1943 stamp commemorating the funeral of SS director Reinhard Heydrich

[stratasfan]

The former Deputy Protector of Bohemia & Moravia (Occupied Czech.) and Director of the Gestapo rated a commemorative semi-postal stamp on the occasion of his funeral. (The small price was the postage, the added price below it was usually donated to a fund/charity/group of some sort. I'd assume the money went to something that had to do with Heydrich or the SS.) It is all black and features Heydrich's death mask. This stamp was issued in Bohema and Moravia in 1943. The Third Reich issued a lot of stamps that commemorated party happenings and leaders and the military. Somewhere I have an actual envelope that was potsed where they used this stamp on it. As soon as I can find that, I'll post it here, too.

 

 

[SARGE]

A nice example of the Bohmen u. Mahren Heydrich stamp. I look forward to seeing your postal cover with this stamp. I picked one up in Praha when I was there around 1990. The Europeans love stamps and covers since they take up so little room.

 

I like German Police related stamps, cancellations, postcards, & covers and some of these are crossover items with the SS. Here are a few examples of the postal stuff that I collect.

 

 

[stratasfan]

Oh . . . I'd never paid attention to the postmarks. (Other countries . . .yes, but never really looked at the German ones!) We were big into stamp collecting for years, and I got well into collecting Occupied Bohemia & Moravia, Poland and German stamps from 1939-45. (Knew a few dealers really well and I got a super good deal on some stamps as they had gotten too many German collections. ) However, I don't really care for the German stuff as much, and wanting to downsize and narrow my fields, I'm looking to sell or trade the collection now. I chose to really turn my focus to my French Resistance and Monaco stamp collections. Like your German Police items . . . that's me with French Resistance! From the war years or commemorative items!

 

Here are some other interesting German commemoratives:

 

The left features the stamp commemorating the "Day of Youth Obligation", where all German children were required to take an oath of allegiance to Hitler.

The right is for the 20th anniversary of the Munich beer-hall putsch and to honour those who died for the movement. The stamp says "And despite all, You were victorious".

 

 

 

[stratasfan]

Here is a set issued in 1943 to commemorate Army Day and Hero Memorial Day:

 

[stratasfan]

The 1944 Hero Memorial Day set:

 

 

 

[stratasfan]

And, of course, the military leader:

 

[Dogsbody]

And, of course, the military leader:

 

stampsheet.JPG

Very interesting stamps, Elizabeth. The last one is very poignant, imo, given the quote below the stamps which translates as: he who wants to save a nation, can only think heroically. We all know how that worked out.

 

Rene