History's Most Depressing Postcards

By Courtney Abbott  |  

Postcards are usually anything but depressing.

Receiving a postcard from your Aunt Maude on vacation in Palm Springs with a couple of innocuous sentences about the weather written on one side and the obligatory “Wish You Were Here” scrawled at the bottom isn't likely to upset you.

But delve further back into history and you'll find that there were numerous times during the bleaker and more tragic periods in humanity's past when communicating important information or messages to loved ones wasn't quite as simple as a quick Facebook post or a Twitter update (and certainly not as light-hearted).

The correspondence pictured below was written during these moments of history's darker hours. Wars, natural disasters, unspeakably catastrophic events – sometimes the authors knew they were in the middle of a tragedy, but at other times it seems they were quite unaware of what was about to happen.

These five postcards provide a unique and compelling insight into what life was really like during these times. The images provide us with a window into another world, but it's the heartfelt written personal messages themselves that are perhaps more significant, more meaningful, and given each situation, very, very depressing.

1. Postcard from the Hindenburg Disaster

The German airship LZ129 Hindenburg unexpectedly burst into flames as it attempted to dock with its mooring mast at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey on Thursday May 6, 1937. It only took thirty-two seconds to reduce this once glorious intercontinental mode of transport, over 800 feet in length, into a burning heap of aircraft rubble.

Of the 17,609 pieces of mail the Hindenburg was carrying that day, only 358 were salvaged. This is one of them. Although charred from the crash, it was written while airborne on the zeppelin by a man named Ernst, greeting his friend Hans in New York City and suggesting that he would write again on a future airship journey, not knowing of the historic disaster that was to unfold.

2. Postcards from the Titanic

Penned at a time when ocean-traversing cruising was the height of luxury and fashion, these rare images of a triumphant Titanic boldly steaming through the waves capture the esteem and praise for the lauded vessel at the time.

Tom Franklin, a first class passenger in cabin D34, wrote the last of these postcards. He sent this postcard this card while aboard the ill-fated ship. It is dated April 10th/12 and is postmarked Queenstown 3:45pm AP 11 12. Unfortunately, Mr. Franklin did was not among the survivors and his body was never found.

3. Postcard from Auschwitz Nazi Concentration Camp

This postcard was sent from Auschwitz from Johann Klausa, an inmate who was one of the few to be released from the concentration camp. Johann was set free on November 23, 1943, after spending three and a half years there.

Preserved in impeccable condition, this harrowing snapshot into one of history's most horrendous eras contains a remarkably upbeat missive to his brother and sister-in-law, apparently informing them that he is in good health and enquires about his family, appearing to spare them from the horrific details of life in the camp.

4. Postcards from the Hiroshima A-Bomb site

Differing in style from the above, which were all penned before or during a catastrophic event in history, these postcards focuses on what life was like after the horrible occurrence. The writing is sparse but the card itself provides an essential documentation of the destruction that happened in the aftermath of the Hiroshima atomic bomb on August 6, 1945.

The black and white images show not only buildings but also entire neighborhoods that were reduced to a wasteland in seconds. The writing is brief from the sender on the rear of one postcard, it simply says 'This is Hiroshima City', but the devastating message is loud and clear.

5. Postcard from the Meridian, Mississippi Tornado, March 1906

The large image of this postcard easily says more than the few words written below it, almost a year to the day of the cataclysmic Mississippi tornado that destroyed Meridian on March 2, 1906.

From the vantage point of the photo, the town seems to be hopeless and consumed by the rubble of timber, but what is interesting to note is that in the short message the sender remarks that one year on, Meridian seems to have made a full and complete recovery, with virtually no evidence of the natural disaster in sight.

Depressing as the image may be, it is certainly heart-warming to find that in some, if not all, cases, humanity recognizes and mourns the disasters that befall it, but strives onward and upward for betterment and recovery.


So the next time you're thinking about penning a quick salutary note to a friend or family member, make sure you don't write off the humble postcard. It may well end up being a historic document, a record of another time and place, no matter how depressing.

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Sources: Site 1, Site 2, Site 3, Site 4, Site 5   

(123 print,   August 30, 2010)