German Pow Postcards

These came with a lot I recently purchased online.

Interesting cards Rileysan

I collect these cards and covers from POW camp either in Canada or from Canadian POWs located in Germany.

I also live only 14 miles (22KM) north of a POW camp that was in this area during WW II

Chimo

Bujutsu

I'm mildly amused by the form letter on the top postcard. I've done my best to translate. () denote words or phrases I'm unsure of. Any help offered would be appreciated.

"I am still alive and am (sheltered? Situated?) in British American Russian hands"

"I am well hospitalized and my address is below. Please (send a card as soon as possible?)"

Brian

Bumping this old thread to share with this forum a German POW postcard from my own postal history collection written the same month as "The Great Escape." (This is an American soldier in a German POW camp.)

Linus

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing!

At least one of the tunnels (Tunnel Harry) is marked with granite slabs at the former site of Stalag Luft III.

That post card is a great philatelic-historical connection.

Robert

Just in case anyone wants to know: the original reads the following:

Top right

A member of the defeated army (Wehrmacht = defence force, but also the German designation for its army) seeks his next of kin.

Centre:

I am still alive and am (befinden = encounter/find oneself) at the time (z. Z. = zur Zeit) in British hands.
I am well (stricken is "in hospital). My address is as below. Please, return the card forthwith.

The text below the word "Kriegsgefangenenlager" (War prisoner camp) and keeping as close to the German text reads:

My beloved Edith!
Hopefully this message will reach you very soon, such that you can be without worry. I am good, am healthy. Hopefully, it is well with you and the boy. Heartfelt greetings and kisses to (?) all beloved, your Kurt.

At a show, I actually found a couple of these addressed to someone I knew as a boy. He was a man named Adrien Boutrelle, who was very famous at one time as a very important philatelic photographer. I believe the cards were from his brother, who was an early POW.

This June 28, 1943 card shows that Yugoslavian POW Mimodor Kindij was being held at Stalag XVII-A in Austria.

From Wikipedia, "Stalag XVII-A was a Wehrmacht prisoner-of-war camp located to the south of the town of Wolfsberg, in the southern Austrian state of Carinthia...Officially, the camp was liberated by elements of the British 8th Army on 11 May, 1945. In fact the prisoners had been in control of the camp since the 8th, the day of the German surrender."