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Introduction Under the Geneva Convention [see below], it was agreed that prisoners of war (POW) during World War 2, would be allowed 2 letters per month for 'Other Ranks', while Officers would be allowed 3; and 4 postcards a month on stationery provided. They would also be allowed to receive letters and relief parcels. Each POW was allowed to send a postcard to their family as soon as practicable after capture, and in any case not later than 7 days after arrival at a POW camp. The routing of all such mail in Europe was carried out with the assistance of the International Red Cross based in Geneva. During 1941 agreement was reached to transport mail from POWs for free, but mail to POs was charged for. From this time, within Europe, letter mail (Axis and Allied) was transported between Britain and Lisbon by British air services, and between Lisbon and Germany / Italy by the German / Italian air services. [House of Commons debate, 17 June 1941, Mr. Chapman speaking for the Post-Master general, following a recent press announcement stated; "agreement has been reached, through the good offices of the American Government, for the use, free of charge, of the German air service between Lisbon and Germany for correspondence between British prisoners-of-war and civilian internees in Germany and their friends and relations in this country. In conjunction with air transmission between Lisbon and this country, which is already available, the further facility provides the quickest service possible. The facility is not restricted to next-of-kin. My right hon. Friend has considered very carefully the possibility of a free outward air-mail service, but has regretfully come to the conclusion that this is not practicable on account of aircraft capacity. It could at best only be introduced with a severe system of rationing which would be most difficult to apply, and which would bear hardly on those who have a particular interest in a prisoner but are not next-of-kin. I am glad to add that my right hon. Friend hopes shortly to issue a light-weight air letter card for use in writing to British prisoners-of-war. By this means it will be possible to reduce the air mail fee."] For mail to and from the Far East, although there was agreement in principle to accept Red Cross parcels, the Japanese allowed very few and even mail was severely restricted and usually limited to an occasional 25 word postcard. There was considerable variation in actual practice!
Background - Prisoners of War held in the UK The Prisoner of War Information Bureau (PWIB) was responsible for dealing with all enquiries concerning enemy POWs. Initially the work of the PWIB was centralised in London, but the geographical spread of the conflict led to delays in the transmission of information. From 1942 the bureau in London was responsible for the maintenance and transmission of information on POWs held only in the United Kingdom, North West Europe, and the Central Mediterranean, while several sub-bureau were established overseas: a bureau in Cairo, Egypt, under military control, was responsible for prisoners of war captured and held in the Middle East; a bureau in Nairobi, Kenya, for those in East Africa; and a bureau in New Delhi for those captured in the Middle East and Far East and held in India. Bureaux were also established by the governments of Australia, Canada, and South Africa to deal with prisoners of war moved to those countries. Each of these bureaux communicated directly with local representatives of the protecting power and the International Red Cross Committee.
The Bureau's primary functions were to provide, both to the appropriate enemy power, (through its Protecting Power) and to the central agency organised by the International Red Cross Committee: particulars of all individuals held as a POW with an address to which correspondence could be sent; details of movements of POWs between camps; notification of casualties from sickness, combat or other causes; and the collection and transmission of any personal affects of POWs who died in captivity or who were repatriated; and replying to all questions on enemy POWs from any quarter. It also carried out the function required by Article 4 of the 1929 Geneva Convention concerning the Care of Sick and Wounded Combatants, namely the transmission to the enemy of details and the effects of those found dead on the battlefield. The PWIB continued to operate until the repatriation of the last remaining enemy POWs in 1948.
The first POWs held in Britain were mainly the crews of U-Boats and bombers. The first two camps in Britain in 1939 were at Glen Mills Camp in Oldham for 'other ranks' and Grizedale Hall, Lancashire for officers. Many more camps were soon needed and a network of about 500 POW camps existed by 1947/1948.
