Tram wires criss-cross a bustling Corporation Street, Birmingham, as a double-decker bus bound for Kingstanding sweeps past pre-war saloon cars — this sharp real-photograph postcard, postmarked 6 November 1950, freezes a city centre that would be almost unrecognisable within two decades of redevelopment. Halfords, the YMCA, and a Boots-style chemist line the right-hand pavement; in the distance the tower of the Council House or Big Brum rises above the commercial canyon. The card was sent from Birmingham to the Zimmermann family at Kürbisstrasse 10, Rüsselsheim am Main, in the U.S. Occupation Zone of post-war Germany — a poignant cross-Channel connection typical of the early 1950s when German civilians were re-establishing correspondence with friends and relatives abroad. The message is written in German with some lines that appear to be in Hebrew script along the left margin, suggesting a Jewish-diaspora connection of considerable human interest. Franked with a King George VI 1d red and 2d orange, both with clear Birmingham cds.