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Europe/Germany : WWII Hitler Head Overprints (Ukraine)

 

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pigdoc

09 Jan 2018
05:46:13pm
For your consideration, here is an item from my WWII collection that I recently picked up on eBay for a few dollars:Image Not Found

I read elsewhere on this forum that it was common for the overprints to be applied privately, and then taken to a PO for favor cancellation.

This would appear to be the case with this item. The stamps are applied to an envelope of thin, soft paper with no other markings. The CDS is Retschiza, Ukraine, March 22, 1943. That was the date of the Khatyn massacre (coincidence?). Khatyn is located about 300km north of Retschiza.

I guess I feel that, at least, the overprints are probably not faked and are contemporary to the cancellation, although I suppose that could never be proven.

On the other hand, the overprints vary in location relative to the left sides and bottoms of the stamp images.

Too bad the item was not postally used. But it's kind of neat to have the complete set on a single piece, with a period cancellation...

Comments?

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Guthrum
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10 Jan 2018
05:44:51am
re: WWII Hitler Head Overprints (Ukraine)

Khatyn was a village in Belarus, destroyed on 22 March 1943 by the 36th Waffen Grenadier Division under their notorious leader Oskar Dirlewanger, 156 inhabitants being murdered, one man and three children surviving.

Not to be confused, of course, with the rather more bloody Katyn massacres (note the spelling - the Cyrillic letters are different), generally held to have occurred in April-May 1940. The Germans came across the site three years later on 14 April, when Goebbels noted:

"We are now using the discovery of 12,000 Polish officers, murdered by the GPU, for anti-Bolshevik propaganda on a grand style. We sent neutral journalists and Polish intellectuals to the spot where they were found. Their reports now reaching us from ahead are gruesome. The Führer has also given permission for us to hand out a drastic news item to the German press. I gave instructions to make the widest possible use of the propaganda material. We shall be able to live on it for a couple of weeks."

I seem to recall the UK being confident that this was the work of the SS or the Gestapo for many years after the war.

As for the stamps, I think it is coincidence. There is no obvious reason why a postal administration in (presumably) occupied Kiev would wish to signal a wretched day's work by the Waffen SS somewhere to the west. That said, if the cover was made up and the cancels applied long afterwards, some fanatical counter clerk may have chosen that date to satisfy some aspect of his warped character!

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nigelc
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10 Jan 2018
09:23:21am
re: WWII Hitler Head Overprints (Ukraine)


Rechytsa is a town in south-eastern Belarus, then in the far north-eastern part of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine.

I think the most likely story here is that someone has bought the set of stamps, stuck them on a piece of paper and had them cancelled at the post office.

This was a very popular thing to do in Germany and many other parts of Eastern Europe.


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Bujutsu
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10 Jan 2018
11:11:01am
re: WWII Hitler Head Overprints (Ukraine)

Hi

As quoted by pigdoc - - I read elsewhere on this forum that it was common for the overprints to be applied privately, and then taken to a PO for favor cancellation.

My understanding was that these stamps were overprinted by the sheet and done on many of them? My reasoning for this is that the overprint is exactly in the same spot on each stamp, and, I believe this to be impossible if privately overprinted. There would have to be some variations where the overprint hit the stamp if done privately? This is the same theory as a written signature, no one writes their name exactly the same each time. My opinions of course and look forward to comments. Maybe I read this wrong? Nice interesting thread.

Chimo

Bujutsu

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nigelc
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10 Jan 2018
11:54:02am
re: WWII Hitler Head Overprints (Ukraine)

Hi Bujutsu,

I had the same thought when I read the original post but on reflection I read it as meaning "it was common for the overprinted stamps to be applied privately, and then taken to a PO for favor cancellation." and I agree with this.

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HockeyNut
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06 Nov 2019
07:50:48am
re: WWII Hitler Head Overprints (Ukraine)

1941, Hitler Set overprinted "Ukraine" for the Ukraine area of the occupied Soviet Union
Reichskommissariat Ukraine (abbreviated as RKU) was the civilian occupation regime (Reichskommissariat) of much of Nazi German-occupied Ukraine (which included adjacent areas of modern-day Belarus and pre-war Second Polish Republic)

After November 1941, German Hitler definitive postage stamps, overprinted "OSTLAND" were used in the territory.
The German occupation of the Baltic states, portions of Eastern Poland, and White Russia (Belarus) in 1941 created the German Reichskommissariat Ostland, or the State Commission of the Eastern Land.

These stamps were used by citizens and companies that collaborated with the Germans.
Letters with these stamps are sought by collectors.

So I do not know what you mean by "it was common for the overprinted stamps to be applied privately" ?

Image Not Found Image Not Found


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nigelc
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06 Nov 2019
09:17:25am
re: WWII Hitler Head Overprints (Ukraine)

"it was common for the overprinted stamps to be applied privately" ?

It was common practice for collectors to stick sets of stamps on to envelopes or sheets of paper and to have these items cancelled by favour at the local post office.

I have examples from a range of countries in central and eastern Europe.

I am not talking about these overprints being applied privately.

