Description
Germany 1945 "Überroller" mail: 9-3-1945 business stationary cover from medical business HAMBURG to city hospital DORTMUND, franked 10pf per period rate using Hitler definitive stamp & tied by machine cancel; appears to have passed a domestic German censor (mute circular cachet on front) but further transmission ceased & processing of the mail resumed with the American occupation of parts of Germany making this "Uberroller mail" - "overtaken" mail (postal matter accepted by the Nazi/Third Reich German or German occupied postal authorities and delivered by the Allied Occupation Forces after the German surrender): cover opened & resealed by US military censor & tied by 10219 censor on front; slit open at top. As with other covers of this type the applied Hitler stamps remained un-obliterated. As the cover was processed by the American army, it had already left Hamburg (which was captured by the British and subsequently part of the British Zone, on 3 May) - however Dortmund also became part of the British Zone, so this cover was probably processed in the brief time of the locale's/region's (present day North Rhine-Westphalia) control by the US military. The early postage date 2 months before the end of the war indicates the degree to which the Germany postal system had collapsed, even for the processing of domestic mail: Allied bombing raids 3 days later (12 March) destroyed 98% of the buildings in Dortmund's inner city center and the city was captured by the US army a month later. Rare type of mail.