The following description of mail service in the Lodz ghetto is from the award winning book, Judenrat by Isaiah Trunk (pages 178-79):
"In Lodz the local post office stopped delivering mail to the Jews in February 1940. The Judenpost ("Jewish Mail") was delivered to the Kehila building where it was sorted out by streets and houses, the addressees personally picking up their mail. In the ghetto, closed on May 1, 1940, the delivery and collection of mail was accomplished along the line of an agreement reached between Rumkowski and the representative of the German post service. By December 1940 the mail department in the ghetto employed 139 people: 62 clerks, 50 letter carriers, and 27 messengers."
The ghetto post office had three basic functions: (i) receive and deliver mail for the ghetto which had arrived at the German Post Office; (ii) receive out going mail and passing it on to the German post Office; and (iii) act as a messenger service for the Jewish Administration. During the first year of operations, the post office delivered over 150,000 parcels and 1,000,000 letters and postcards. Since the ghetto post office had to be self supporting, special postage was charged in the ghetto for picking up and delivering mail.
Lodz was the only ghetto which had its own stamps, albeit for a very short period. Many Germans bought large quantities of these stamps in the hope that they would have great value after the war. The first issue consisted of two stamps, 5pf and 10pf. Below are thumbnails of various first issue stamps. The first stamp below is a 5pf color proof of the first issue in dark olive green on carton paper. The second stamp is a 10pf proof of the first issue in bright blue gray. The third stamp is a 5pf crimson proof of the first issue on carton paper. The fourth and fifth stamps are a set of the 5pf and 10 pf stamps. The last item is a tete-beche set of two of the 5pf red stamps. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "First Issue" in the left frame to return.
The second issue was designed by Pinchas Szaar. The stamps feature the image of Rumkowski and the symbols of the labor guilds active in the ghetto. They were issued in 5pf, 10pf and 20pf denominations. These stamps were in circulation for a few months. Below are thumbnails of various second issue stamps. The first item is a 5pf original essay of the second issue on carton paper. The second item is are three original proofs of the second issue 10pf stamps. The third item is a set of second issue stamps: 5pf; 10pf; and 20pf. The last three items are blocks of four of the second issue: 5pf; 10pf; and 20pf. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "Second Issue" in the left frame to return.
Below are thumbnails of three covers. The first is a cover sent by a lawyer in Berlin to the ghetto on April 2, 1942. The letter was returned with a cachet indicating cancellation of mail privileges and a cachet indicating no mail in this region. The second is a cover and letter dated November 11, 1941, from Berlin to the Judenrat in Liztzmannstadt. The letter is an inquiry as to relatives just arriving on a transport from Berlin. The third is the front and back of a cover that was hand delivered from the Metal Works located in the Ghetto to the head of the Ghetto. The cover contains the cachet of the Metal Works on the front and a receiving cachet on the back. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "Covers 1-3" in the left frame to return.
Below are thumbnails of two covers. The first is a cover dated June 22, 1944, to Litzmannstadt. The addressee was not there, and the cover was forwarded to her new address at Ravensbruck. However, the cover was returned to sender because there was no block number indicated. The second is the front and back of a cover from the German Administration of the ghetto dated June 13, 1942. The letter was returned with a notation on the back that the addressee left with a "Jewish" transport. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "Covers 4-5" in the left frame to return.
Below are thumbnails of three postcards. The first is the front and back of a postcard from Russia to the Ghetto inquiring about the whereabouts of a person. The answer is written in green on the rear of the card. The second is the front and back of a postcard sent from the Shanghai office of the Jewish organization, HICEM, to the head of the Judenrat in Litzmannstadt (Rumkowski). The card was sent on October 28, 1941, via the US, since this was before the start of the war with Germany. During the war, HICEM was engaged in helping refugees with information, visa applications, and transportation. The third is the front and back of a postcard dated February, 23, 1942, sent from Stockholm, Sweden to the Ghetto. The card contains a Litzmannstadt 2 receipt cancellation dated March 14, 1942. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "Cards1-3" in the left frame to return.
Below are thumbnails of three postcards. The first is the front and back of a postcard dated November 16, 1942, from Lille, France to the Ghetto. The second is the front and back of a registered card sent from Paris on March 12, 1942, to the Judenrat in Lodz with an inquiry regarding a Mr. Reismann.. The card contains a Litzmannstadt cancellation dated March 20, 1942. There is also a stamped return card attached which was never used. The third is the front and back of a postcard dated March 31, 1942, from Denmark to the Ghetto. The card contains an Army High Command censor cachet. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "Cards4-6" in the left frame to return.
