This section provides another point of entry into the troubled landscape of Holocaust memory. It samples the post-war stamps and first day covers issued by many nations to commemorate the victims, resisters, partisans, the liberators, the hidden and the ones who sheltered, the diplomatic heroes and others, as well as highlights some of the essential themes and signal events of the genocide of the European Jews and its aftermath. Interspersed among these is a selection of other, older, philatelic and numismatic items: stamps, labels, Notgeld, ghetto scrip, and coins, that were utilized both prior to and during the Third Reich and the Holocaust and tell another story.
--Michael D. Bulmash, K1966
Browse the Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection.
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Emergency Committee to Save the People of Europe Label
2012.1.417e
White stamp with black illustration of a man holding a chain with a child and young men. A barbed wire Swastika in the corner. Titled, "Help Us Survive!"
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Szyk label for the Emergency Committee to Save the People of Europe.
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American Federation of Polish Jews Label
2012.1.417f
White stamp with red illustration of three Jewish people, including a bearded man with a Star of David armband. Titled, "They Shall Not Die.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Szyk labels for the American Federation for Polish Jews.
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British Ambulance Corps Label
2012.1.417g
White stamp with illustration of a man on horseback skewering a Swastika-laden mythical creature. Titled, "Bought to Aid Britain."
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Szyk labels for the British Amublance Corps.
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Poland Occupation Coupons
2012.1.419abc
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 Generalgouvernement, which served as money for forced labor in the Generalgouvernement.
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Polish Stamp Commemorating the Liberation of Lodz
2012.1.420a
Stamp with illustration of a monument with a statue of a man on top. Titled, "Poczta Polska."
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Polish stamp commemorating the liberation of Lodz in 1945.
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Polish Stamp Commemorating the Liberation of Warsaw
2012.1.420b
Stamp with red illustration of a man holding a flag and a woman. Titled, "Poczta Polska."
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Polish stamp commemorating the liberation of Warsaw in 1945.
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Polish Stamp Commemorating the Liberation of Lodz
2012.1.420c
Stamp with blue illustration of smokestacks. Titled, "Poczta Polska."
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Polish stamp commemorating the liberation of Lodz in 1945.
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Polish Stamp Commemorating Majdanek Death Camp
2012.1.420d
Stamp with green illustration of a skeleton in Nazi uniform pouring gas on a compound of buildings.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Majdanek Death Camp stamp issued by Poland in 1946 commemorating the atrocities that took place there. Stamp depicts death in skeletal form of a Third Reich Nazi pouring Zyklon B into gas chambers.
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Holocaust Martyred Children Label
2012.1.432
Label with candle, forest, and children with title in Hebrew.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Judaica label, forest of the martyred children. There were 1.5 million murdered children in the Holocaust.
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Jewish National Fund Israel Lives Ticket
2012.1.454
White ticket with blue text titled, "Israel Lives!" Includes an illustration of trees and dessert.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Israel KKL/JNF Holocaust Memorial Day 1980s.
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Antisemitic German Notgeld
2012.1.456
A white bank note with illustrations in black, blue and yellow. Front shows the images of two Jews being hung. Back shows railroads and transportation and is titled, "Tostedt."
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
An antisemitic German Notgeld issued by the city of Tostedt in the early 1920s. It shows two Jews hanging on a tree surrounded by ravens. The inscription says: "This should happen to all those profiteers and Germany would be better off." Notgeld is "emergency money" issued to deal with hyperinflation and currency collapse.
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Buchenwald Lagergeld Money
2012.1.459ab
Two pieces of paper currency. First is titled, "Außenkommando" and worth -.50 RM. The second is titled, "Wertmarke" and worth 1 RM.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Buchenwald was a Nazi concentration camp established on the Ettersberg near Weimar, Thuringia, Germany. Camp prisoners worked primarily as slave labor in local armament factories. Inmates were Jews, political prisoners, religious prisoners, and prisoners of war.
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Oranienburg Lagergeld Money
2012.1.460
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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Postcard Commemorating 70th Anniversary of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
2016.1.52
Front: reproduction of postcard sent in 1941 with large commemorative postage stamp at bottom left; Back: Black postcard lines with ‘JSR 6/16’ at bottom left.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Image of censored postcard from Warsaw Ghetto with ”Warschau Judenrat” red stamp, sent by R. Rubenlicht in 1941. Israeli stamp with image of Pawel Frenkel, one of the heroes of the Jewish resistance in the Ghetto killed in June 1943.
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Ukraine Nazi Occupation 1942-1945 Banknote 50 Karbovanets
2019.2.115
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.
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Portuguese First Day Cover Holocaust Commemorative Stamps
2023.1.4
Envelope with five colorful postage stamps; an image of a different man in each.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: First day of issue honoring five righteous diplomats from Portugal who saved the lives of Jews imperiled by the Nazis. The five diplomats are Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Alberto Texeira Branquinho, Jose Mendes, Padre Joaquim Carreira, and Carlos Garrido.
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Interim Cover with 4 Labels Used as Stamps with Doar Overprint
2021.1.61
White envelope with four stamps, one gray, one brown, one blue, and one green in the corners. Writing in black ink on the front.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Interim Cover with 4 JNF-KKL labels used as stamps with Doar overprint: [Redemption of land label (1940), immigrant ship label (1946), Warsaw ghetto uprising label (1946) and Ramat Gan label (1947).]
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Interim Cover with Haifa Postmark and Three JNF Labels
2021.1.66
White envelope with three stamps across the top, two gray and one brown.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Interim (Minhelet Ha’am) cover with Haifa postmark, and three JNF labels/stamps:
1) Construction and Defense stamp (1946)
2) Negev Pipeline Stamp (1948)
3) Herzl Jubilee Stamp (1946): 50th Anniversary of “Jewish State.”
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Provisional Label/Stamp Used During the Period Between British Mandate and Beginning of Jewish State
2021.1.71a
Light blue stamp with black Hebrew postmark over an image of the proposed Jewish state.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Pre-Israel Interim stamp with Doar postmark showing outline of the partitioned territory as proposed by the UN. The darker area is the proposed area for the Jewish state.
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Provisional Label/Stamp Used During the Period Between British Mandate and Beginning of Jewish State
2021.1.71b
Brown stamp showing the proposed Jewish state with Hebrew writing along the bottom and the top left corner.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Pre-Israel Interim stamp with Doar postmark showing outline of the partitioned territory as proposed by the UN. The darker area is the proposed area for the Jewish state.