Mažeikiai 1943

Bahnhof Mazeikiai?

This is cover sent in 1943 from Moscheiken (now Mažeikiai, Lithuania), Ostland to Riga, the present Latvian capital. It has been sent from a Bahnsleiter (station director) of Mažeikiai station (as you see on the back of the cover) to a Reichsbahninspektor (Reich Railway inspector) in Riga. The postmark cancelling the Ostland overprint says Moscheiken, the official German name of Mažeikiai in Ostland, but what surprised me was the Nazi cachet that says "Bahnhof Mazeikiai" and NOT Moscheiken. As you can see from the fact that the station director uses himself the name of Mažeikiai on the back, the use of Lithuanian name was not prohibited but we are talking about Nazi cachet which usually Germanizes every place name. It is possible that the cachet was made before the renaming process but still...

Vilnius 1941 - Postcard of Trakai

This is a postcard of Troki (now Trakai, Lithuania) sent in 1941 from Vilnius, part of German occupied Ostland to Riga, which was also part of the same territory. It has a nice simple single Hindenburg stamp franking with a postmark of Vilnius C. dated 14 XI 1941. As I've already mentioned in the past in this blog,  regular Reich stamps were also valid along with the Ostland overprinted stamps. It looks like the text is written in Russian and the slightly visible trace of red ink on the upper left corner of the stamp is probably hand stamped censorship mark. It is interesting that Polish postcards with Polish inscriptions are still available for the local market considering the place was under German occupation which often replaced anything printed in the local language by their own productions.

Vilnius 1941

January 1941 Vilnius during Soviet occupation

August 1941 Vilnius during German occupation

Along with the Paberžė cancelled stamps I have posted last time, I have got these Vilnius ones as well so I thought I might as well post them. The top one was cancelled on January 1941, still under Soviet control, and the one on the bottom was cancelled in Vilnius as well on August 1941 when the German occupation has already started there. Definitive stamps can sometime be really interesting to collect!

Paberžė 1941

Here are some stamps with a 1941 Vilnius overprint with a cancel of Paberžė dated July 24 1941 which was already under German occupation. Paberžė is a small town in Vilnius county, with a population of 900 according to the 2011 census,  located just 35km north of Vilnius itself. Mint 1941 Vilnius overprinted stamps are not rare stamps but somehow used examples are more difficult to catch which contradicts their relatively low catalog value. These overprints were supposed to be valid in Vilnius region, but I haven't read or heard any book nor article defining its precise boundary of validity. Well, so far, in Paberžė, it was valid, we know that now lol. I'm almost positive that these Paberžė cancels are CTO because I have seen similar Paberžė canceled  items (with much more higher CV than mines though...) on Ebay and Delcampe with a proper certificate of authenticity (mines are signed Bender on the back by the way).

Kaunas 1941

This super ordinary looking simple postcard is actually a pretty rare stuff. This is a postcard sent in August 31st 1941 from Kauen, Ostland (now Kaunas, Lithuania) to a unreadable location. The card is stampless, no indication of any kind that it is a military field post and no sign nor trace of any stamp being soaked. Actually, this is exactly how it supposed to be. According to "Deutsche Dienstpost 1939-1945 Handbuch und Stempelkatalog" written by Dr. H. Schultz, The post office of Deutsche Dienstpost Ostland in Kaunas opened in 26 July 1941, banned the use of the Lithuanian overprinted Nepriklausoma issue (at least in Kaunas) and established their own postal network. The German Reich stamps were introduced in September 1941 and finally at November 4th 1941, they have issued the overprinted Ostland Hitler stamps. The postcard in question has been used during this very short stampless period between 26 July and 1 September.

Ukmergė 1943

Arrival cancel Freiburg (Breisgau) 1 on the back of the cover

This is a registered cover sent in 1943 from Ukmergė, Ostland to Freiburg i. Br. (im Breisgau), Germany. The German Dienstpost Ostland actually used the name Wilkomir and not Ukmergė but the regular post office kept using the old postmarker of the First Rupublic as you can see on this cover. The sender also puts his address as Ukmergė but the registration label provided by the Dienstpost states Wilkomir. Interesting... You can see that the sender is Lithuanian from his name and therefore, wasn't able to use the postal service of the Dienstpost since it was reserved to the German nationals.

