British Fpos In Allied Occupied Berlin

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Post der befreiten Zwangsarbeiter (Displaced Persons Mail Paid in Deutschland) 1945-1949 written in German by Wolfgang Strobel. 160 pages. Out of print; author W. Strobel, Nietzschestrasse 23, 53177 Bonn, Germany. Postpaid for $24 U.S. cash. Book review by Walter Farber in German Postal Specialist, June 2001

There were millions of Displaced Persons in Germany at the end of World War II, most of whom had been brought in for forced labor during the war effort. Surviving Jews were also subsumed under this designation. The repatriation or emigration of these people was one of the most daunting tasks faced by the Allies after the liberation of the camps. This was exacerbated by the fact that many of the DPs from Eastern Europe (mainly Russia, Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic republics) did not wish to go back to their countries of origin, fearing rataliation by the new Communist regimes there. The process thus continued well into the 1950s, when finally all remaining DPs were granted the status of "expatriate residents" in Germany. This book is the first comprehensive study of the free mailing privilege granted to Displaced Persons in the British Zone of Germany in 1945-49. Mail service for Displaced Persons mail was allowed by the British and Americans long before similar services became available again for the German populace. As an added complication, the British Military Government assigned coded addresses to the camps located in their zone, and until now it had been virtually impossible to decode this system. Strobel has finally been able to do so through intensive study of formerly inaccessible documents in German and British archives. The book has charts listing all known camps and centers in the British Zone of Occupation by code number, alphabetically by location, and by the numbers of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, the International Refugee Organization und private relief teams responsible for them. In addition, a list of British Field Post Office numbers in Germany, as well as of unit numbers of the Britsh Army of the Rhine help to make the history of Displaced Persons and their mails far clearer and easier to understand than they ever were before.

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BFPO Enquiries Team

British Forces Post Office
West End Road
Ruislip
Middlesex
HA4 6DQ
Tel: 08457 69 79 78
Email the BFPO Enquiries Team at desbfpo-enquiries@mod.uk