Fake Propaganda Stamps

The Stampselector blog features an interesting post about the propaganda forgeries of World War II.

According to the blog (which is written by a Washington/Baltimore stamp dealer Alex Rogolsky)," During World War II, both the Allies and the Axis powers produced forgeries of their enemies' postage stamps. Among these were postal forgeries, which were intended to cause economic disruption by defrauding the adversaries' postal services, and propaganda forgeries, clandestinely distributed to increase dissent and weaken the morale of the enemy population. Many of these forgeries are listed in the Michel Germany Specialized Catalogue."

Besides the well-known "Operation Cornflakes" and "This War is a Jewish War" stamps, Alex points out, "The Nazis also issued a set with overprints proclaiming the liquidation of the British Empire. As Germany had come late to the colonial game and wished to replace Great Britain as the world's leading colonial power, this set may be seen as an invidious expression of "colony envy."

Alex also writes about a couple more lesser known forgeries...

"The British produced a counterfeit portraying Heinrich Himmler, the head of the S.S. and as top policeman in a police state, perhaps the least popular Nazi leader. Another propaganda forgery featuring Himmler shows him leading a manacled civilian man, who represents Germany in the chain of fascism."

To read the entire post, click here.