Recent Acquisitions

Since I have accidentally found a full sheet of a 1941 Vilnius overprinted issue couple of months back, I have been putting more attention to the 1941 issues in general. Here are some I have acquired the last few months.

I have been focusing mainly on blocks since I couldn't find any full sheet at a reasonable price. I also found some nice used Nepriklausoma issue, all of them with a C.T.O. of Šiauliai except the grey blue 10 Kopecks which has a Kaunas Centr. postmark on it. Al last, also got an extra copy of the 80 Kopecks Vilnius issue, not in perfect condition and hinged but with a very attractive price of 25 Euros.

Vilnius 1944

The sender's address: Kreis/Powiat Wilno (Vilnius), Ostland

Vilnius C. (Central post office) 8. 4. 1944

Last month I have posted a WWII German POW stationery card used in September 1940 when Vilnius was under Soviet occupation. This card is visually identical but this time Vilnius is under German occupation. It is a detached answer part of a round trip double POW porto free stationery sent on 8 April 1944 from Vilnius, Ostland to Stalag IV A in Hohnstein, Sächsische Schweiz / Saxon Switzerland (not "the" Switzerland, it was part of Germany and still is now), Germany. On July 1944, Vilnius has been recaptured by the Red Army which marks the end of WWII in Vilnius but it was only the matter of one occupation being replaced by another.

Raseiniai 1941

These are 3 Soviet stamps cancelled on the 22nd of June 1941 in Raseiniai. It has been clearly soaked from a paper but I guess these are CTO. CTO is a postmark used on stamps even though it has not been postally used, generally for collector's need. 22 June 1941 is actually the last day of the regular service of Soviet post office in Raseiniai because the following day on 23rd, the Germans arrived and thus began the famous battle of Raseiniai. There are also overprinted local Raseiniai stamps using the exact same CTOs but personally speaking, it does not make any sense to me. Why would you want to cancel a stamp with a postmark of the former occupier, especially when it comes to "liberation" issues. It's kinda weird to me and so far I haven't heard or read any "satisfactory" explanation. So, for this reason, I love those 3 stamps above which make more sense to me!

Raseiniai local issue with a Soviet postmark, authenticated by Dr. Gerhard Krischke

Vilnius 1941

close up of part of the sheet

I don't usually buy a full sheet of 100 definitive stamps but since I saw a 1941 Vilnius overprint full sheet I thought I might want to keep it. Each MNH stamp has a catalog value of 2.50 Euros according to my copy of Michel so that makes it 250 Euros and I paid 34 Euros which is less than 15%, not that bad I guess... The 5 Kopecks Vilnius overprint is not particularly rare but a full sheet is not so common. Part of the border of the sheet is a bit damaged but all stamps are intact and in perfect MNH condition. The stamp is one the 8 stamps issued on July 6 1941 for the Vilnius district right after the Soviet occupation. When I got this sheet, one terrible ambition came into my mind... "Why not collect all the set in full sheet?" No... but, well... I'm still fighting with myself in my mind. I must admit, sometime it's not easy to be a collector.

German stamps in Lithuania

When I write "German Reich stamps in Lithuania", most philatelist probably comes up with Memel related stamps or the occupation issues such as Postgebiet ob Ost. or Ostland. Well, I should say that's the right reaction but that is not all. There were some regular German stamps that have been used in Lithuania under different circumstances. I have mentioned before in this blog that I do collect Soviet stamps but having difficulties because of the criteria of my collection: all non-Lithuania themed stamps must be cancelled in Lithuania. The exact same criteria applies to the regular German Reich stamps as well, which makes again, collecting German stamps very difficult. There are several cases when these stamps were used in Lithuania, I would like list those in chronological order.

1. Pre-Memelgebiet stamp
99% of the regular Reich stamp that has been issued before 1920 could have been used in the Memel region. When I search German stamps in an internet auction, I usually ignore post-1920 Reich stamps up to 1939 to go faster. However, this does not mean that there is absolutely no way to find any postmark of the Memel area on a Reich stamp between 1920 and 1939 (for example, railway postmark Insterburg-Memel used in Tilsit could be on a post-1920 Reich stamp).
Pre-Reich stamps or also called Old German states' stamps were used in Memel region as well but only the stamps of Prussia and the North German Confederation.

