Postmarks (3)

In this last post on postmarks I'll show you the remaining nine promoting a wide variety of things. The first three are pre-WW2, the others are all from 1944. In 1944 my country (The Netherlands) was clearly not in good shape anymore. The occupation by the Germans was in its fourth year and the texts reflect certain "problem areas". But first three earlier ones.

July 28, 1932: Nationaal Padvinderskamp Landgoed Oosterbeek
Wassenaar 2-12 augustus 1932

This 1932 postmark refers to a national pathfinders camp in Wassenaar, a city near The Hague.

January 19, 1933: Steun het Nationaal Crisiscomite

"Support the National Crisis Committee" tried to interest the population in aiding primarily tradespeople but also the unemployed and people forced to work in certain projects set up by municipalities.  The Committee existed from 1931 - 1936 and never was a great success. During those years a total 7.5 million guilders was distributed to those in need. And like in other countries, also here the unemployment rates were high, very high. So the financial aid per person was limited.

June 12, 1934: Adresseer volledig

People were encouraged to provide a full address. I wrote about the background of this recommendation earlier.

January 26, 1944: Help onze industrie aan grondstoffen Lever afval in

"Help our industry to obtain raw materials, hand in your waste."  It is unlikely that the collected materials would go to industries benefiting the population. My guess is that most of it went straight to Germany to keep the war industry going. With imports of all commodities coming to a standstill, Germany had to depend on its own resources and on those of the occupied territories. One of the consequences of material shortages was that a large percentage of all church bells and radio's were confiscated as well.

January 28, 1944: Bewaar oud papier Uit oud wordt nieuw

"Save waste paper New is made from old" If you were of the opinion that recycling of paper is a fairly recent thing, you are wrong. Like many things, it has been tried before.

February 3, 1944: Afvalstoffen bewaren Brandstoffen sparen

The idea behind "Save waste, Save fuel" was probably that waste could serve as fuel for industrial purposes. It would then replace existing fuels such as coal. In this way coal could serve as fuel for vital (read: war) industries.

March 18, 1944: Laat voor den Post langs den gehelen bovenkant 4 cm vrij

Apparently it was a wide spread custom to write the address across the whole face of an envelope. Hence the request to "Allow the Mail to use 4 cms along the top". In this manner both the address and the stamp would remain legible. 

September 21, 1944: Frontzorg is eereplicht Stort op giro 106156

A soldier with a German helmet symbolizes Dutch men who collaborated with the Germans by doing military duties, also abroad. The stamp calls for (financial) support of these men: "Front care is a duty of honor, Transfer money to account 106156". I have been unable to find out how much money was collected for this purpose but I cannot imagine the amount was of any significance.  

October 10, 1944: Zand en water zijn bij brandbominslag de beste bluschmiddelen

"Upon impact of a fire bomb, sand and water are the best extinguishers". Although it is not mentioned here, the implication of this message was that these bombs were used against civilians by the RAF and US Air Force, often en route to Germany. This stamp must therefore be regarded as a subtle hint as to who was the real enemy!  

All stamps shown in this series come from envelopes addressed to my father and mother before and during WW2. The January and February 1944 letters are congratulatory letters written on the happy occasion of my birth. All envelopes are still undamaged and so are the letters. I'll write about those another time.

Postmarks (2)

In the previous post about Dutch postmarks I showed you a number of these government or Post Office sponsored messages. Usually the idea behind them is to draw attention to a certain subject or to trigger some reaction. In Dutch these stamps are called 'flag stamps' (vlagstempels).

September 7, 1939: Adresseer volledig

The text on this first stamp intends to stimulate writers to mention the full address on their correspondence. This sounds silly but it wasn't. When people wrote a letter to someone in the same city or village, many were accustomed to write a persons' name and street but in stead of mentioning the city name, they said ' City'  or 'Local'. That may seem rather odd but in those days it was not unusual that your social circle did not extend beyond the borders of the place where you lived. And when such a letter erroneously ended up in the wrong mail bag...

September 23, 1939: Goedkoope brief-telegrammen

This one intended to promote the use of discounted letter-telegrams. Apparently this was a Post Office product different from the normal telegram, possibly an extended and/or cheaper version thereof.

October 21, 1939: Postzegels-rechts boven in den hoek Vlugger verzending

The cancellation stamp says: "Stamps in the upper right hand corner! Faster shipping". The idea behind this text was explained in the previous post. The difference with this one is the lay out of the message.

October 25, 1939: Post Uw brieven zoodra ze gereed zijn!

'Mail your letters as soon as they are ready!'  I wonder why people needed to be encouraged to do so. Who would benefit by not yet mailing them? Certainly not the addressee!

August 29, 1941 Elke bosch- of heidebrand is verlies voor stad en land

In an effort to raise the awareness that the use of open fire outside can be dangerous, this stamp says that 'any forest or heath fire is a loss for town and country'. I am not aware of any particular reason why this stamp was issued. Possibly it was caused by heat waves in June and July 1941. Temperatures over 33º Centigrade (91º Fahrenheit) were no exception.

