The Postcard
A Framed Gem Series Happy Childhood postcard that was published by Raphael Tuck & Sons, Art Publishers to Their Majesties the King and Queen. The card was printed in Saxony.
The card was posted in Finsbury Park using a ½d. stamp on Wednesday the 29th. September 1909. It was sent to:
Miss Eileen Stanbrook,
Northolme,
42, Montagu Road,
Hendon.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Dear Eileen,
Am so glad to hear you
are better.
I will come & see you on
Friday straight from school
and stay the weekend.
Hope Mamma & Dada's
colds are better.
With best love and kisses
from Nanna Brampa & Illa
xxxxxx"
A Flight by Wilbur Wright
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, on the 29th. September 1909, Wilbur Wright gave millions of New York and New Jersey residents their first view of an airplane as part of the Hudson-Fulton Celebration.
Wright took off from Governors Island at 10:18 a.m., then flew around the Statue of Liberty and returned at 10:25.
Herbert Lange
The day also marked the unfortunate birth of Herbert Lange in Menzlin, Ziethen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, German Empire.
Lange was a German SS functionary during the Nazi era. He was commandant of Chełmno extermination camp until April 1942, as well as leader of the SS Special Detachment
Lange was responsible for numerous crimes against humanity, including the murder of mentally disabled patients in Poland and in Germany during the Aktion T4 "euthanasia" programme, and became one of the key originators of the Holocaust.
-- Herbert Lange - The Early Years
Lange studied law, but failed to obtain a degree, and he subsequently joined the NSDAP (Nazi Party) on the 1st. May 1932.
He enlisted in the Sturmabteilung (SA) three months later, and the following year, he joined the Schutzstaffel (SS). He subsequently joined the police force, becoming a deputy commissioner in 1935.
-- Herbert Lange's Crimes Against Humanity
Lange entered Poland with Einsatzgruppe Naumann during the September campaign. On the 9th. November 1939, following a Nazi German victory, Lange was promoted to the rank of SS-Untersturmführer (2nd lieutenant) in occupied Poland, and posted in charge of the Gestapo in Poznań.
At the beginning of 1940 he assumed command of an SS-Sonderkommando Lange, named after him and tasked with the murder of mentally ill individuals in the Wartheland area (Wielkopolska) under the direction of SS-Standartenführer Ernst Damzog and SS-Obergruppenführer Wilhelm Koppe.
Lange served with Einsatzgruppe VI during Operation Tannenberg. By the middle of 1940, Lange and his men had murdered about 1,100 patients in Owińska.
They also killed 2,750 patients at Kościan, 1,558 patients and 300 Poles at Działdowo, and hundreds of Poles at Fort VII where the mobile gas-chamber (Einsatzwagen) was invented. The unit, equipped with a gas van, shuttled between hospitals, picking up patients and killing them with carbon monoxide.
Their earlier hospital victims were usually shot in the back of the neck.
After his promotion to SS-Obersturmführer (1st lieutenant) on the 20th. April 1940, Lange's unit was permanently stationed at the Soldau concentration camp.
On one occasion, Wilhelm Rediess hired Kommando Lange to kill 1,558 mental patients from East Prussia for ten Reichsmarks a head.
By December 1941 Lange was a SS-Hauptsturmführer (captain) and was appointed commander of the Chełmno death camp by then SS-Standartenführer Ernst Damzog, chief of the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo) and Sicherheitsdienst (SD) in Posen (Poznań).
Lange held that position until March 1942. His commando was tasked with the liquidation of 100,000 Jews from the Warthegau via Ghetto Litzmannstadt.
In April 1942 Lange's unit was renamed SS Sonderkommando Kulmhof and introduced improvements to the killing process at Chełmno.
Lange constructed cremation pits to replace mass graves. He was succeeded by Hans Bothmann who formed Special Detachment Bothmann in 1942.
At a very minimum 152,000 people were killed at the camp, though the West German prosecution, citing Nazi figures during the Chełmno trials of 1962–65, laid charges for at least 180,000 victims.
Upon the completion of his task in 1942 Lange was transferred to the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Main Security Office) and served under Arthur Nebe as a Kriminalrat (Criminal Investigator).
He was transferred to the Balkans to participate in Nazi security warfare against alleged partisans.
In March 1944 Lange returned to the already inactive death camp at Chełmno, and resumed the gassing operations on the request of Arthur Greiser, for the final ten transports of ghettoised Jews.
In 1944, Lange aided in catching the conspirators who attempted to assassinate Hitler as part of the 20th. July Plot, leading to his promotion to SS-Sturmbannführer.
One of the conspirators he interrogated was Peter Bielenberg. In her book The Past Is Myself, Peter Bielenberg's wife Christabel Bielenberg describes her own interrogation by Lange.
-- The Death of Herbert Lange
Lange was killed in action at Bernau bei Berlin during the Battle of Berlin on 20 April 1945. He was 35 years of age when he died.
