Strange

German Neo-Nazis print Rudolf Hess stamps

by cynthia yoo | May 21, 2008 at 09:39 am

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So far, there are only about 20 stamps of Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess. One hopes that will be the end of Nazi stamps in the German postal service.

The latest newsletter of the far-right National Democratic Party gloated about being able to slip the stamp past Deutsche Post's quality control personnel.
"The Hess stamp is out there," wrote Hannes Natter in the May edition of Deutsche Stimme, or German Voice.

Deutsche Post spokesman Dirk Klasen confirmed someone had managed to slip an order of 20 of the stamps past the company by using a service that has been printing customized stamps since February -- usually for birthdays, anniversaries or other celebrations.

"It runs in most cases without difficulty," Klasen said. "Only with the Hess image did something go awry."

The service allows individuals to upload their own pictures over the Internet for a custom stamp design, and order anywhere from 20 to 10,000 of them with a starting price of around $55.

Deutsche Post was reviewing its oversight procedures, Klasen said, though he added that "there can be no 100 percent certainty" that something else would not slip through.