Below are thumbnails of two postcards. The first is the front and back of a postcard dated February 25, 1942, from Mosonmagyarovar in Hungary to the Ghetto. The second is the front and back of a postcard dated December 2, 1941, from a labor camp near Landsburg, Germany, to Herr Fuchs, an official of the Judenrat in Litzmannstadt. The sender indicates that she works in the fields and has nothing to wear for winter. She inquires about a parcel that was to be sent to her. Attached to the front of the card is a sticker from the Ghetto Postal Administration. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "Cards7-8" in the left frame to return.
Below are thumbnails of three postcards. The first is the front and back of a postcard dated September 5, 1941, from Berlin to the Litzmannstadt ghetto. The letter is from a medical worker who was assigned temporarily from the ghetto to the Judenrat in Berlin to work at the Jewish hospital in Berlin. The card contains the cachet of the Arbeitseinsatz. The second is the front and back of a postcard from Jaslo to Litzmannstadt postmarked January 23, 1941, enquiring about a deported mother. Someone has written across the face "ZMARLA" (meaning dead). The third is the front and back of a postcard from Nancy, France, to Litzmannstadt postmarked October 13, 1941, addressed to Chairman Rumkowski enquiring about whereabouts of relatives deported to the ghetto. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "Cards9-11" in the left frame to return.
Below are thumbnails of three postcards. The first is the front and back of a postcard from the ghetto addressed to the former territory of Czechoslovakia. The card was sent on May 27, 1944, shortly before the liquidation of the ghetto. The second is the front and back of a postcard dated May 13, 1942, from the Ghetto to Prague acknowledging the receipt of 40 marks. However, the addressee in Prague had been sent to Theresienstadt. The card contains a "Der Obergermeister" (Lord Mayor) cachet and a cachet of the Ghetto-Verwaltling. The third is the front and back of a postcard dated December 10, 1941, from the Ghetto to Parague. Sender had recently arrived on a transport from Prague. The sender asks that the addressee visit her sick mother. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "Cards12-14" in the left frame to return.
Below are thumbnails of two postcards. The first is the front and back of a registered postcard dated December 15, 1940 from Litzmannstadt to Brazil. The card bears a four line Judenrat cachet. The card was sent by Herbert Grawe who was the director of the ghetto post office. In the card, he advises the addressee that the latter's brother-in-law was working for the ghetto administration and was doing well. The second is the front and back of a postcard dated September 18, 1940, from the Ghetto to New York. The card contains a four line Judenrat cachet of the Judenrat in Litzmannstadt. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "Cards15-16" in the left frame to return.
Below are thumbnails of three items of refused mail. The first is the front and back of a postcard sent from the Ghetto but which was refused mailing by the censor because the inmate offered information about other inmates. The card contains a one line boxed "Inhalt Unzulassig" (contents not permissible) cachet. The second is the front and back of a postcard dated December 4, 1941, from Litzmannstadt Ghetto which was refused for mailing since the writer mentions bad conditions. The card contains a one line boxed "Inhalt Unzulassig" (contents not permissible) cachet. The third is the front and back of a postcard from Litzmannstadt which was retunred by the censor with the cachet that Hebrew and Yiddish were not permitted. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "Cards17-19" in the left frame to return.
Below are thumbnails of three items of refused mail. The first is the front and back of a postcard dated December 9, 1941, from a sister to her brother. She indicates that she cannot write what is really going on in Litzmannstadt and asks for help. The censor returned the card because it was "untidy', but the real reason appears to be contents. The second is the front and back of a postcard sent by a business in the Ghetto (rubber stamp sender address). The card was was returned by the German censor with a "ZURUCK" cachet. The third is a card written on December 25, 1941, to Miedzyrec in the Lublin District. It was rejected by the censor, since it was written in very poor German. The rubber stamp In hebraeischer und jiddischer Srache verbotten (in hebrew and yiddish language forbidden) was applied to the front of the card, and the card was not mailed. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "Cards20-22" in the left frame to return.
Manfred Schulze and Stefan Petriuk, Unsere Arbeit-unsere Hoffnung Getto Lodz 1940-1945 (1995)
The Israel Philatelist, Vol. XIV, No. 3, P. 826-87
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