Urbana Ill, France, & Nazis

Hi all

Postal History isn't an area that I'm interested in.

Here is a cover that might or might be interesting to some members.

Letter from University of Illinois address to Morbihan France dated 13 July 1940. Scan of this letter included. Letter references a letter received on 12 June 1940. (10 May 1940 Nazis invaded France, my note)

Letter from University of Illinois address to Morbihan France dated 8 July 1940. Scan of this letter included. (10 June 1940 French Government departed Paris France, my note) (14 June 1940, NAZIS occupied Paris France, my note)

Scans of front of envelope and reverse side of envelope. Cropped images where there was only blank space.

I suppose this cover and contents might be of interest to some member, maybe an Urbana postal history member, or maybe someone else who would think it was interesting.

Various marking (unknown to me) on front of envelope, could someone explain these for us all?

Reverse marking on reverse side of the envelope, can someone figure out the two stamped images, one under and one on top of the censor by Nazis (not for sure of this), explain what "Gepruft" indicates.

Any other information would be helpful. Is there collectors members who collect this type of stuff, or should it be put in the my local auction house, (mainly farm equipment, but sometimes they have other junk to auction off).

Not being a postal history interested stamp collector, sure I've made errors in my descriptions.

Stampmaster

From my Alma mater :)

Geprüft is simply the German word for "examined". All international mail going into or out of German held territories was censored by the Germans just like every other countries on both sides of the war did. The black circular marking on the paper sealing tape on the back has the remnants of the words "Oberkommando der Wehrmacht" which is just the name of the German military management who were responsible for such mail censoring. The red circular mark with the indistinct wording is a rubber handstamp that every censor had and after they had opened read the letter inside and determined there was no reason to hold it up they resealed the envelope with the paper tape and then used their handstamp with the red ink to go partially on the tape and partially on the envelope so that one could tell if anyone else opened the letter afterwards. I cannot read the handwriting at the top of the front of the letter though possibly the first word might be "Inconnu"? If so that means "Unknown". My guess is that the whole handwritten note there says something to the effect that the person is unknown there and to return it to the sender, which is confirmed by the two three line black rubber handstamp markings and crossed out address of the recient. I cannot see what the third line says, the first two lines say RETOUR A L'ENVOYEUR which is French for RETURN TO SENDER.

This was mailed before the US entered the war and was still quite rabidly neutral. Many of the universities were hotbeds of students and professors who were very enthusiastic about keeping the US out of the war, though this only seems to come through partially in these letters so maybe this professor was not quite as strident about it as many were.

Overall this is a common cover in terrible condition. I am not sure there would be much commercial value to it other than perhaps someone who was a descendant of this professor or maybe someone who was focused on collecting the University' mail. Values are hard to set, but given its terrible condition, its lack of any interesting or historical content in the letters, and it being common possibly it might sell for something like $1? You might do better putting in your local farm equipment auction where there are antique dealers who do not know values.

Hi, thanks so much for you input Kimo. Just so happens the auction house is having an auction Saturday morning, with preview sale today. I'm going there to check the equipment out. Will take my box of stamps along with the cover, and consign it in the next auction.

Again, thanks for you information/research.

Stampmaster