Civil Censorship Study Group

Mew member Frank Hall reported a cover from Germany to the US unremarkable in all its features except that it was enclosed in a cellophane "envelope" (apparently constructed by the censor) with the censor label tied by the censor handstamp on the cellophane rather than on the cover itself. This is something that I assured him should not exist:

German censors did not put covers in enclosures. It would have served no function,slowed the censor down, increased mail bulk and weight. They examined the contents of covers by slitting open the cover, resealing it with a censor label, usually tied by a handstamp, and usually with additional small handstamps and/or manuscript notations (as in lower left corner of this cover) for identification purposes -- and got it on its way as soon as possible. They were working against the clock and an unending flow of mail to be examined.

But Frank kindly sent me the cover and I verified these facts: the subject involves a cellophane enclosure that was placed around a cover sent from Leipzig 4.9.40 to the US. The EV3.1 censor label is affixed to the thin cellophane outer enclosure, and the violet EP2.1 handstamp ties that label to the cellophane enclosure. The EK1.1 handstamps and the manuscript notation at the bottom left corner of face of the cover are the only censor devices placed directly on to the paper cover itself.

I have seen only one other censored cover sent in an "ambulance cover" and that involved one mailed in Trinidad by a Norwegian sailor with a US return address, attempting to write to Norway. The cover was sent by the Trinidad censor to the USPO which sent it on to the return address in an official business postage due envelope.

This German cover is quite different. I note a couple of tears in the back of the cover, which might be why the censor felt a need to enclose it in the cellophane ad hoc cover. I have seen the same sort of glassine paper tape that was used here to seal the ends of this outer cover used to repair a defect in another German cover. It may be that our artistic censor was later told not to waste his time making envelopes when the same tape could be used directly to repair tears.

I have reported this cover to Horst Landsmann (in whose book I found no mention of this practice) and am waiting to hear back from him. Meanwhile, can anyone else report examples of this practice, in Germany or elsewhere?

When I saw this I could just remember one similar cover in my collection.
As you can see from the illustration, the envelope has been placed inside another cellophane envelope.


In my case, the outer envelope reads in Norwegian approximately translation "Submitted letter has arrived / with a damaged cover". It is an offical postal cellophane envelope used by the Norwegian postal authority (logo and text upper left corner) on damaged mail.
The interesting part is that it is underfranked by 10 øre, and added at the railway wagon to Sweden. Postage to Germany was the same as domestic postage from 1st September 1942 to 14th June 1945, but not for the registered fee. So correct postage was 20 øre (letter domestic (to Germany)) + 30 øre (registered fee abroad), but it was franked with 20 øre (letter domestic (to Germany)) + 20 øre (registered fee domestic).
The letter was censored in Hamburg attached to the outer envelope (cellophane).
So, this might be the reason for the cellophane envelope reported by Frank Hall, the letter was damaged before it arrived at the censor station?