At the start of the North Africa campaign, most POWs were sent to India, Australia, South Africa, Kenya, Rhodesia, Tanganyika, Uganda, etc. Then, from October 1942 until January 1943, with the El Alamein campaign, 130,000 mainly Italian and some German POWs, were sent to England. As that phase of the war ended, many axis prisoners were sent to large camps, mainly in Canada. From 1943 the US also had its own camps, including transit camps within the UK. From September 1943, with the fall of the fascists in Italy, the status of Italian POWs changed. In May 1944, Italian POWs were asked if they wished to work in the UK as 'cooperators'. Those refusing were held in 'non-cooperator' camps; others were referred to as members of Italian Labour Battalions, rather than as POWs. About 70% / 75% of Italians co-operated according to entries in Hansard. Italian co-operators wore unpatched battledress dyed chocolate or green, bearing a shoulder flash with the word "Italy" in red letters. Non-co-operators wore chocolate dyed battledress with contrasting coloured patches, but did not wear the shoulder flash. Many restrictions still applied to the cooperating Italians, including: "Existing arrangements for censorship of correspondence will be maintained, and attempts to evade censorship are forbidden." (Home Office Letter, 10 May 1944). At the end of 1945 there were about 137,000 Italian POWs still awaiting repatriation, (out of 162,000 held in the UK). After D-Day, prisoners destined to be held in the UK were transported mainly by boat and barges across the English Channel. At the ports they were sent on by train to one of nine 'Command Cages' (large holding centres). The POWs were interrogated and graded by a colour code. Each POW was issued with a colour patch to be worn on their uniforms. White patches ('A') were for prisoners with no loyalty or affiliation to the Nazis. A grey patch ('B') meant that the prisoner, although not an ardent Nazi, had no strong feelings either way (mitläufer). Hard-core Nazis and almost all Waffen SS and U-Boat crews wore a black patch ('C' or 'C+'). After grading, the prisoners were sent to POW camps around the country sometimes via a transit camp - black patches often ending up in the north of the UK. There were 208,000 German POWs held in the UK by November 1945 - 19,448 were screened as white, 85,380 as grey, and 50,205 as black - 53,000 were still waiting to be screened. There were many different types of camp - some large with temporary huts, others tented, some in old country houses or hostels, some were hospitals.... Each camp was assigned a number, ranging from1 to 1026 (1045?) - unfortunately some camp numbers were assigned to other camps when they were closed down, and some camps have more than one number. White and grey category prisoners were allowed to work with pay (lagergeld - money for use inside the camp only), which was usually farm or construction work or repairing roads. By 1946 22,000 prisoners were involved in construction work in Britain and around 169,000 prisoners were involved in agricultural work. At the camps were lectures, concerts, gardening, handicrafts, sport and games. Many POWs took lessons in English or other education courses. Some camps had their own magazines. POWs received the same weekly rations as British soldiers: 42ozs of meat, 8ozs of bacon, 5½ lbs of bread, 10½ ozs of margarine as well as vegetables, cheese, cake, jam and tea. These amounts were increased slightly in June 1945. After the war, prisoners were expected to undergo a programme of re-education to prepare them for a new life. Newsreels showing concentration camps were shown, though some prisoners thought they were just propaganda. Prisoners were interviewed to determine their suitability for release which was determined by length of imprisonment, compassionate grounds, and political reasons. The first mass repatriations took place in 1946. On July 13, 1948, Mr 'Manny' Shinwell, the Secretary of State for War announced to the House of Commons that; "Repatriation of German prisoners of war from this country was completed yesterday, except for a small number of invalids and others." - but on the same day it was announced that 8,397 Ukrainian POWs were still being held, (as well as some other nationalities). The last POW repatriations took place in 1949. Many prisoners remained to settle in Britain. Mail / Parcels for Prisoners of War held in the UK Document : "Censorship rules for prisoners of war and internment camps in Great Britain" - (1940 : mail and parcels). POWs in transit camps were allowed to send very restricted messages on issued postcards, but these were stamped with 'DURCHGANGSLAGER / SCHREIBEN SIE NICHT BEVOR DER KRIEGSGEFANGENE SEINE ENFGILTIGE LAGERANSCHRIFT BEKANNT GIBT' - 'Transit Camp. Do not write before the prisoner of war has informed you of his valid camp address'. Further messages could be sent once the POW was established in a base camp. There were many complaints from Axis POWs about mail and parcels not being received or arriving very late throughout the war, (see various International Red Cross reports within the list of camps below). Mail / parcels went missing for a variety of reasons - e.g. theft, destruction along the route. Delays were often due to censorship; regarding POW mail as non-priority for shipping; or from the re-direction of mail, with POWs often being moved, sometimes to another country. Postal services across Europe were highly disrupted for many months during 1945. In September 1945 postcards were issued to POWs which stated; 'Ein Mitgleid der geschlagenen Wehrmacht sucht seinen nächsten Angehörigen' ('A member of the defeated armed forces is looking for his next of kin') - and although POWs found the phrase to be insulting, most sent these cards. As postal services improved POW mail was increased; "We were allowed to write one postcard every week in November 1945. One of my friends was from that part of Germany which is now in Poland. He had no contact and nobody else to write to. Therefore I wrote a second postcard to my mother in his name, addressing her as 'Dear Sister'. I did so every week for some time. Later we were permitted to write letters; these, however, could only be on prepared paper. There were POWs who spent hours and hours writing their cards, once the limitation on words had been cancelled. They wrote very long stories in microscopically small characters, counting the number of words and boasting how many they had managed to get on the small letter-card" [pp104-5, 'Prisoners of England']. Postal services to the Russian occupied zones were not established until February, 1946. At the end of 1946 restrictions on POWs writing to people within the UK were relaxed. Restrictions on the number of letters / postcards that could be sent by POWs were removed by August 1947 (see Hansard, 12 August 1947) - though only one free letter could be sent per month. Contents of parcels to foreign countries continued to be restricted - throughout most of 1947, 1 parcel could be sent to Germany every three months, (+ 1 post free in November for Christmas), this was relaxed towards the end of 1947 to 1 parcel per month. Camp Lists :-
Postal arrangements for Allied POW mail to / from the UK The first POW mail from camps in Germany arrived on 27 August 1940.[1] Prisoner of War air letter sheets were introduced in 1941 for mail to British POWs in Germany and Italy. Prisoner of war cards for the Far East were not issued until 27 March 1944. Parcels to POWs were handled by the Post Office and came in 2 main types: parcels from Red Cross Societies; parcels from businesses holding a censorship permit, (including supplies of cigarettes and tobacco, books, and gramophone records). Red Cross parcels were either made up and supplied by the British Red Cross to be sent to the International Red Cross Headquarters in Geneva for general distribution; or were 'next-of-kin' parcels addressed to a named prisoner.
