German neo-Nazis use post service to produce stamp of Hitler deputy

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
German neo-Nazis used a personalized stamp service offered by Deutsche Post to create a 55-cent stamp carrying the portrait of Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess, the company confirmed Wednesday. 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 that someone had managed to slip an order of 20 of the stamps past the company, 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 US$55.