Envelope

Envelope front — airmail letter

1941from [Germany]between Julius Oppenheimer, Elsa Oppenheimer, Mina Weiler, Irma Fuldauer, Josef Oppenheimer2 pages

Original — Deutsch

[Anschrift]
Fr.[?] Mina Kaufmann
622 West 141 Str. Apt 3 D
c/o Heller
New York City
U. S. A.

[Absendervermerke auf der Vorderseite]
Via Lissabon nach Nordamerika
(darunter zwei waagerechte Zierstriche)

[Aufkleber, gedruckt]
MIT LUFTPOST
PAR AVION
BY AIR MAIL

[Absender]
Auf dieser Seite kein Absender. Der Absenderblock steht auf der Rückseite (001_018_0015).

[Poststempel]
Ein Abschlag, schräg über beide Marken, zum großen Teil vom 60-Pf-Wert und vom Umschlagrand abgedeckt.
Oberer Bogen: MÜNC[HEN ... illegible]
Unterer Bogen: [HAU]PTSTADT DE[R] [BEWEGUNG — Rest illegible]
Stempelmitte: Hakenkreuz
Datum: [... illegible] — im Steg kein einziger Datumsziffer sicher lesbar
Uhrzeit: [... illegible]

[Frankatur]
links: 5 (Pf) Hindenburg-Medaillon, Unterschrift "Deutsches Reich", Wertziffer 5 in beiden oberen Ecken
rechts: 60 (Pf) Hindenburg-Medaillon, Unterschrift "Deutsches Reich", Wertziffer 60 in beiden oberen Ecken
Gesamt: 65 Pf

[Zensur]
Auf dieser Seite keine Zensurspuren sichtbar — kein Verschlußstreifen, kein OKW-Stempel, keine Prüfernummer. Zensurbefund siehe Rückseite (001_018_0015).

[Postvermerk, Bleistift]
4 gr[?]   (oben links unter dem Leitvermerk; wohl Gewichtsangabe in Gramm; letztes Zeichen unsicher, evtl. nur "4 g")

[Archivnummer — Bleistift, nicht original, unten links am Blattrand, teilweise vom Scanrand beschnitten]
309[?]
309[?] – 39[?][?]

Translation — English

[Address]
Mrs.[?] Mina Kaufmann
622 West 141 Str. Apt 3 D
c/o Heller
New York City
U. S. A.

[Sender's routing notes on the front]
Via Lisbon to North America
(two horizontal ornamental strokes beneath)

[Printed label]
BY AIRMAIL
PAR AVION
BY AIR MAIL

[Sender]
No sender on this face. The return-address block is on the reverse (001_018_0015).

[Postmark]
One strike, diagonally across both stamps, largely covered by the 60 Pf stamp and by the envelope edge.
Upper arc: MUNIC[H ... illegible]
Lower arc: [CAP]ITAL OF TH[E] [MOVEMENT — remainder illegible]
Centre of the mark: swastika
Date: [... illegible] — not one digit of the date bridge can be read with confidence
Time: [... illegible]

[Franking]
left: 5 (Pf) Hindenburg medallion, inscribed "Deutsches Reich" (German Reich), value 5 in both upper corners
right: 60 (Pf) Hindenburg medallion, inscribed "Deutsches Reich", value 60 in both upper corners
Total: 65 Pf

[Censorship]
No censorship traces visible on this face — no sealing tape, no OKW handstamp, no examiner number. For the censorship evidence see the reverse (001_018_0015).

[Postal note, pencil]
4 gr[?]   (upper left, below the routing note; apparently a weight in grams; last character uncertain, possibly just "4 g")

[Archival number — pencil, not original, lower left at the sheet edge, partly cut off by the scan edge]
309[?]
309[?] – 39[?][?]

Historical context

This is the address side of an airmail cover sent from Munich to Mina Kaufmann in New York, carrying a "Mit Luftpost" label and the sender's own routing instruction "Via Lissabon nach Nordamerika" — the Lisbon route was by 1941 effectively the only civilian mail channel out of German-controlled Europe to the United States. The reverse of the same envelope (001_018_0015) gives the sender as Elsa Sara Oppenheimer, Arcisstraße 29/II in Munich; "Sara" is the middle name forced on Jewish women by the 1938 name decree. The companion envelope in this folder (001_018_0018/0019) carries a legible Munich cancel of 25.10.4[1] and a New York arrival of 13 November 1941, so this cover appears to belong to the same 1941 correspondence, but its own postmark date cannot be recovered from the scan. The addressee, Mina Kaufmann, is the American relative to whom the family's affidavit and emigration correspondence is directed.

On this transcription

Machine transcription (claude-opus-5) — not yet checked against the original scan. 10 passages marked doubtful in the text.

Re-read from the original scan on 2026-07-28. Legibility: fair. [?] marks are deliberate gaps, not transcription errors. Postmark: the date bridge is genuinely unreadable. The circular mark is a Munich slogan cancel — only "MÜNC…" on the upper arc and "…PTSTADT DE[R]" on the lower arc plus the central swastika survive; I could not extract a day, month, year or time at any magnification, so no date is asserted for this face. Street number: read as "141" in "622 West 141 Str."; the ink is pale and the middle digit is the weakest, but the same address written more heavily on 001_018_0018 also reads "141", which is what decided it. Honorific: the two- or three-letter abbreviation before "Mina Kaufmann" is read as "Fr." (Frau); "Mrs." cannot be excluded — a checker should compare it with the same token on 001_018_0018. Apartment: "Apt 3 D" — the final letter is a capital, read as D. Pencil weight note: "4 gr" — the "4" and "g" are firm, the third character is not; it may be only "4 g". Archival pencil at the lower left: two lines, both running off the scan edge; I read "309" and "309 – 39[?][?]", but the final two characters of the lower line are not legible and even the leading "309" should be verified against the original. "Via Lissabon nach Nordamerika" is legible and secure. Revised readings: I first took the bold glyph in the centre of the cancel to be a date digit (it looked like a "5" or "57" at low magnification); at high magnification it resolves as the swastika in the middle of the Munich mark, so I withdrew any date reading rather than reporting a digit. I also initially read the pencil note at the upper left as "4 94"; comparison with the same mark on 001_018_0018, where it is clearly "4 g", showed it is a weight note "4 gr", not a number.