Galerie

 

Figure 10 – Philatelic covers such as this one may have been prepared by accomodation field post clerks at Gotenhafen in September 1939.

Figure 11 is a cover mailed from Gotenhafen to the United States on October 9, 19.9. the day after Hitler announced the creation of the province Danzig-West Prnssia. It bears many of the different censorship handstamps utilized by the Königsberg Auslandsbriefp rufstelle (foreign letter examining office) during this time.

Changing the city’s name to Gotenhafen on September 19, 199, could not alter the fact that the population was almost entirely Polish. Mass deportations from Gotenhafeii to the General Government began during October and would not end until the greater part of the Polish population of the city was expelled. While the Poles were deported, Germans from foreign countries were simultaneously transferred to Gotenhafen as colonists. On October 14, the first shipment of Germans left Riga, Latvia. (as part of the RibbentropM olotov Pact with the Soviet Union) for Gotenhafen, and, in the coming months. 4,000 Reich Germans and 55,000 Latvians of German origin would find their way to the city.”

Postal history relating to these events will be encountered by the collector. The technical side of the transfer of the Germans was handled by the Deutsche Umsiedhing Treuh-ind G.rn.b.H., while the expulsion of the Poles was simply in the hands of the Gestapo and police. Confiscated Polish property in towns was administered by and later divided among the transferred Germans by the Haupttreuhandstelle Ost. Confiscated Polish property in (he country was managed and distributed to German colonists by the Ostdeutsche Landu ’irtschciftsgesellschaft G.m. b. H. and its supplementary organizations. the Bauernsiedlungs Gesellschaften.

 

Danzig Report Vol. 1 - Nr. 91 - April - May - June - 1996,  Page 9.