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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50 Years Since the Liberation of the Auschwitz Death Camp Souvenir Leaf
2012.1.409a
Front: White card with a photograph of the train tracks leading to Auschwitz. Titled, "Souvenir Leaf, 50 Years Since the Liberation of the Auschwitz Death Camp."Back: Text in Hebrew and English. Titled, "Beit Lohamei Hagethaot - The Ghetto Fighters' House."
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Auschwitz was liberated on January 20, 1945.
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Kristallnacht Commemorative Souvenir Leaf
2012.1.409b
Front: Includes a black and white photograph of a synagogue and photograph of a memorial. Titled, "Souvenir Leaf, Kristallnacht - 65 Jahre" in English and Hebrew.Back: Titled, "Remember and Never Forget!" in English, Hebrew and German. Includes an illustration of a burning synagogue and a Star of David in chains.
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First Day Cover: Israeli Commemoration of Heroes and Martyrs Day
2012.1.144
White envelope with blue illustration of a hand reaching towards the sky with Star of David on wrist.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Israeli First Day Cover commemorating Heroes and Martyrs Day. Issued 50 years after of the Holocaust of Hungarian Jews.
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First Day Cover: Israeli Commemoration of 50th Anniversary of Liberation of Buchenwald
2012.1.145
White envelope with blue illustration of children standing by a tower. Titled "Convention of the Children of Buchenwald 50th Anniversary of Liberation of the Camp."
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Israeli First Day Cover commemorating the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald Concentration Camp
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German Commemorative Sheet and Stamp
2012.1.426
White sheet titled, "50. Jahrestag der Befreiung der Gefangenen aus den Konzentrationslagern." Includes a serated stamp and the names of concentration camps surrounding it.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: German Commemorative sheet issued in Bonn. This sheet commemorated the liberation of concentration camps. This was issued near the 50th anniversary of the ending of German National Socialism and the liberation of concentration camps in the Third Reich during World War II.
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First Day Cover: Marshall Islands Commemoration of Allies Liberating Concentraion Camps
2012.1.129
White envelope with matching illustration and stamp of concentration camp prisoners behind a barbed wire with a soldier holding a gun. Titled, "Allies Liberate Concentration Camps."
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Marshall Islands First Day Cover commemorating Allies liberating Concentration Camps.
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First Day Cover: Portuguese Commemorating Peace and Freedom in Europe
2012.1.118
Envelope with barbed wire background, and two long, rectangular stamps. Titled, "Europa, Paz e Liberdade.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Portuguese First Day Cover commemorating peace and freedom for Europe.
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V-E Day Stamps
2012.1.404
Large white envelope with a green illustration of a man saluting with troops in the background. Includes a series of stamps depicting Auschwitz and St. Vincent & the Grenadines.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Stamps celebrating the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II.
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First Day Cover: French Commemoration of Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup of French Jews
2012.1.154
White envelope with a large faux stamp. The illustration inside the stamp is of people waiting in a long line. Titled, "La Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv."
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: FDC French Stamp Commemorating La Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv (Velodrome d'Hiver) which is the Raid of the Winter Velodrome or bicycling stadium in Paris. This was a Nazi decreed raid and mass arrest in Paris on July 16-17, 1942, aimed at the Jewish population in occupied France. 13,152 men, women and children were arrested and held at the Velodrome d'Hiver and the Drancy Internment Camp nearby under deplorable conditions, then shipped by railway transports to Auschwitz for extermination.
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First Day Cover: Israeli Celebration of the end of WWII and Liberation of Concentration Camps
2012.1.127
Large envelope with five rows of identical stamps with US, UK and Russian flags.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Israeli First Day Cover celebrating the end of WWII and liberation of concentration camps.
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Israeli Buchenwald Commemorative Envelope
2012.1.406
White envelope with black and white illustration of camp members along bottom. Includes a colorful illustration with camp members and watercolor butterflies.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Israeli Postal souvenir sheet issued in 1995 to commemorate liberation from the camps.
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First Day Cover: Honolulu, Hawaii Commemoration of Liberation
2012.1.108
White envelope with green illustration of the liberation on right side. Brown text in middle. Stamp with people looking out through barbed wire on upper right.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: 1995 Hawaii commemoration of liberation of Holocaust survivors.
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First Day Cover: U.S. 50th Anniversary of Allies Liberation of Holocaust Survivors
2012.1.128
White envelope with an illustration of a concentration camp on blue background, stamp with people behind a barbed wire fence. Text in English on back.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: First Day Cover celebrating 50th anniversary of the liberation of Holocaust survivors, with timeline.
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First Day Cover: Canadian Commemoration of Shoah Documentary and Allied Liberation of Wobbelin Concentration Camp
2012.1.114
Front: Grey envelope with illustration of a concentration camp uniform on the left, and four identical stamps showing photographs of concentration camp survivors. Back: A black and white photograph of concentration camp survivors with text in English.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A picture of survivors being rescued by US Army troops at Wobbelin Concentration Camp, 1945.
