Theresienstadt Parcel Admission Stamp

Here's another interesting little bit of philatelic history -- the Theresienstadt Parcel Admission Stamp.

In the late 18th century, the Austrian emperor Joseph II ordered the construction of a fortress in Terezín, a small town in Bohemia (modern Czech Republic). The fortress was, in reality, two fortresses -- the walled town of Terezín and a smaller fortress across the Oh#345;e River to the east. Over the year, the small fortress was used as a prison. It's most famous prisoner being Gavrilo Princip, the assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

On June 10, 1940, the Gestapo took control of Terezín. They quickly established a prison in the small fortress and a Jewish ghetto within the town walls. This ghetto would be known as Theresienstadt, after the German name for the town.


Aerial views of Theresienstadt

Beginning on 10 July 1943, a new process was implemented for residents of Bohemia and Moravia wishing to send packages to residents of the ghetto. If a resident of the ghetto wished to receive a parcel, he could fill out a request every two months. The request would be forwarded to the Jewish Council in Prague, who would then send a notice to the proposed sender of the parcel. The sender, if in the Prague area, could stop in and pick up the stamp.


Theresienstadt Parcel Admission Stamp

If the proposed sender was not in the Prague area, the stamp would be attached to the notice and mailed to the proposed sender.


Notice with Parcel Admission Stamp attached

The stamp had to be attached to the parcel itself. Because the wrapping paper was commonly destroyed as part of the parcel inspection, genuine used copies are scarce.

Upon receipt of the parcel, the recipient could then send a pre-printed card to the sender acknowledging that the parcel had arrived safely.


Theresienstadt Acknowledgment Card

In mid-1942, the German authorities began transforming the Theresienstadt ghetto into a "show camp" in an effort to quell criticism within the international community. A massive beautification project was undertaken in preparation for a visit in June 1944 by delegates of the International Red Cross and representatives of the government of Denmark.

The delegates were given a guided tour in which they followed a red line on the ground and were not permitted to speak to most of the inhabitants. Somehow, the delegates were fooled by the German efforts, and published positive reports of the visit. The Germans were ecstatic, going so far as to produce a propaganda film about the visit.

As part of the propaganda effort, souvenir sheets of the Theresienstadt Parcel Admission Stamp were produced for distribution to IRC delegates on official visits. These sheets were found in remainder stocks post-war. They can be found in black, brown, and dark green (still need a dark green in my collection!), and were numbered sequentially.



Imperf copies can be found, and are believed to be from remainder stock.



Proofs also exist in black and light green (missing the light green from my collection as well!)

Great post. Very informative.

Great stuff, Thanks!

The Nazis also fooled the outside world by ordering residents to post-date outgoing mail. By the time the letters had arrived, the inmates had already been transferred to Extermination camps elsewhere or were already dead.
But the recipients of the mail were ignorant of this brutal act.

Londonbus1

WOW!

Although I'm not into Theresienstadt Parcel Admission Stamp, but could not skip your informative post.

Well done PostmasterGS! This's the real philately (Knowledge)!

Cheers

Another great dose of power with that knowledge postmaster. Thanks - jeff

A couple additions to my Theresienstadt collection.

The Theresienstadt stamps were initially printed in sheets of four. This was quickly abandoned, however, for efficiency reasons, and the printing shifted to sheets of 25. The sheets of four are extremely rare.



Also, my newest addition, a proof copy of the Red Cross Sheet.


Front


Back

Wow, talk about selvage!

Here is a picture of my Theresienstadt stamp. Very good info on this. Thank you.

PostmasterGS
Somehow I never notice this thread before today. Thank you writing about Theresienstadt and showing your collection. Not to forget everyday life must have been awful there for Jewish.

The feature presentation is very imformative great performance to a waiting audience. Rod222 that stamp is very expressive and emotional.

I realized in reading over this topic that I forgot to update when I purchased one of the items I had noted in the original post was missing from my collection.... the single green proof.

You can see the genuine characteristics compared to various forgeries here: http://stampforgeries.com/forged-st...resienstadt/

Here is an old photo showing that general area. You can even see the dot in the steeple that is #5 in the above post:

Postmaster:

This is a really excellent post and very well-researched. I am writing a book on forgeries and I wanted to find out if you or anyone else knows: 1.) why are there so many forgeries of this stamp (there are allegedly 11 forgeries; some are forgeries of forgeries, 2.) who did the forgeries, and 3.) what was the motive for the fogeries? You may find many for sale on ebay at prices ranging from $80 US to $150 US. This interesting article explains the forgeries: http://stampforgeries.com/forged-st...resienstadt/