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Author/Postings
pigdoc

09 Jan 2018
05:46:13pm

For your consideration, here is an item from my WWII collection that I recently picked up on eBay for a few dollars:Image Not Found

I read elsewhere on this forum that it was common for the overprints to be applied privately, and then taken to a PO for favor cancellation.

This would appear to be the case with this item. The stamps are applied to an envelope of thin, soft paper with no other markings. The CDS is Retschiza, Ukraine, March 22, 1943. That was the date of the Khatyn massacre (coincidence?). Khatyn is located about 300km north of Retschiza.

I guess I feel that, at least, the overprints are probably not faked and are contemporary to the cancellation, although I suppose that could never be proven.

On the other hand, the overprints vary in location relative to the left sides and bottoms of the stamp images.

Too bad the item was not postally used. But it's kind of neat to have the complete set on a single piece, with a period cancellation...

Comments?

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like this post.
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Guthrum

10 Jan 2018
05:44:51am

re: WWII Hitler Head Overprints (Ukraine)

Khatyn was a village in Belarus, destroyed on 22 March 1943 by the 36th Waffen Grenadier Division under their notorious leader Oskar Dirlewanger, 156 inhabitants being murdered, one man and three children surviving.

Not to be confused, of course, with the rather more bloody Katyn massacres (note the spelling - the Cyrillic letters are different), generally held to have occurred in April-May 1940. The Germans came across the site three years later on 14 April, when Goebbels noted:

"We are now using the discovery of 12,000 Polish officers, murdered by the GPU, for anti-Bolshevik propaganda on a grand style. We sent neutral journalists and Polish intellectuals to the spot where they were found. Their reports now reaching us from ahead are gruesome. The Führer has also given permission for us to hand out a drastic news item to the German press. I gave instructions to make the widest possible use of the propaganda material. We shall be able to live on it for a couple of weeks."

I seem to recall the UK being confident that this was the work of the SS or the Gestapo for many years after the war.

As for the stamps, I think it is coincidence. There is no obvious reason why a postal administration in (presumably) occupied Kiev would wish to signal a wretched day's work by the Waffen SS somewhere to the west. That said, if the cover was made up and the cancels applied long afterwards, some fanatical counter clerk may have chosen that date to satisfy some aspect of his warped character!

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nigelc

10 Jan 2018
09:23:21am

re: WWII Hitler Head Overprints (Ukraine)


Rechytsa is a town in south-eastern Belarus, then in the far north-eastern part of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine.

I think the most likely story here is that someone has bought the set of stamps, stuck them on a piece of paper and had them cancelled at the post office.

This was a very popular thing to do in Germany and many other parts of Eastern Europe.


Like 
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like this post.
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Bujutsu

10 Jan 2018
11:11:01am

re: WWII Hitler Head Overprints (Ukraine)

Hi

As quoted by pigdoc - - I read elsewhere on this forum that it was common for the overprints to be applied privately, and then taken to a PO for favor cancellation.

My understanding was that these stamps were overprinted by the sheet and done on many of them? My reasoning for this is that the overprint is exactly in the same spot on each stamp, and, I believe this to be impossible if privately overprinted. There would have to be some variations where the overprint hit the stamp if done privately? This is the same theory as a written signature, no one writes their name exactly the same each time. My opinions of course and look forward to comments. Maybe I read this wrong? Nice interesting thread.

Chimo

Bujutsu

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nigelc

10 Jan 2018
11:54:02am

re: WWII Hitler Head Overprints (Ukraine)

Hi Bujutsu,

I had the same thought when I read the original post but on reflection I read it as meaning "it was common for the overprinted stamps to be applied privately, and then taken to a PO for favor cancellation." and I agree with this.

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this post
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HockeyNut

06 Nov 2019
07:50:48am

re: WWII Hitler Head Overprints (Ukraine)

1941, Hitler Set overprinted "Ukraine" for the Ukraine area of the occupied Soviet Union
Reichskommissariat Ukraine (abbreviated as RKU) was the civilian occupation regime (Reichskommissariat) of much of Nazi German-occupied Ukraine (which included adjacent areas of modern-day Belarus and pre-war Second Polish Republic)

After November 1941, German Hitler definitive postage stamps, overprinted "OSTLAND" were used in the territory.
The German occupation of the Baltic states, portions of Eastern Poland, and White Russia (Belarus) in 1941 created the German Reichskommissariat Ostland, or the State Commission of the Eastern Land.

These stamps were used by citizens and companies that collaborated with the Germans.
Letters with these stamps are sought by collectors.

So I do not know what you mean by "it was common for the overprinted stamps to be applied privately" ?

Image Not Found Image Not Found


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this post
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nigelc

06 Nov 2019
09:17:25am

re: WWII Hitler Head Overprints (Ukraine)

"it was common for the overprinted stamps to be applied privately" ?

It was common practice for collectors to stick sets of stamps on to envelopes or sheets of paper and to have these items cancelled by favour at the local post office.

I have examples from a range of countries in central and eastern Europe.

I am not talking about these overprints being applied privately.

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this post
        

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