Generalgouvernement Pictorial Cancel On Michel 40

I'm curious to find out what is written on this
postmark.
I believe that the nazi rune symbol on there stands for life
even though I have variously seen that rune stand for the letter Z or even man/male

I seem to recall that postmasterGS had a thread here about
Third Reich pictorial postmarks but I can't find it.

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Interesting. Inverted it's a peace symbol.

Robert

In the Third Reich the inverted represented death and I have seen
pics of gravestones with those symbols on them.

In the nordic and Anglo-Saxon runen alphabet
Ive seen the inverted one standing for the letter K .
It could also represent evil or underworld

Top: _________ EMPFOHLE___ (empfohlen meaning recommended)
Middle: DIE (logo) NSDA (probably NSDAP, or Nazi party)
Bottom: No idea to be honest.

Inside the logo GESUND (healthy), DURCH (through) and VOLLKORNBROT (which is nothing more than whole wheat bread).

Thanks Tinus_NL,

So, from that information it appears that the Nazi party in occupied
Poland is recommending the health benefits of eating whole wheat bread ?

Hmmmm

I know very little about Nazi cancellations, but extolling the health benefits of this or that was well in line with Nazi propaganda of the time. It's not surprising to me that they'd use postal markings for that purpose.

What you have is the "Gesund durch Vollkornbrot" commemorative cancel.



It's listed in the Generalgouvernement Study Group's Documentation on the Publicity Cancels in the Deutsche Post Osten in the Generalgouvernement, Handbook #H67 E as Cancel W5.

There were two varieties. One had a period in the circle (W5a), and the other had a cross (W5b). Yours appears to be a W5b.



The text roughly translates as "Healthy through whole-grain bread -- introduced and recommended by the Arbeitsbereich Generalgouvernement". The Arbeitsbereich Generalgouvernement was formed by the Nazi Party (NSDAP) to centralize all the various Nazi-related groups operating within the Generalgouvernement under one umbrella so they might be more closely controlled politically, ideologically, etc. Part of its efforts included making "recommendations" such as this.

These were in use from:
5a: 30 Oct 41 - 1 Jan 45
5b: 30 Oct 41 - 16 Nov 43

Here's what it looks like complete, on cover.

Thanks Postmaster for such detailed information.

I knew you would come through, you are truly a wealth of knowledge.

We are very lucky to have such an expert on this forum.

In 1997, Germany issued a stamp commemorating Heinrich Heine. It was printed in sheets of 10 with the "life" rune in the upper left corner.



At the time, I was not aware the Nazis associated the "life" rune with an SS program, so I didn't understand the whole brouhaha over the stamp issue. Now I know. In the end, the stamp was withdrawn and reissued without the rune.

Thanks all,
Robert

Why didn't they just tear off the little itty bitty
offending part of the selvadge?