 |
Sale 320
U.S. and Worldwide Stamps and Postal History
| Lot |
Photo |
Description |
Lot 1060 |
 |
Plot of the Generals, Senior military officers conspired to have Hitler assassinated on 20 July 1944 at a staff meeting. A briefcase at Hitler's feet exploded and four officers were killed, but Hitler escaped with flash burns and cracked eardrums. The conspirators were quickly identified and executed.
Signed Photo of Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben, highest ranking conspirator, was to command the Wehrmacht after Hitler's death. He was arrested and executed and British propaganda parody of the 1943 German stamp marking the 20th anniversary of the Munich Uprising, having the original stamp's storm trooper replaced with a picture of Witzleben and the anniversary dates replaced with the inscription "Hanged on 8 Aug 1944"; also Typed Letter Signed by General Heinz Guderian, who knew of the plot but resisted taking part. When the plot failed, Guderian denounced the participants and then got himself appointed to the military court that expelled them from the military and left them at the mercy of the civilian People's Court and infamous "hanging judge" Dr. Roland Freisler, represented by a 1937 cover bearing a Nazi Party postal meter, addressed to him. Freisler, from 1942 to 1945, as president of the People's Court, proved brutal and unmerciful, with most trials resulting in the death sentence. He was particularly vindictive at the trial of the leaders of the plot to kill Hitler, heaping verbal abuse on Witzleben and others in the dock before sentencing all to the gallows.
Estimate 500 - 750
View details and enlarged photo
|
Lot 1061 |
 |
Gerd von Rundstedt (1875-1953), German Field Marshal who did well in Poland in World War I, replaced Witzleben as Chief of the Western Armies after Witzleben was implicated in the Plot of the Generals; temporarily removed by Hitler in 1944 after failing to stop the Normandy invasion, but was reinstated after presiding over the Army Court of Honor that expelled suspected conspirators in the Plot.
Two Autograph Letters Signed, one from each war: 22 Mar 1916 from Warsaw on a feldpost lettercard; 26 Sep 1942 on feldpost card, both to his wife in Kassel.
Estimate 400 - 500
View details and enlarged photo
|
Lot 1062 |
 |
Hitler in Berlin, Letter Signed, Christmas 1944, 7½ x 4¾ gold-embossed personal card,
"It is a special joy to me, as in past years, to send you a little Christmas present, the accompanying package of surplus at my disposal. With warmest wishes for Christmas and the New Year. Yours, Adolf Hitler"
Mild bend and light foxing, Fine; also includes a 1936 picture postcard showing Berlin decorated for Christmas.
Estimate 4,000 - 6,000
Hitler's greeting gives no hint of the sense of doom that must have hung over Berlin on this final Christmas before the end of the war, as allied troops advanced on the city from the west and those of Russia from the east.
View details and enlarged photo
|
Lot 1063 |
 |
World War II Mail, Nine pages consisting of "Morale Boosters", a printed thank-you card from an RAF sergeant the students of an English girl's school, thanking them for a carton of cigarettes and a German feldpost card featuring the lyrics to the popular song "Lili Marleen"; "Sad News" covers informing families that their loved ones (both German and American) had been either taken prisoner or missing in action; letters home from two American POWs in Germany; a 1945 V-Mail Valentine in its full size before being reduced for mailing, from an American G.I. with his own cartoon drawing of himself marching toward Berlin and his handwritten verse, "I'd give a cool million, to be a civilian, and treat you to flowers and wine. But on the trail of the Heinie, my chances are tiny - here's a V-Mail Valentine", and three pages of covers illustrating the worldwide "postal chaos" caused by the war.
Estimate 500 - 750
View details and enlarged photo
|
|
|
