Lauksargiai 1941

This is a German semi-postal stationery sent in 1941 from Laugszargen (now Lauksargiai, Lithuania) to Göttingen, Germany. It has a nice commemorative cancel of "Rückführung der Volksdeutschen aus Litauen" which can be translated as the repatriation of ethnic Germans from Lithuania. Laugszargen was a town in former Memelgebiet with a railway station bordering Lithuania. When it was re-annexed by the Third Reich in 1939, it served has repatriation gate to Germany for the ethnic Germans living in Lithuania.

Vilnius 1959

This is another Soviet maximum card commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Komsomol. Komsomol, according to Wikipedia, was the youth division of the Soviet Communist Party. It is actually an abbreviation of Коммунисти́ческий сою́з молодёжи (Kom-munisticheskii So-yuz Mol-odyozhi). The postmark is a regular Vilnius cancel of 1959, so it means that it wasn't the 40th but 41st anniversary when this card was made since the stamp was issued on 1958. I very much like this card, it visually has "the typical" look of a communist propaganda poster of the 1950's.

Klaipėda 1943

Faßt Kohlenklau! (Catch the coal thief!)
That's how the IIIrd Reich coal thief looks like

Sender stays at the Hotel Viktoria in Memel

This is a postal stationery sent in 1943 from Memel (now Klaipėda, Lithuania) to Straßburg (now Strasbourg, France) which was re-annexed by the Third Reich at the time just like Memel was. It has a comical looking anti-coal thief "Faßt Kohlenklau!" campaign logo on the left bottom corner. I guess there were many thieves targeting coal supply during WWII in Germany, otherwise they wouldn't have such campaign, would they?
The sender stayed at the Viktoria Hotel which was a wonderful Jugendstil architecture now unfortunately destroyed. It was named "Victoria Viešbutis/Hotel" during the Lithuanian time but after the Nazi re-annexation, they've changed the spelling to "Viktoria". This hotel at the address Polangenstraße Nr. 5 was originally called "Lipper's Hotel" when it opened back in 1858.

Victoria Hotel during the Lithuanian period (picture from wiki-de.genealogy.net, not mine)

Hotel card of the pre-Lithuanian period (also from wiki-de.genealogy.net)

Vilnius 1937

This is a maximum card of Józef Piłsudski, the Chief of State of the Polish Second Republic, cancelled in Wilno (Vilnius, Lithuania) in 1937 with a commemorative postmark of the exhibition of the 10th anniversary of Radio Wilno, known as "Radio dla miasta i wsi" (Radio for cities and villages) at that time. It was the first permanent radio station in Vilnius. The following year in 1938, the Polish Radio released a publication about the contents of the exhibition which, thanks to the Polish National Digital Library, we are able to see. Here is the link.

Tabariškės 1969

This is a Soviet propaganda postal stationery sent in 1969 from Табаришкес Эйшишк/Tabariškės Eišišk to Vilnius.  It is very unusual that a Lithuanian place name ends by a "-sk" unlike Russian place names. Tabariškės is a village in Šalčininkų rajono savivaldybė/Šalčininkai district municipality which the Poles consists more than 80% of the population. There are 2 more "Tabariškės" in Lithuania, one in Kaunas district, and one in Marijampolė district which probably is the reason why the one in Šalčininkai district was called "Tabariškės Eišišk" until the restoration of independence of Lithuania. "Eišišk" comes from Eišiškės which is also a town in Šalčininkai district. Tabariškės is known by its Polish name Taboryszki in historical resources.

Vilnius 1924

This is a postally unused postcard of the propaganda against the Polish occupation of Vilnius. The illustration depicts a personified Lithuania chained in Vilnius near the Gediminas tower with heart taken away by an eagle. Printed in 1924.

Klaipėda 1939

These stamps are the local liberation issue for the Memel (now Klaipėda, Lithuania) district, overprinted on lithuanian stamps. It has been issued in march 22nd 1939, the day of the reannexation by the Third Reich.

Vilnius 1959

It is a first day cover of the opening day of Felix Dzerzhinsky museum in Vilnius on the 11th of september 1959. Felix Dzerzhinsky/Feliks Dzierżyński (in lithuanian: Feliksas Dzeržinskis) is known to be the notorius founder of the Bolshevik secret police which later will be known as KGB. The museum was open in his Vilnius house you see on the cover.


The stamp used on the cover, is ones the Soviet republic capital series issued in 1958. It depicts the view of Vilnius from the Gediminas hill.

Švepeliai (Klaipėda) 1970

Here is a commemorative cover of the centennial of the birth of Lenin, sent from Klaipėda post office #11(11-asis paštas) located in Švepeliai, now part of Klaipėda municipality. Švepeliai was called Schweppelen in german and used to be one of the villages surrounding Memel. Unfortunately, Soviet cancellations do not contain the name of the municipal district, in this case, it just states the name of the post office Клайпеда 11/Klaipėda 11. The cover design is surprisingly nice, containing the image of the town of Ulyanovsk (now Simbirsk, Russia), the native town of Lenin near the Volga river.

Vilnius 1961

A propaganda maximum card cancelled in Vilnius in 1961. "Šlovė Didžiajam Spaliui" on the card means: Glory of the great october.

Klaipėda 1939

A propaganda value imprinted postcard with a previously posted commemorative cancellation of the 50th birthday of A.Hitler in 1939, cancelled in Memel, today's Klaipėda, Lithuania.

Vilnius 1915

A propaganda postcard posted in 1915 from an unknown feldpost station. The card shows the capitulation of Wilna (now Vilnius, Lithuania) by the germans in september 1915 but the date states as august 1915 unlike the actual fact.

Vilnius 1960

It is a commemorative cover of the 20th anniversary of Lietuvos Tarybų Socialistinė Respublika/Литовская Советская Социалистическая Республика (Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic) with the on-topic stamp. There's a price on the back and it costs suprisingly 10 kopecks! Although it's a propaganda cover, i personally like the art work. On the lower right corner of the illustration, there seems to be a signature of the artist but it's unfortunately unreadable..

Šilutė 1939

It's a (surprisingly) postally used propaganda postcard from Heydekrug, now Šilutė. It has been used locally within Heydekrug, overfranked. There are still the official lithuanian cancellations with the name "Šilutė" and the provisional "Heydekrug" cancellation along with the propaganda "Das Memelland ist Frei" (The Memel is free).

Klaipėda 1939, 1940

Today i'm posting 3 postally unused postcards with Memel commemorative cancellations. They are not necessarily cancelled in Memel, some of those cancellations were available for philatelists in Berlin and other selected places.
The first 2 were acquired on Ebay Germany in 2003 and the last one in Kaunas in 2005.