Gallery

Danzig Documents

Along with old covers and entires, documents tell us about the historical traditions of a society. We have chosen a few that are related to our interests in the Danzig area and have tried to decipher their functions. When we look at photos of Danzig in March of 1945 and soon thereafter, we wonder that any records or books could have survived, unless they were removed to safer places. Fortunately, there are a substantial number of entires and documents that are still telling their stories. Here are several that may be of interest:

DOCUMENT A
Legal document containing revenue stamps, from February 1919. Refer to DR# 70 for Giles du Boulay’s catalog of revenues, and you may be able to identify some. The two on the back side are shown in the catalog; however, that will show them overprinted with DANZIG. To see the orig inal Prussian stamps, refer to a forerunner catalog. This document is four pages long, with points 3 thru 10 handwritten on the inside pages.

DOCUMENT B
This is a Prussian document with elusive meaning. It originated in Danzig in July of 1837, and the strikes of the seals are very clear. The second seal from the top is an embossed impression of knight in helmut and fancy feather and jeweled embellishment. It appears to be a legal document that covers transactions from 1806, but we will leave the translation to those of you who can.

DOCUMENT C
Another official “mail it and get it back, signed” letter from May of 1876. What makes it different from those in DR# 58 (see page 32) is that it’s addressed to Ossieck, postal district of Danzig. The 20 is in blue crayon on the folded face of the document. As you recall from the Danzig Report translation, the fine print at the bottom deals with specific instructions to the postman in delivering the document for signature. Due to lack of space, we have carried the text over to our next page and kept it same size as the original.

DOCUMENT D
A standard Danzig fire insurance policy for property in Graudenz written in August 1940! There are seven pages of print delineating terms of the insurance contract.

DOCUMENT E
This is one in which we can use some Polish help in its translation. It’s a Power of Attorney document, written by Dr. Jakob Jariiga in 1919. Of course, our main interest is in the revenue stamps that are affixed. We assume that Janiga’s signature is at the bottom. There is only one page in this document.

 

Danzig Report   Nr. 78 - January - February - March - 1993, Page 8.