Which part of SiPo/Gestapo/SD/etal was screening incoming mail?

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winterlight
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Joined: 09 Feb 2015, 03:37
Location: Massachusetts

Which part of SiPo/Gestapo/SD/etal was screening incoming mail?

#1

Post by winterlight » 12 Feb 2015, 01:50

I know that mail coming into the States was being screened at a facility in Bermuda during the war (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairmont_H ... _World_War) - I'm assuming that the Germans must have also been doing this. Does anyone know at what level this occurred (national/regional/city/village) and what security agency was responsible for this? Alternatively, is it possible NO ONE was doing this on the German side (which seems highly unlikely)?

CRAIG CARR
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Re: Which part of SiPo/Gestapo/SD/etal was screening incoming mail?

#2

Post by CRAIG CARR » 15 Mar 2015, 21:09

Dear Winterlight, I cannot give you any info on the agency that over saw incoming mail to Germany.. other than my relatives were all aware that under the Ermachtigungsgesetz Law of March 24,1933...the German public learned in the newspaper that the Weimar democratic constitution had been dissolved at midnight and the new law that went into effect at 12:01 stated that ALL incoming mail, and ALL telephone calls were subject to being monitored. It was covered by Section 153 and lasted from 1933 to 1945. Sec.124 - stated that " the Right to Privacy of postal, telephonic, and telegraphic communication was suspended.
All phone lines were to be monitored under Section114: " the Right to personal expression of opinion including freedom of the press" was rescinded.As highschool boys were drafted out of their classrooms, a list of things was discussed that must NOT be discussed in the Weinachten karts Hitler provided the troops to send home to their families from the various fronts. My uncle Gerhardt said to do so would place the recipient family in jeopardy. When he was drafted in November 1944, he said the highschool boys on the Russian front outsmarted the unit censor, by deliberately misspelling words so their parents could note the misspelled letters and get a single sentence personal message from their sons, fathers, and brothers.He said parents thought their sons had suddenly become dumkopfs until they started calling out the missing letters and someone realized the letters formed a word or two or three. Smart boys I think! : ) as the unit censors never caught on. As a civilian, if you were found to have a foreign periodical in your possession.. the penalty started out in Berlin as an arrestable offense, and quickly escalated to public hangings from street lamps. In America, they said " loose lips sink ships!", in England," the Queen Mum urged BBC listeners to " don't share a biscuit!", but in Germany, a single word plastered on posters on buildings made the same point with a simple:"Psst!" - as in Shut Up! My mother said it became very clear that one had to be VERY careful about what one said as you never knew WHO might overhear you.. or read what you wrote that could get you and your family into great trouble. A " joke" about any official or complaint about Dritte Reich conditions carried a lethal consequence by Fall of 1944. Maybe this will give you some idea of how terrifying daily life was for the average German civilian.She said that each day was a dare to survive and other family members regarded the mandatory greeting of "Sieg Heil" as Sieg Hell!.. as a 12 year nightmare without seeming end, TG! it did!.




t their cons had become suddnely dumkops.


winterlight
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Location: Massachusetts

Re: Which part of SiPo/Gestapo/SD/etal was screening incoming mail?

#3

Post by winterlight » 15 Mar 2015, 21:31

thanks for your reply. There is nothing like eyewitness testimony to give one a real feeling for how frightening that reality must have been. Let's hope such conditions do not arise again, anywhere. How old were you back then, if I may ask?

CRAIG CARR
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Re: Which part of SiPo/Gestapo/SD/etal was screening incoming mail?

#4

Post by CRAIG CARR » 15 Mar 2015, 23:46

WIe gehts Winterlight ! I wasn't even born then.. not even a twinkle in anyone's eye of maybe an after thought? as I am a post war late baby boomer.. .. I came along as an unexpected late surprise. MY Mother was born in Berlin and grew up at Großbeerenstrsee 39 in the Kreuzberg Park area.I am the posting, a few topics down on the page called," Meiner Mutti's Geburstagalbum"... I collected most of the surviving family fotos and memorabilia of our now deceased family members and made a birthday album as a present for my Mom's 85th birthday, and captioned each page with their oral histories that some record of their existence will remain... as ALL their lives mattered to me.MY mother went from performing in the 1936 Olympics opening ceremony, to surviving on gov't rations of bread made with wallpaper paste and sawdust, to stepping over dead bodies to go to school, having to be a first responder with other kids from age 10 to 17 yrs, (Hitler ordered that no fire trucks or ambulances or doctors were allowed go to treat the wounded from air raids), school gymnasiums were turned into ongoing daily morgues. The kids had to to throw phosphorous glass bomblets off of their roofs nightly, and in the course of pitching them off of her family. apartment building roof and had one explode in her face costing her sight for 6 months and speech one year. She recuperated and in January of 1945,was drafted with 1000 girls and shipped to Konigsgrätz Czechoslovakia to the Luftwaffe air base and Signal Korps school at Kampfgeschwader 4.. Four month later ..in April of 1945.. she was sentenced to death by hanging. because she and four other girls were left behind at a train station as no one took a roll call from a "potty break" before boarding transport to Lübeck Germany.. All of which can be seen in the birthday album I made and is displayed a few topics down from your post. I firmly believe that we who are the kids and grandkids of those who barely survived the war need to speak up and share their experiences of life under a ruthless dictator, that others may learn from the misery they and millions of other German civilians endured daily. ........ if we do not learn from the past.. we are all doomed to be victimized in our futures.
I was reduced to tears more than once having to write out their captions. AHF has some wonderful people as viewers.. some of which have surprised me by having pieces of my Mother's life. The latest surprise was a man who had original Allied translated copies of seized Heer's Gruppe Military orders that contained the order that went into law overnight and was used against my mother and use to execute 32K plus German boys in the last 10 weeks of WW2 by General Blaskowitz. ODDLY, the order was written and put into effect on March 5th, 1945... and I received a scan of it on March 5th, 2015. I call that "cosmic" to take 70 years to the day to end up in my hands. I am still searching for the original Hakenkreuz German copy as I want to add both to the album after the 1945 section that shows the two generals and orders listed in red lettering as "death sentence". My mother is a remarkable survivor having just turned 90, and I feel it is the least i can do for her to chronicle what she and so many others endured that is always regarded as "the other story of WW2"..ignored and swept
under the carpet.My late Grandfather always said that "Memories not shared. are History lost forever".. and I am trying my best not to let that happen. If you are curious about civilian life.. you may find my mother's birthday present of interest.just scroll down to Meiner Mutti's Geburstagalbum. have a great day. CRAIG



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GregSingh
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Re: Which part of SiPo/Gestapo/SD/etal was screening incoming mail?

#5

Post by GregSingh » 16 Mar 2015, 00:23

and what security agency was responsible for this
From 1940 to 1944 Abwehr (under OKW), from mid-1944 RSHA.

Look here: GERMAN POSTAL CENSORSHIP IN WORLD WAR II

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