Superb silver-gelatin photo postcard of Prague's defining view — the Charles Bridge (Karlsbrücke) stretching across the Vltava, its medieval stone arches reflected in the still water, timber log rafts moored at the piers, and above it all the mass of Hradčany castle with the Gothic spires of St. Vitus Cathedral piercing the summer sky. This card was posted from Prague on August 16, 1939 — five months after German forces occupied Czechoslovakia and established the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and just sixteen days before the invasion of Poland that opened the Second World War. A sender named Johann wrote a long message in German and sent it westward to a contact in Wiesbaden, ordinary correspondence moving through a city whose fate had already been decided.

• Caption: Prag. Hradschin und Karlsbrücke.
• Card no.: B1|307 / 432
• Postmark: Prague (Prag), August 16, 1939
• Status: Posted