Post War Cancels, 1945 – 1946
by Vácalv Bláha

Wars make for fascinating postal history. And so do the aftermaths of wars, revolutions, or political upheaval. In 1945- 1946 Czechoslovakia was going through all of these phenomena at the same time. All government office were German controlled before the end of World War II which also included the postal system. At war’s end this system reverted to Czechoslovak control which required some change in personnel, new stamps and postal stationary, as well as changed, modified, or new cancelling devices.

During the first two years after the end of the war great variety in cancels and markings on mail was the rule. Many bilingual German-Czech cancel were “nationalized,” that is, the German was cut out of the chancellors. Sometime the gaps left were filled with sentiments like “finis Germania.” In other cases they were left blank. It was not uncommon that the local postmaster made up a cancelling device locally to keep from having to use the old, German supplied, chancellors. Interesting and fun to collect, but how does one find his way through all the variations of cancels.

Václav Bláha has tried to do the job for us and he has succeeded quite well. His Poválená po–tovní razítka 1945-1946 na území ech, Moravy a Slezska (Post War Cancels 1945-1946 from the territories of Czechy, Moravia, and Silesia) is the best study I know of this complicated philatelic area. He begins the book with a discussion of what elements go into differentiating the various types of cancels. The next section, a typology of cancels of this period, takes up the next 60 pages, about half of the book. This he follows with tables of cancel types which follow a numbering system Bláha has developed. The last section of the book has a listing of post offices and the types of cancels each used, illustrations of what types of cancels were used when, and, finally, several pages of commemorative/propaganda cancels and examples of covers of the period.

There is a minimum of Czech text. The tables and typology are easy to use and necessary to any postal historian interested in this period. It would be cheap at double the price. I should also note that this type of material is still relatively easy to find.

Jaroslav Verner