Hitler came to power on March 5, 1933, and the official opening of the first concentration camp was March 22, 1933: This was Dachau. This cover below is dated June 12, 1933, three months after the opening of Dachau opened.

A Personal Story

Many years ago I found an auction catalog containing 12 lots of postal cards from Dachau. The first listing was a postal card similar to this one, canceled March 22, 1933, the first day the camp was opened. We stamp collectors love to find a cancellation on the first day of an event, and the catalog description did not indicate it was a special date. I called the auctioneer, and before I even had a chance to explain, he said, “I know! You are the tenth person to call and tell me that I missed that March 22 is the opening of Dachau.”

He gave me information on the phone auction for the item, and I called in. The first time around, I bid $300.00; the second time, I had to calculate the cost of flying to New York, staying in a hotel, and dining, so I bid $1,100.00. The next time the bid came my way, it was close to $2,000.00, and I dropped out. The lot sold for over $2,000.00. I told this story in a presentation in 1986 at AMERIPEX, an international philatelic exposition. A gentleman in the audience raised his hand and said that he was the one who bought that cover.