Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Kaunas 1941

Kaunas 1941 during the first Soviet annexation

Nazi censorship seal on the back of the cover

Postmark Kaunas Central 1941 with a 1940 Soviet stamp

This is an interesting cover sent in January 1941 from Kaunas during the first Soviet annexation to Frýdek-Místek, at the time, part of the German occupied Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Very luckily, I have been in contact with one of the descendant of the relative of the sender of the cover, Dr. Oto (Otto) Landsberger, a Czech-Jewish Frýdek-Místek native, who traveled to Lithuania from 1940 to 1941 to help the situation. According to his memoir (unpublished), he often wrote to his relatives including his son Fritz who stayed in Frýdek-Místek. His 1940-45 journey that led him ultimately to Lebanon is really incredible.
The sender spells his hometown "Friedeberg Místek" which I think he deliberately misspelled it as part of the protest to the German authority without getting too much attention. The German name for Frýdek is Friede(c)k and Místek was Freiberg.

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