Gallery

> Hitler watches invasion of Poland

Figure 3   shows the business end of a picture post card as well as the reverse side depicting “Schoene Adolf” watching the apparent invasion of Poland. The German caption reads “Over an emergency bridge they move against the foe”. The chronology of the card is worth giving a second thought: How did a stamp issued on 1 October (Mi. #727) get a postmark that was supposed to be used 1 September ? Was the cancellation valid for a longer time? Perhaps it was and the card was sent after 1 October, but this information is unknown to us at this time. Can you shed some light on this mystery? This may be another example of how a little study can illuminate an album weed better than Scott’s +2.

PROPAGANDA MAIL: While we are discussing the 1.9.39 era, a look at Figure 4 will show a ludicrous example of Nazi propaganda supposedly directed to the U.S. by a resident fanatic. As we now know, the “Polish”attack on the German radio station at Gleiwitz, near the border, was actually carried out by some condemned concentration camp prisoners dressed in Polish uniforms and using Polish weapons stolen by the Nazis. The cooked-up “incident” had the codename “Operation Himmler” and was arranged by the SS-Gestapo. The orders for this move came from Hitler himself, and early in August, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris (Chief of Intelligence, High Command of the Armed Forces - OKW) reluctantly turned 150 uniforms over to Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich (head of the SS Security Service - SD) who was, in turn, to appoint a roughneck named Alfred Naujocks to carry out the operation. Naujocks related the weird story at Nuremburg in 1945, testifying that a dozen condemned criminals were given fatal injections to prove to the world press that these “Poles” were killed while attacking innocent Germans. Gunshot wounds were inflicted to make the bizarre incident more believable, and the code name to which the unfortunate prisoners were identified was “Canned Goods”.

 

Danzig Report  Nr. 3 - May - 1975, Page 4.