by Mrs. Hirschfeld to Gottschalk. A translation follows: Dear Mrs. Gottschalk, Dear Mr. Gottschalk, Herewith I send you the letters which I received by the allotment club. I couldn't send them earlier. Because I was pretty sick and it is even difficult for me to move or do any physical work. Unfortunately, it is totally hopeless to get one or two empty rooms. So I have to continue to search. My husband is already signed out from here, because they will keep him at the hospital. He is not able to live outside, because of his sick heart. My self I have no change to come into question with the Jewish Housing Agency, because due to the law, I do not belong to the Jewish Unit of Germany. Therefore I also don't have maternity rights. This law changed, because of the marital law. It is not allowed to get homeless and I don't want to dump my furniture. I don't understand why you avoided an open debate before the war with me and my husband. I tell you that, because you lowered the price for the house and you ruined us totally. Unfortunately, I more and more don't understand the people of my environment. Since one year now, we get chased around and all agitate against us. How to take responsibility for this in front of God--I don't know it! Hedwig Hirschfeld Hassel.
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Immigration Record for Hinde Gottesfeld, a Jewish Refugee in Shanghai, China
2014.1.445
Tan document titled, "Directory of Jewish Refugees." Includes writing in Chinese and English and a pasted black and white photograph of a woman.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
A page from the Directory of Jewish Refugees, stamped by the local Committee for the Assistance of European Jewish Refugees in Shanghai, formed in 1938 by prominent local Jews with some assistance from the "Joint" in New York. Hinde Gottesfeld, a forty-nine-year-old German housekeeper of German nationality, left for Shanghai in 1938 from Vienna. Nazi policy encouraged Jewish emigration from Germany, but other countries were either limiting or denying entry to Jews.
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Hans Zimmermann Letter
2015.2.180
Front: Brown paper with illustrations of a soldier on a rocky terrain, a Swastika, and a man blowing a field. Message written in blue cursive.Back: Continuation of message in blue cursive. Writing in green, and circular handstamp.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Hand-signed letter signed by Gauleiter of Frankonia Hans Zimmermann. 1940. On the letter sheet are the illustrations of a German soldier with hand grenade, and a German farmer. The document is stamped "National Socialist German Labor Party--Schlierstadt." Zimmerman, a German politician, joined the Nazi Party in 1930, and became Gauleiter in 1940 after Julius Streicher was suspended from the post. Translation: “Schlierstadt in May 1940. Dear August! You have left the homeland and now fulfill your difficult duty as a soldier. You shoulder sacrifice and danger, so that we here in the homeland can live in peace. We thank you for your effort and your sacrifice. We are also solid and safe like you on the front lines. As you all far away in combat with the enemy, also we here in the homeland will fulfill our duty gladly and bravely and we will do your work here. We are proud of you and your glorious victories. So also you shall be proud of us. We will always be strong and brave, so our Führer (Hitler) can and will lead us to victory. We hope and pray that almighty God will bless our battle and that he will bring you soon back, healthy and as a victor to our fatherland. The whole Schlierstadt village is saluting you! Heil Hitler! Gauleiter Hans Zimmerman and the NSDAP Ortsgruppenleiter of Schlierstadt, Ernst.”
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Correspondence to George Eckstein
2012.1.519&.520
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.