There were various types of the Red Cross's own parcel, e.g. Standard Food Parcel, Invalid Diet Parcel, special diet parcels, clothing and medical supply parcels. Each type of parcel was made up in Red Cross depots, e.g. clothing was sent to St.James' Palace, and the largest depot dealing with food parcels was at North Row, Park Lane. Parcels received at the Mount Pleasant Post Office were placed in bags for tying, labelling, sealing and storing until shipping space was available. Transport to the docks was sometimes carried out by road, but special trains were also necessary to handle the volume, (on one despatch 17 trains were required). Some shipments from the docks would contain just a few hundred bags, the record was 136,992 bags on one ship. Between March 1941 and May 1945, 26,250,000 parcels were sent from the UK to POWs. At times the Red Cross in Geneva found it difficult to cope with the sheer number of parcels being sent from the UK. As the war ended, the Post Office often provided special facilities for returning POWs. In early 1945: 'For the second time within a few days the "Arundel Castle" arrived tonight in the Mersey with wounded and sick men repatriated from Germany. There were 764 British, Dominion, and other Servicemen, and 70 men of the Merchant Navy... The first man to go on board was a Post Office official, who collected postcards and telegrams from the men. These were dealt with by special delivery.' [Quote from 'The Post Office Went To War'].
Book list: 'For Fuhrer and Fatherland' by Roderick De Normann - 1996 - Sutton Publishing Ltd - details of events at Le Marchant and Comrie Camps. 'From Schöneiche to Alton, a Prisoner of War who stayed' by Ian Fleming - 2005 - biography of Willi Gerlach. MI9 - MRD Foot & JM Langley - 1979 - Bodley Head 'Prigionieri italiani in Gran Bretagna (1940 - 1947)' by Luciano Previato - 1998 - Centro Italiano Filatelia Resistenza. 'Prisoner of War' by Major Pat Reid and Maurice Michael - 1984 - Hamlyn - general background information about POWs through history. 'Prisoner of War Camps (1939 - 1948)' : Project Report by Roger JC Thomas - English Heritage 2003. 'Prisoners of England' by Miriam Kochan - 1980 - Macmillan Press - mainly concerns German POWs from 1944. 'The London Cage' by Lt.Col A. P. Scotland - 1973 - George Mann - Mainly autobiography of the man who organised the London interrogation centre for German prisoners; also details of the Devizes plot. 'The One That Got Away' by Kendal Burt and James Leasor - 1958 - Companion Book Club 'Thresholds of Peace - German Prisoners and the People of Britain 1944-1948' by M.B.Sullivan - 1979 - Hamish Hamilton
The third Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Geneva, 27 July 1929 - comprised 97 articles. It laid down the general principle whereby captives must at all times be treated humanely. It was later amended in 1949. The relevant articles for mail are set out below.
"Art. 8. Belligerents are required to notify each other of
all captures of prisoners as soon as possible, through the intermediary of the
Information Bureaux organised in accordance with Article 77. They are likewise
required to inform each other of the official addresses to which letters from
the prisoners' families may be addressed to the prisoners of war.
As soon as possible, every prisoner shall be enabled to
correspond personally with his family, in accordance with the conditions
prescribed in Article 36 and the following Articles.
As regards prisoners captured at sea, the provisions of
the present article shall be observed as soon as possible after arrival in port.
Art. 36. Each of the belligerents shall fix periodically
the number of letters and postcards which prisoners of war of different
categories shall be permitted to send per month, and shall notify that number to
the other belligerent. These letters and cards shall be sent by post by the
shortest route. They may not be delayed or withheld for disciplinary motives.
Not later than one week after his arrival in camp, and
similarly in case of sickness, each prisoner shall be enabled to send a postcard
to his family informing them of his capture and the state of his health. The
said postcards shall be forwarded as quickly as possible and shall not be
delayed in any manner. As a general rule, the correspondence of prisoners shall be written in their native language. Belligerents may authorise correspondence in other languages.
Art. 37. Prisoners of war shall be authorised to receive individually postal parcels containing foodstuffs and other articles intended for consumption or clothing. The parcels shall be delivered to the addressees and a receipt given.
Art. 38. Letters and remittances of money or valuables, as
well as postal parcels addressed to prisoners of war, or despatched by them,
either directly or through the intermediary of the information bureaux mentioned
in Article 77, shall be exempt from all postal charges in the countries of
origin and destination and in the countries through which they pass.
Presents and relief in kind intended for prisoners of war
shall also be exempt from all import or other duties, as well as any charges for
carriage on railways operated by the State. Prisoners may, in cases of recognised urgency, be authorised to send telegrams on payment of the usual charges.
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Contact : Malcolm Sanders : kg6gb@hotmail.com
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