First Advisor

Kathleen Merrow

Date of Award

6-10-2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in History and University Honors

Department

History

Language

English

Subjects

Overprints and surcharges (Philately), Postage stamps -- Europe -- 20th century, World War (1939-1945) -- Propaganda, Germany -- Politics and government -- 1933-1945, German propaganda

DOI

10.15760/honors.1126

Abstract

This thesis hopes to bridge the gap between philately and history and examines how postage stamps issued by the Third Reich during the Second World War portrayed their colonial and racial policy in the Netherlands and Poland. Through my research where I examine Nazi primary source documents and rely on an expansive discourse community whose focus is communications theory, postal history, and colonial history, I focus on how these stamps were an extension of the Reich’s Ministry for Propaganda. Dutch stamps closely align with German-issued stamps from the same period, through the depiction of hypermasculine men in a rural setting while Polish stamps help to reflect the power dynamic that the Nazis instilled through their brutal occupation. This thesis further encourages historians to develop a new field of postal history, as it accurately can show the effects that regime change has on society.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/35777

Download

Share

COinS