Developing A WWII Story Involving Stamps And Doing Some Research. I Need Some Expert Help!

Hello!

This is my first post. My brother and I are developing a story about an American POW in a German camp during WWII. One of the plot points involves postage stamps. I realized I knew absolutely nothing about the use of stamps during WWII, so I decided to seek out help from a philatelist (just learned that word today! ) Here goes:

For the plot point of our story, we would like to have a POW licking and affixing stamps (perhaps he's forced to work in the mail room of the camp?). For our purposes, it doesn't matter whether he's sending letters on behalf of other POWs or on behalf of the Germans, so we'd take whichever is most plausible! A few questions:

- Does anyone know if letters sent from German POW camps during WWII indeed used postage stamps? If so, would these more likely be used on letters from POWs or from Germans?

- If stamps were used, would they come in a roll, on a sheet, or in some other form?

- If stamps were used, would they be ones that someone would have to moisten (by licking, using a sponge, etc)?

Any guidance or knowledge would be very useful and greatly appreciated! Thanks!

A while ago I read about Red Cross regularly sending food parcels to prison camps, through neutral countries. On occasions, apparently, Red Cross representatives were allowed to take mail from prisoners - always censored by the Germans: I believe the prisoners were handling the letters to German personnel and it was the Germans placing them in envelopes and addressing them.
Please check the Red Cross data available! Most likely you will get plenty more information directly from them.
Good luck with the story - when is ready please post a link here!

Hi byawk, and welcome to the forum. I have seen quite a few POW letters on this forum and I am pretty sure that they were mostly stampless. Bur if you like to make sure why not use the "search" function that you find on the top of each page on this site.
I wish you good luck with this,

Peter

I own a WWII stamp collection bought by my dad.....some 1,400 stamps during 6 phases of the war - Everything is inventoried and in a special Album - I have not seen anything (stamps) coming or leaving the camps, specifically. Your story is certainly valid but I cannot help, stampwise.

Rene

The great majority of POW mail is on official forms, censored, and sent free.

On a side note I think I read somewhere that the allies forged Axis stamps and dumped them in their respective countries to take away revenue from the country and hurt their war chest. Yes is this true??

3193zd, I never heard that one. I do know that they forged stamps for propaganda purposes.

Peter

To follow Peter's thought, I think the Allies had better things to do, don't you think ?

Not POW used stamps but interesting propaganda stamps.

https://www.hgitner.com/oss-forgeries.html

If you Google "POW mail from Germany to U.S." and just look at images you'll see a lot of various examples of WWII POW mail. Many examples did not use stamps at all, but some did. For the postcards that did use postage stamps it seems to always be an Adolf Hitler definitive stamp of various face values. No envelopes were used, but just special postcards labeled - Kriegsgefangenenpost. There were limits as to how much mail POWs were allowed to send - just a couple or few postcards per month. All the mail was also passed by German censors.

Letters and post cards did not need stamps . After a letter was written and it could only discuss basic stuff . The letter unsealed where turned over to the capturer for censorship and then delivered to the Red Cross ,who in turn , turn it over to the military for review and then placed in the mails. The Red Cross supplied stationary in many cases .

There were stamps used on mail from concentration camps, but they were put on by the Germans as far as I know.

Here is the only one I have that has a stamp on it. This was done (paid for by the prisoner) so that the card would be sent by air mail (faster) to the recipient. The boxed, violet "par avion" is only a partial strike. The American and German censor stamps can be seen.

It appears that private Carpenter was anxious to get back to his old job in the USA as a railroad worker. He uses the phrase "keep em rolling", and signs off as "railfully, Bill".

Regular mail to & from POWs was free, but there was an extra charge for Airmail hence the stamps found on some POW mail.

Here's a link to an incredibly detailed article regarding NZ POW mail, although the basic info is applicable to POWs of other countries.

http://www.nzstamps.org.uk/air/panam/pow.html

So, the answer to the original query is, no, stamps were not generally used for POW mail unless it was being sent airmal in which case a German 40RPF stamp would be attached. These came in sheets (of 100 stamps I would think). How that stamp would be attached is a matter for more research. The German censor would have had some sort of mail-room & I suspect stamps could be purchased there & that would be individually I think.

I don't see POWs having access to full sheets of stamps or even stamps in general. Mail was strictly rationed, typically once a month or some such, & having access to stamps meant that extra mail could be smuggled out & placed in the regular civilian postal system, definitely a no-no.

Some items from my collection.

1944 Dec 12, From Krakau to a POW in Stalag XI A, Germany



1943 Feb 27, From a POW in Oflag VII A, Murnau, to Thorn, Germany



Finally, yes, stamps were used on concentration camp mail. In this case it's from the prison or work camp sections of Aschwitz. There was no mail from the extermination section.

1941 Feb 8 Auschwitz to Konigshutte, Upper Silesia

"Keep them rolling " is a illegal statement on a POW postcard and should never got by the censors . The "Railfully" is also a problem . I question that card as being real .

are you kidding me .....I would write a message on the back side of the stamp and then glue the stamp so no censor could see it .