Ghetto Stamps

1. 3 stamps from Lodz Ghetto that were used for sending post from the ghetto. The portrait of Mordechai Chaim Romkovsky, the Jewish Elder, appears on the stamps.
Chaim Mordechai Romkovsky was head of Judenrat in the ghetto. He founded many factories in the ghetto and made it most productive, believing that if the Jews constituted a productive working force, their extermination will be delayed.
Condition: Very good.
2. 4 stamps from Theresienstadt Ghetto. The stamps depict rural scenery. These stamps were not used for sending post but were part of the German attempt to present the life in the ghetto as normative and pleasant.
Theresienstadt was a “model” ghetto used by the Germans to deceive the Red Cross. Banknotes, which nothing could be done with, were issued by a fictive bank, which no one ever entered. However, under the circumstances, slightly improved conditions prevailed in the ghetto. An internal Jewish committee operated there and Jewish cultural activities were held. Many of Germany’s Jews were transferred to the ghetto, and many died of diseases. Eventually the prisoners were transported, group after group, to Auschwitz.
Condition: Very good.