us-005578-irn84730-irn106729
type: RecordSet
archival history: The envelope fragment and stamps were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2014 by Richard Wojciech Hermanowski.
biographical history: Wojciech Hermanowski (later, Richard, b. 1929) was born in Warsaw, Poland, to Jan (1899-1967) and Stanislawa (nee Laszez,1901-1969) Hermanowski. He had one older brother, Andrzej (1924-1992). Wojciech’s father, Jan, worked for the city government as a director of supplies and ran a union for the transportation department. Jan had been in the military police during World War I (1914-1918), and as a result, was a strict disciplinarian. Although Wojciech’s parents identified as Catholic, they were not very religious. The family lived in a city apartment in a nice area of town, and the boys attended the local public school. They were not wealthy, but were able to hire household help, and spent summers at a villa in the countryside. Wojciech was at the countryside villa with his mother and brother when Germany invaded western Poland on September 1, 1939. They could hear bombs being dropped, and decided to return to the city to join Jan. The German army occupied Warsaw on September 27. German occupation authorities prohibited Poles from attending high school and pursuing higher education, so Wojciech began attending trade school to become a shoemaker’s apprentice, and continued his general education on the side. He also began taking classes in Latin, Polish, and English with a small group of other students. The classes had to move from home to home and were conducted in secret to avoid detection by the German occupation authorities. Andrzej also continued high school lessons with members of the Polish underground, which drew him into the ranks of the resistance fighters. Jan worked in the transportation department until the summer of 1942, when German authorities became suspicious of his union activities. His bosses were forced to fire him, but offered him a summertime position supervising the excavation of soft coal outside of the city. Jan readily accepted, and the family moved to the countryside for the summer. He was put in charge of 30 Jewish men brought from other t…
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Two postage stamps adhered to a small rectangle of cream-colored paper with three torn edges and an unevenly cut bottom edge. On the left, the vertically-oriented stamp has a blue-printed scene of two soldiers in field uniforms perched on a rocky hillside. One of the soldiers is leaning over the edge, looking at a body of water with a warship in the distance; the other is crouched down, talking on a field phone. Across the top and bottom are dark blue bands with white Polish text. In the bottom right corner of the stamp is a white box containing dark blue text. On the right, the horizontally-oriented stamp has a green-printed scene of two men on the prow of a ship flying a Polish flag. One man is holding binoculars and pointing at a plane in the sky. The second man is crouched behind a machine gun, aimed up at the plane. In the distance, a warship is sailing in their direction. Across the top and bottom are dark green borders with white Polish text. The green stamp overlays a handwritten pencil inscription. Overlaying the bottom halves of the stamps is a cancellation mark, hand stamped in black ink. front, right side, handwritten, pencil : [illegible] front, stamped, black ink : POLSKA MARYNARKA / WOJENNA [POLISH NAVY]
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
date: 1940 May, 1943 September 01
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: pol
has or had subject: 819
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn106729
is or was included in: us-005578-irn84730
record resource extent: overall: Height: 1.500 inches (3.81 cm) | Width: 4.000 inches (10.16 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Envelope fragment with two stamps issued in 1943 by the Polish government-in-exile, while based in London, England, and acquired by Wojciech Hermanowski. These are two of the eight second-issue stamps, which were only valid in friendly and neutral nations, such as Great Britain. The stamps helped raise money for the Ministry of Finance, and were used as propaganda to remind the public that the Polish military was still fighting, even while their territory was occupied by Germany. Wojciech was a Roman Catholic boy living with his parents, Jan and Stanislawa, and his older brother, Andrzej, in Warsaw, Poland, when the German army invaded on September 1, 1939. Wojciech was no longer allowed to go to school, so he began attending trade school and took general classes in secret. In February 1943, Andrzej was arrested as part of the underground resistance, and later transported to Auschwitz concentration camp. On August 1, 1944, the city’s underground resistance rose up against the German occupation forces. During the Warsaw Uprising, Wojciech and his parents were deported to a slave labor camp in Wriezen, Germany. Wojciech was then transferred to work at a dairy processing facility in nearby Eberswalde, and later reunited with his parents. From April 23 to May 3, 1945, they were sent on a forced march and then abandoned by the German guards. The family was found by Allied soldiers and were taken to a camp for displaced persons in Lübeck. They were reunited with Andrzej, who was severely ill from imprisonment in Auschwitz, Neungamme, Branschweig and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. The entire family was transferred to Sweden for recuperation in July 1945, where Wojciech changed his name to Richard. Richard’s parents and brother decided to return to Poland early in 1947. Richard immigrated to the United States in 1954, settling in New York City.
title: Envelope fragment with two stamps acquired by a Roman Catholic Polish youth