Four package receipt confirmation postcards sent by Jews from the Theresienstadt Ghetto in 1944

Four package receipt confirmation postcards sent by Jews from the Theresienstadt Ghetto in 1944

Four official receipt confirmation postcards (Anerkennungskarte) sent by Jews of German origin from the Theresienstadt Ghetto (Theresienstadt) during 1944, most of them addressed to members of the Golnzer family.

1. Sender: Hugo Simoni. Date of sending: June 8, 1944.

Recipient: Mrs. Else Golenzer, Hamburg, Germany.

Content: “Dear friends, all of you! I gratefully confirm receipt of your parcel from April 4, 1944.” Personal addition: The sender added in handwriting: “It is wonderful that you remember us” (Es ist wunderbar, dass Sie unser gedenken).

2. Sender: Ketty Goldschmidt. Date of sending: May 4, 1944.

Theresienstadt Ghetto, Neue Gasse 8. Recipient: Mr. Golenzer, Hamburg, Germany. Content: “My dears, I gratefully confirm receipt of your parcel from April 17.” A round blue “11b” stamp of internal ghetto censorship appears. 

3. Sender: Janette Baar, Theresienstadt Ghetto, Hauptstraße 18/22. Date of sending: August 17, 1944. Recipient: Mr. Chaim Golenzer, Hamburg, Germany. Content: “My dear Chaim, I gratefully confirm receipt of your parcel from July 20, 1944.”

4. Sender: Hugo Simoni. Date of sending: June 26, 1944. Recipient: Mr. E. Simoni, Berlin-Friedenau, Germany.

Content: “My beloved son, I gratefully confirm receipt of your parcels from March 21, 1944 and April 11, 1944.” Includes a 60 Pfennig Hitler stamp with a Prague (Prag) postmark.

ֿIn Theresienstadt, food parcels from home were often the difference between life and death. The Germans permitted the sending of such parcels and postcards in order to present a false image, both to the outside world and to the Red Cross - of a “Jewish town with functioning cultural life and postal services.” The text on these postcards was largely pre-printed (“Ich bestätige dankend den Empfang Ihres Paketes” - “I gratefully confirm receipt of your parcel”). Prisoners were only allowed to fill in dates, names, and very brief personal notes. Every word was inspected by the censors, as indicated by stamps such as “11b.” These postcards, sent outside the ghetto, were franked with official postage stamps of the German Reich or the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, yet another sign of the total control the Nazi regime exerted over every aspect of the prisoners’ lives.

Overall very good condition.