Galerie

1 THE POSTAL AND TELEGRAPHIC MANAGEMENT OFFICE

1.1 THE OFFICE FOR UNDERIVERABLE MAIL

20 July 1929. Postcard sent by the Office for Undeliverable Mail at the Polish Post in Danzig through the Free City Post to Germany. The office informed the addressee that a letter sent to him through the Polish Post could not be forwarded because the Polish Post in Danzig handled only mail to Poland. (For this reason, the office was obliged to send the card through the Free City Post to Germany.) The letter was being considered as undeliverable because the sender was unknown and would be destroyed in case the sender or addressee would not show up. The addressee is asked to send stamps for the postage in case he is interested in receiving the letter. The official seal of the office was used to indicate the sender. The only recorded correspondence from the office.

By decision of the Ministry for Posts the Offices forUndeliverable Mail as independent units reporting directly to the regional postal management offices were officially closed from 31
October 1934. Starting from 1  November at the main post office in each postal management region a special Department for Undeliverable Mail (Oddział niedoręczalnych przesyłek) had to be established. At the Polish Post in Danzig the department became part of Post Office
Gdańsk No 1.

26 December 1937. Local letter. The envelope is endorsed Niedozwolone (not allowed) on the front because it was
not allowed to send local mail through the Polish Post in Danzig. For reasons unknown nothing was done with the
letter for more than 1 year, Nadawca nieznany (sender unknown) together with a POLSKI URZĄD P.-T. GDAŃSK 1
g 11 October 1938 on the reverse. The cover was then sent to the office for undeliverable mail where it was
officially opened and resealed (Urzędownie otwarto i zamknięto) to find out the sender on 21 October, as confirmed
by the letterhead handstamp of the office. The contents did not show the sender: Brak nadawcy in red. It is unclear
what happened with the letter after that, usually such mail was sold through public auctions.