Stamp: A Winterhilfswek stamp, the 4th design. 

Postmark: Ingolstadt 

Overview

The postcard is from the 1938-1939 Winter Relief Fund. It is from Niederarnbach and is addressed to Baroness Armine Spiedel in Munich, whose address is Friedrichstrasse 3. The date was November 2nd. The text itself details travel from Ingolstadt to Brussels with reflections on the experience.

Text Summary

The note was written on a Sunday evening and written to “Anne”. The author explains how they arrived in Ingolstadt at 5:56 and had to walk a bit to find a phone because things were very hectic in the area. The author was picked up by a vehicle and states that the last parts of the days had been nice, and they don’t regret staying, despite all the chaos. They end the note with “Teste marr”, which may mean Testament.

A rough translation of the writing is as follows: May 20th, I was picked up early from the train station at 5:56 in Ingolstadt. It only took 3-4 hours to arrive. I had to take a walk a bit by myself to find a telephone. Everywhere there was desperate people hoping for a ticket. I regret not having stayed there until today. 

Historical Background

On November 15, 1935, Eichstatt’s Sicherheitsdienst office, under the orders of a man named Heinz Weidinger, created a registry classifying residents by racial background. It also included detailed personal data of residents and served as the basis for subsequent arrests, forced evictions, and denunciations of the Jewish population. Some families attempted to pay the Reichsfluchtsteuer, or the “Reich Flight Tax”, in order to emigrate, but fees and quotes made departure difficult. Kristallnacht on 9-10 of November 1938 saw a solidifying uptick in the climate of terror. Uniform SA led by a local Nazi activist allegedly forced entrance into Isidor Rosenberg’s Eichstatt home, ransacking it and destroying religious objects. In the town there was not a grand deal of synagogue burnings, however, Torah scrolls were reportedly seen torn and scattered in the street, and the prayer hall was vanished. Throughout 1938 and 1939, most remaining Jewish-owned businesses in the area either diminished under mounting economic pressure or were forcibly sold. All of this could provide context to the reason behind Ingolstadt’s chaos at the time of the author’s visitatio