Luxembourg is a small and wealthy country located between France and Germany. In 1940, Luxembourg was on the invasion route that Nazi forces took to overrun France and the government of Luxembourg was quickly overthrown. As they did for most of the countries that they occupied, the Germans quickly issued Occupation stamps. The most remarkable thing about the German Occupations were the abundance of philatelic items that they produced. The Third Reich in the early WW II period seemed to do three things particularly well- quickly overrun their enemies, round up Jews and other undesirables for extermination, and create philatelic occupation covers. The cover here was made by a Nazi philatelist who sent the Occupation stamps on a registered cover home. The Germans were ( and are) a nation of stamp collectors and much WW II related occupation material exists as momentos sent home by Hans to show where he had been. And the war in the early years was easy for the German Army as it met little resistance. Only as the war bore on and the fighting got fiercer and things went less the Third Reich’s way do the philatelically prepared commemorative Occupation covers stop. The philately of the later WW II period is more interesting as it occurred when people tried desperately to keep open lines of communication in war ravaged areas. Then the covers no longer have the quality of party souvenirs.
