door After the Second World War Dutch business men tried to continue their business with foreign clients as before. This was not always easy, as postal connections were disturbed. Also with the Czech capital Prague, which had been with Bohemia and Moravia a protectorate of Nazi Germany, postal connections were broken and it took a while before they were restored.
This card (letters were still forbidden to send) was sent from a flower exporter in Aalsmeer on June 9, 1945 to their client in Prague. It has a (black) censor from the Netherlands and a red English censor mark. Bottom left “K 03” was printed. Those K-numbers were made obligatory by the Germans from July 1941 and they were to be printed on all printed matters. The number indicates the printer. In this case it is De Nieuwe Meerbode in Aalsmeer.
On the back of the card we see an interesting message: ‘Die Postverbindung mit der Cecho-Slowakei ist wiederhergestellt’ (‘The postal connection with Czechoslovakia has been restored’). A bit further we can learn that air connections have not yet been restored.
Original text on card in German:
Fa. A. Kratschmer,
Praha I.
Die Postverbindung mit der Cecho-Slowakei ist wiederhergestellt und wir beeilen uns Sie von der hiesigen Lage auf den Laufenden zu bringen. Wir sind alle gesund und hoffen von ihnen und Frau Kratschmer dasselbe. Aalsmeer hat von den Kriegshandlungen enig gelitten, die Auktionen sind noch gänzlich intakt: unsre Büros, Packungsräume und Gärtnereien sind unbeschädigt. Wir hoffen gern, dass auch Ihre besitzungen nicht gelitten haben. Von den hiesigen Kulturen haben nur Nelken schwer gelitten, weil es diesen Winter gar keine Kohlen gab. Hoffentlich wird die Flugverbindung zwischen unsren Ländern bald wiederhergestellt und können wir darin vielleicht binnen kurzer Zeit unsre langjährigen guten beschäftsverbindungen wieder aufnehmen. Indem wir hoffen umgehend Nachricht von Ihnen zu erhalten, zeichnen wir, mit den besten Grüssen, hochachtungsvoll
(Unterschrift)
Translation of the text:
Fa. A. Kratschmer,
Prague I
The postal connection with Czechoslovakia has been restored and we are in a hurry to update you on the current situation. We are all healthy and hope the same for you and Ms Kratschmer. Aalsmeer suffered a lot from war activities, the auctions are still intact: our offices, packing rooms and nurseries are undamaged. We hope that your possessions have not suffered. Of the local cultures, only cloves suffered badly because there were no coals this winter. Hopefully the flight connection between our countries will be restored soon and maybe within a short time we will be able to resume our long-standing good business connections. Hoping to get news from you as soon as possible, we sign, with our best greetings, sincerely,
(signature)