Memel postmark of 1886 on a Reich stamp

2. Postgebiet Oberbefehlshaber Ost area

These areas occupied by the Germans during World War I basically used German stamps overprinted "Postgebiet ob. Ost" but in some cases, regular Reich stamps were used mainly by the private postal delivery services. It is very difficult to find. Believe me... 

3. Re-Annexation of Memel region

Nazi Germany re-annexed Memel region on March 1939 and used regular Reich stamps until the Soviet armies took the region in 1945. I would not say "frequently found" but those are relatively easy to find.

4. Ostland

Ostland had its own overprinted stamp but regular Reich stamps were also valid through out the territory. As a result of the mass-production of Ostland stamps, the use of regular Reich stamps were limited. 

Postmark of Schaulen (Šiauliai, Lithuania) on regular Reich stamps

Schaulen postmark used for precancellation or also for parcel

Those were the 4 cases where regular Reich stamps were used in the present territory of Lithuania for postal use. If I'm missing any cases, please feel free to comment on this post. 

Rokiškis 1943

This is a registered mail sent in 1943 from Rokischken (now Rokiškis, Lithuania) to Wien also under German occupation. Michel calls Rokiškis, "Rakischki" but the correct official German name during WWII was Rokischken. I wouldn't say it is "wrong" because there are several sources that mention about the name Rakischki especially during the WWI period, probably coming from the Polish name Rakiszki. It has a nice arrival cancellation of Wien on the back.

Palanga 1943

This is a stampless official use registered cover sent in 1943 from Polangen (now Palanga, Lithuania) to Berlin, Germany. The sender is the Dienstpostzweigamt Polangen, a branch of Dienstpost Ostland post offices which was the postal authority of the region during the German occupation in large part of Lithuania. The term "postlagernd" is the equivalent of Poste-restante.

Kretinga under German Occupation

I have found 2 postmarks of Krottingen (now Kretinga, Lithuania) from 2 different German occupations, WW1 and WW2, so I thought I would post these. As I have mentioned in my posts in the past, the German name of Kretinga is rather confusing. "Russ (Russisch) Krottingen" was for the present town of Kretinga and "Deutsch Krottingen" was the name given for Kretingalė. Both names were also spelled "Crottingen" with a "C" at the beginning. The ones cancelled simply "Krottingen/Crottingen" can be identified according to the stamp, when Memel stamps were used then it means that it was Kretingalė, when it was the Ostland overprint, then it was Kretinga.

I also have some other WW1 and WW2 occupation stamps still umposted in this blog so I would like to take the oppotunity to post them as well. 

 Mariampol 1917 (now Marijampolė, Lithuania)

Schaulen 1942 (now Šiauliai, Lithuania)

Rokiškis 1941

A set of 7 stamps were issued on the 30th of June 1941 in Rokiškis. They were hand overprinted on Soviet stamps with 2 kinds of colors, black and red, with the inscription "Laisvas 1941 - VI - 27 Rokiškis". The Germans entered Rokiškis on 28 June, the Lithuanian fully regained the town the previous day from the retreating Soviet army. Later, the German postal authority rename the town Rokischken.

The variety of overprints are pretty complicated, Michel lists the basic 3 (I, II and III) with each having varieties of at least 5 types. I'm trying to collect all of them but... it wasn't as easy as I thought. I'm still trying though...

Vilnius 1943

This is a registered cover sent in 1943 from Wilna (now Vilnius, Lithuania) to Berlin during the WW2 German occupation period. The nice thing about this cover is that it uses all 18 stamps of the first Ostland overprint set issued in 4 November 1941.

Pumpėnai 1943

This is a cover from Pumpėnai sent in 1943 to Vilnius. Pumpėnai is a town in Panevėžio apskritis/Panevėžys county with population of approximately 1000. The town is known to lose half of its population during the 1940 Soviet occupation from deportation.