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First Day Cover: Celebration of Raoul Wallenberg
2012.1.116
White envelope with black and white photograph of a Nazi with a gun to the head of a man over a pit of bodies. Titled, "Raoul Wallenberg" and includes Raoul Wallenberg stamp.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
First Day Cover Commemorating Raoul Wallenberg.
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First Day Cover: American Celebration of Raoul Wallenberg
2012.1.125
White envelope with black and white photograph of men in uniform. Includes text in English and titled, "Raoul Wallenberg."
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: USA First Day Cover celebrating Raoul Wallenberg with Talmudic quote and photo of Nazi soldier humiliating a Jew.
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American Commemoratives: Raoul Wallenberg Stamps
2012.1.147
White sheet with four Raoul Wallenberg stamps. Includes several illustrations of classical-looking women and text in English.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: American commemorative stamps from 1997 celebrating achievements of Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat who saved Jews of Hungary
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First Day Cover: Celebration of Raoul Wallenberg
2012.1.115
White envelope with yellow Star of David and Raoul Wallenberg stamp, titled "Remember the Six Million."
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: First Day Cover commemorating Raoul Wallenberg.
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First Day Cover Commemorating Clandestine Immigration Operations to Palestine
2016.1.50
Image of ship on water filled with lines of Hebrew text at bottom left, circular stamp with date over rectangular postage stamp at right.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
This First Day Cover commemorates clandestine immigration or operations of the Aliyah Bet designed to bring immigrants to Palestine, with the depiction of SS Exodus 1947 in the port of Haifa. Cover year of 1997 is the 50th anniversary of the Exodus. While clandestine immigration operations to Palestine existed before World War I, they increased dramatically with the Holocaust. The most famous of the immigrant ships to bring the surviving remnant to Palestine was the Haganah ship Exodus 1947, pictured on the stamp at the port of Haifa, prior to its passengers being deported back to France and then to Germany.
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First Day Cover: Israeli Commemoration of Diplomats
2012.1.121
White envelope with background picture of Holocaust survivors and a large stamp with photographs of five people on it.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Israeli First Day Cover commemorating the diplomats who provided visa and travel documents to Jews, thereby saving their lives. They were designated Righteous Among Nations by Yad Vashem.
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Carl Lutz Postage Stamp
2019.2.23
Orange and yellow postage stamp with white border and ridged edges, photo of Carl Lutz, "90" printed in white in bottom right corner.
[Related items: 2019.2.22 and 2019.2.24]
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: As Swiss vice-consul in Budapest from 1942-1945, Lutz was instrumental in rescuing Hungarian Jews from deportation by both Nazis and Hungarians. He is credited with issuing 10,000 documents allowing Jewish children to emigrate to Palestine in 1942. Later, having negotiated permission to issue 8,000 protective passes, Lutz “re-interpreted” that number and applied it to families rather than individuals. By this strategy he was able to save more than 60,000 Jews from deportation to Auschwitz and certain death. He established 76 protective houses to shelter and place under diplomatic protection these document holders, often having to confront the dreaded Arrow Cross from raids on these houses himself. After the war, Lutz married Magda Grausz, one of the Jewish women that he saved. He was honored as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1965.
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Pope John Paul II Honored by Israel First Day Cover
2015.2.5
Front: White envelope. Upper right has large stamp with red background with photo of Pope John Paul II in white putting message in Western Wall. Next to it is black circular handstamp with Hebrew and English. Top left has a small deer and a sextagonal hand stamp noting Day of Issue. Bottom left has Hebrew and English writing in red over an olive branch. The Pope's message reads: God of our fathers, You chose Abraham and his descendants to bring your Name to the Nations: we are deeply saddened by the behaviour of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffe[r], and asking your forgiveness we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the Covenant.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Pope John Paul shown placing message in the Western Wall which read: God of our fathers, You chose Abraham and his descendants to bring your Name to the Nations: we are deeply saddened by the behaviour of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffe[r], and asking your forgiveness we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the Covenant. Jerusalem 26, March 2000. Signed: John Paul II.
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First Day Cover: Commemorating Holocaust Martyrs with Quote from Isaiah 56.5
2012.1.138
White envelope with postage stamp of a teddy bear with Star of David Patch.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Israeli First Day Cover commemorating Holocaust martyrs with a quote from Isaiah 56.5: "I will give them, in My House and within My Walls, a monument and a name... which shall not perish."
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Photo Card of Iconic Image of Captured Residents of Warsaw Ghetto with Commemorative Stamp
2016.1.53
Image: Men, women and children with their hands raised while armed, uniformed men look on; Text at right “Special Presentation Folder, designed & autographed by IGAL GABAY, designer of stamp”, 95/180.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Iconic photo of captured residents of the Warsaw Ghetto on a card along with Israeli stamp from 2003 commemorating 50th anniversary of Yad Vashem in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, and the heroism of the ghetto warriors who resisted the Nazis. Signed by stamp designer, Igal Gabay.
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First Day Cover: Argentinian Commemoration of Raoul Wallenberg and Holocaust
2012.1.120
Off-white envelope with illustration of barbed wire and a yellow Star of David Patch. Includes a purple Raoul Wallenberg stamp.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Argentinian First Day Cover commemorating Raoul Wallenberg and victims of the Holocaust.