February 12, 1942: Ook straatnaam en huisnummer in het adres Adresseer volledig

Apparently it was still necessary to ask senders to mention 'Also street name and number in the address Address in full'. Addressing a letter to John Doe, Rotterdam obviously creates unnecessary extra work for the Post Office people. 

November 13, 1942: WHN Loterij 1942 Uw kans 1 op 3

The letters WHN in this 'WHN lottery 1942 Your chance 1 in 3'-stamp require some explanation. WHN stands for 'Winterhulp Nederland' a nazi-organisation aiming at helping the poor and the needy among the Dutch population during WW2. The idea was that this structure would replace all government, church and other aid programs. 
According to the nazi doctrine poverty did not exist except maybe during wintertime. Hence the name 'Winterhelp'. 
WHN obtained its revenue from money collections, organizing lotteries and a kind of profit tax imposed on businesses (5%). Also employees had to pay a tax of 1% levied on wages. Obviously WHN was not very popular the lotteries excepted. Apparently the population liked to gamble now and then even when the proceeds benefit an organization such as WHN. 
Initially also needy Jews were eligible to be helped. But that support ended soon...
In case you wonder why a pig is portrayed in the stamp, the following may serve. I found this explanation here (it is in Dutch). The English word 'swine' comes very close to its German equivalent 'Schwein'. 'Schweinen' in German means 'to be lucky'.  Hence the use of a swine in conjunction with a lottery.

All these stamps come from cards and letters my Mother gave me some time ago. They all go back to the 30s and 40s of the previous century.  I still have some nine stamps left and I'll share those in the next (and last) post on this subject. The original envelopes with these stamps are still intact. There is so much to be learned from an envelope!

To be continued

Postmarks (1)

Some time ago I told you about the treasure chest my Mother gave me. It was full of letters and picture postcards of my Mother's pre war movie star collection. All letters etc. have been mailed during the 30s and 40s of last century. Making an inventory list is now well underway and, as far as the number of  documents is concerned, I am now close to the 400 mark! The total will probably be somewhere near the 450 pieces. And then starts the task of reading them all. And remember, people did not yet use typewriters for their private correspondence. So there is a lot of deciphering to do!
While making this inventory I noticed a variety of postmarks. I don't mean the ordinary ones but those with a message. Usually these messages served a government or post office sponsored purpose. In Dutch these postmarks are called flag marks (vlagstempels). Many of these marks are indicative for the era they have been used in. For that reason I think it may be interesting to show a number of them.

July 28, 1933: Gebruikt bij voorkeur Nederlandsch fabrikaat

 "Preferably use Dutch manufacture" was the phrase to stimulate people to buy Dutch made materials. In the thirties economic growth was minimal. There was a high rate of unemployment and obviously the government was interested to keep as many people employed as possible. So rather than spending money on imported goods, the government promoted "domestic consumption". Today the EC would call this protectionism...

July 29, 1933: zij Nederland Uw Vacantieland

"Let The Netherlands be your holiday country" is another government effort to convince people to spend their money domestically rather than abroad.

April 3, 1934: Tuberculosebestrijding Emmabloemcollecte in April

"Combat tuberculosis Emma flower collection in April" was one of the slogans used to stimulate the population to donate money to the Emma foundation, a charity organization. Emma (1858-1934) was the Queen Mother of Queen Wilhelmina of The Netherlands. To give you an impression of the amount collected, in 1939 the proceeds amounted to 131.670 Dutch guilders.  That's over  € 1,1 million today. Considering this amount you have to take into account that economic circumstances were poor and the number of inhabitants  was some 8,000,000 people less than today (= 16,700,000). An average laborer earned approx 20 guilders/week.

July 26, 1935: Cultureele en sociale zorg Koopt zomerzegels

 "Cultural and social care Buy summer stamps" is a motto to remind people to buy these stamps. Traditionally the the proceeds benefited the less fortunate.

August 30, 1939: Postzegels rechts-boven in den hoek! Vlugger verzending

"Stamps in the upper right hand corner! Faster shipping", a slogan meant to benefit the Post Office, I think. I am assuming they already used some kind of a stamping machine to cancel stamps. With the stamp elsewhere on the envelope, the stamp would remain valid...
This very envelope was used by my Dad on the first day of mobilization in The Netherlands. And since soldiers did not need to use stamps, he wrote the word "military" instead. But the Post Office people obviously did not know about this facility and charged my mother with  10 cents additional surcharge... 

September 4, 1939: Verzend per luchtpost

"Send by airmail" was used to promote the more expensive mail services offered by airlines, in particular KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.  Especially flights to the former Dutch Indies and to the Dutch Antilles depended very much on mail revenues. And, compared to surface transportation taking weeks, it was a much better service.

To be continued