RUDNIK nad SANEM 1944 On the 26th July 1944 Rudnik nad Sanem was liberated from German occupation and on the 31st July 1944 the local Post Office was re-opened in the town by, the postmaster, Wojciech Kosierb. Instructions
had been issued to
all Post
Offices (under Soviet control) on the 1st August 1944 that all post was
to be prepaid in cash and no German occupation stamps were to be used.
This instruction, however, for some unknown reason, did not reach the
Post Office in Rudnik.
On
or about the 7th August 1944
the entire
remaining stock of German occupation stamps in Rudnik Post Office was
overprinted,
in black, using 4 different handstamps. A local philatelist was
instrumental
in persuading the postmaster to do this. Stamps to the total value of
4,029.29zl
were overprinted – this figure comes from the very detailed record kept
by the postmaster. Additional stamps, supplied by the philatelist, were
also overprinted (but no record of the quantities or values was ever
made
of these).
The four types of overprint were Type I The
quantities recorded as being
overprinted
are as follows
(these were the Post Office stock and do not include the private stock which was also overprinted at that time)
Type I overprints
Type II overprints Type III overprints These
overprints were made
without any
agreement from the postal authorities and the authorities were not
informed.
On the 14 September 1944 a sub regional postal inspector from Rzeszow
made a visit to the post office in Rudnik and discovered
that this had been done. He took away the remaining overprinted stamps,
to the value of 214zl, and sent them to the regional office in
Lublin.
This inspector discovered that the Post Office in Rudnik had not
received
any instructions, had no contact with any other Post Office and was not
even aware that a new Polish Post Office authority had been
established.
All the monies from the sale of the stamps had been properly accounted
for and had been used for proper Post Office purposes. No action was
taken
against the postmaster. Instructions
were issued that
none of these
stamps could be used for postal purposes and that the public was to be
informed of this by means of displaying a notice in the Post
Office.
This notice also stated that anyone in possession of these stamps
could,
if they wished to do so, return them to the Post Office for a full
refund. The Post Office records do not record if anyone did return any of these stamps.
© 2001 Jan
Kosniowski jan @ stampdomain.com |