Postal communication in the General Government

Non-Germans, which included ethnic Poles and anyone else considered to be not racially German by the Nazis, saw no restrictions to their postal communications until 1942,[2] at which time several restrictions were introduced. General Governor Hans Frank issued the following restrictions regarding written communications: non-Germans were limited to a maximum of two letters per month, each letter was limited to a maximum of two pages in length (this restriction was not applied to postcards), and communication were only permitted with friendly countries, though in some cases communication with the outside world was available via neutral countries.[3] In addition to these restrictions, an additional regulation was introduced requiring the full name and address of the sender to appear on all pages of the letter to assist with Nazi censorship efforts.[4]

DPO was a German postal service in part of German occupied Poland known as Generalgouvernement. The Post took over assets of Poczta Polska, Telegraf i Telefon in 1939.[5] The Post employed Germans, Volksdeutsche and Poles. The post used at the beginning both Polish and German stamps with Deutsche Post Osten and Generalgouvernement overprints, later its own stamps. Its president was Richard Lauxmann.[6]

The Deutsche Post Osten serviced ghettos in GG till 1941. Later Judenrats took over the service.[7]

The DPO has published Official Phone Book for General Government.[8]

In the ghettos established by Nazi occupying forces after the invasion of Poland, the duty of setting up a ghetto post office and mail service often fell to the local Judenrat. The administration of the ghettos varied from ghetto to ghetto across the General Government, and so did the availability of mail service within them. While most ghettos did have some postal service, some did not for unknown reasons.[9]

In many ghettos the transfer from a local mail service to one provided by the Judenrat was not immediate. As many cities occupied by the Nazis began to refuse to provide mail service to Jews, the transfer to a systematic process within the ghetto was a gradual process. The post offices established in the ghettos also provided a source of employment for the Jews living within. In Łódź (annected to Reich) the post office employed 139 Jews by December 1940, and in the Warsaw ghetto the two post offices established employed 94 Jews by January 1941.[10]

In the Warsaw ghetto, an agreement regarding the exchange of mail leaving and entering the ghetto was reached and was then applied to all ghettos within the General Government.[11] Adam Czerniakow, the head of the Warsaw Judenrat, and the director of Post Office No. C-I, agreed that the Judenrat would handle all mail within the ghetto (coming in to and leaving) and that the Germans would establish a special post office (Postaustauschstelle) for use in exchanging letters and parcels further on.[12]

The post offices in the ghettos also provided a source of income for the local Judenrat, as these councils were also responsible for other public services within the ghetto. This however was often a point of conflict in the ghettos, as the cost of postage often saw a surcharge raising its price to near double the rate outside the ghettos.

The ghettos, and along with them the mail service within, were often subject to the whims of the German occupiers. As German resettlement and deportation plans intensified following the invasion of the Soviet Union, so too did disruptions and in some places suspensions of the mail service.[13][14] Stoppages in post also corresponded with intensification of Nazi ideology. For example, in Krakow, the exchange of parcels to and from Jews was suspended for sanitation reasons.[13]

Postal communication, while subject to many regulations, was allowed to inmates in the concentration camps. The regulations placed upon those living in the concentration camps were outlined by Theodor Eicke during his time as the commandant of the Dachau concentration camp.[15] Prisoners were only able to write letters on pre-provided postcards within the camps and were forbidden from writing outside the lines of the postcard. Additionally, inmates had to provide their full name, date of birth, and location within the camp in the address. Beyond their given names, inmates were required to identify themselves as Jewish by adding Israel to their name for males, and Sara for females. In addition to these explicit regulations, prisoners were also often obliged to include the line “I am in good health and everything is fine here” in their postcards.[16] For both the senders and responders to these letters, the only acceptable written language was German. After sending, any letters would be subject to strict censorship by both the camp post office,[15] and the High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW).[17]

Printed on all pre-provided postcards were additional rules regarding the frequency with which letters could be exchanged, as well as what was allowed to be sent along with the letter.[18] These additional rules and regulations are known as Eicke's Regulation and applied to prisoners in all concentration camps. While these regulations would have been intended for use across all camps, their application and enforcement was up to the local SS officials, and as a result were not always implemented uniformly.