HISTORAMA AUCTION #7 - 'Buy or Bid' Sale

Contact from "the heart of darkness", wartime WWII/Holocaust 2-way mail via Red Cross: stampless British Red Cross/Order of St. John "Postal Message Scheme" contact form with German message of under 25 words, dated 8-12-1941, from HAIFA to TARNOW "Occupied Poland", inquiring about condition of sender's parents; passed HAIFA censor H17 (Sach-Q23, 1 month before his earliest known date of use) on way to overseas dispatch through Red Cross office JERUSALEM; front-stamped 31 DEC 1941 transit at IRC in GENEVA & forwarded to Polish Red Cross where received in WARSAW on 13 MARZ 1942 (front-stamped): here address altered in pencil by removing reference to "occupied Poland" with "GG" (Generalgouvernment - an annexed zone of 'former' Poland in which the term 'Poland' was not used) & "District Krakow" (one of 4 such in the GG); additional Polish date-stamp at base 25 MARZ 1942 may be dispatch date to TARNOW (2 week delay); reply in German manuscript on back "We are all healthy, Gross Arie" dated 27 IV 1942 (1 month since local transit); received back by IRC GENEVA on 24 JUIN 1942 (backstamped) who forwarded it back to the British Red Cross in JERUSALEM, front-stamped 21 AU 42 transit using 3m Postage Paid date-cancel - unusual usage but observed on reply-returned Red Cross correspondence originating from Palestine; here passed J18 censor (Sach-Q21b handstamp 3 months after his last known date of use) & arrived same day in HAIFA, where passed KK/26 censor (Sach-Q29, 4 months before his earliest known date of use).

8 month round-trip transit time, reasonable for surface mail. The first major act of extermination in Tarnow began June 1942; locale was "Jew free" by late 1943. Rare two-way wartime correspondence between Palestine & Poland, however the terseness of the reply from Poland raises suspicions about its authenticity (as the Nazis were known to forge fake reply correspondence to Jews abroad).
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This lot is being offered in a buy or bid sale format, whose initial buyout price is: $749. This price will rise by about 5-10% for every new bid received once the bid level passes the midway mark between the starting bid price and the initial buyout price. In such cases please check the latest buyout price on our homesite or contact us.
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Product Tags: Mandatory Palestinian, Polish, Swiss, German, Philately - Postal Covers, Red Cross Mail and Postal History from Palestine Mandate, Poland, Switzerland, Germany, and from World War II, Holocaust, 20th Century, 1940s, which are Philately - Censored Mail, Philately - significant cachets & postal markings, Philately - Stampless Mail, Philately - Significant Route, Philately - Unusual Origin, Destination or Postal Link, Philately - unusual postal procedures/fines/taxes, Philately - Earliest/Latest, First/Last & Proving dates or places, Object Related Specifically to a Personality or Key Event