Mi.888 - 893 (May 1944)
German Reich Post (III)

Registered cover sent from Hildesheim to an address in Prague. Featuring various stamps issued for the Comradeship of the German Reich (its 3rd incarnation). Note that the correspondents address in Prague is 'General Roettigstraße'. Ref: 28.06.1944

Wilhelm Fritz von Roettig (25 July 1888 – 10 September 1939) was a German general in the Waffen-SS who participated in the invasion of Poland. He was the first general to be killed in World War II. Roettig held the ranks of Generalmajor der Ordnungspolizei and SS-Brigadeführer. Roettig was killed at about 14:15 on 10th September 1939 aged 51, near Opoczno, Poland, when his staff car was ambushed by Polish troops armed with heavy machine guns (elements of the 19th Infantry Division under Colonel Jan Kruk-Śmigla. Roettig was badly wounded and subsequently shot in the head. Two days after his death, German troops killed twenty Jews in a nearby town of Końskie (in what is known as the Końskie massacre, with some sources calling that massacre a retaliation for the death of Roettig and his entourage, also related to the rumours that the German dead have been mutilated by the 'Polish partisans'. (Source: Wikipedia)