On 15 November 1939, Hans Frank established the German East Post (Deutsche Post Osten) in the General Governorate for the occupied Polish Region, with its headquarters in Krakow. It was to serve the German population and institutions as well as the Polish ones, although to to a very limited extent. The post was expanded by a new postal ordinance operating from spring 1940 until the end of the occupation. Strict censorship of correspondence with prisoners of war, camp inmates and displaced persons was introduced. Telephone subscriber lists were subject to Gestapo control. In 1943, there were 1961 post offices in the GG, including 140 first and second class post offices, about 400 post office branches, and a number of agencies in smaller towns, without the right to apply postmarks on mail. The author discusses the stamps used by the German postal service, delivery stamps with agencies’ marks, commemorative and propaganda postmarks used on such occasions as Hitler’s birthday, the anniversary of the founding of the NSDAP and others, stamps used for correspondence in the GG, the series of German stamps issued in Poland, and the use of the propaganda "V" on posted items. The author has donated to the State Archive in Zamość a collection of letters, postcards, envelopes, postage stamps with imprints of stamps and seals of the German East Post from the Zamość region, as well as correspondence from other areas of the GG and Europe addressed to Zamość. Selected items from the collection serve as illustrations to the article.
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