What Does "Heres" Mean On Cover To Germany?

I've seen "Heres" handwritten on many covers, such as this letter to a German WWII POW in France. What does it mean?

Very interesting. Could be the French word "Gares," which, loosely translated, means "station(s)" in English or German, with Drucksache meaning printed matter, of course. Old European script is difficult for me, but that's my best guess.

John

Could it be "Héros" (hero)?

Thanks John. Just to prove I'm not crazy, I'll post a few more with "Heres" written on them.

The postcards were not mailed to Germany as the heading of this question says, but to France. I believe the French word "hères" means wretch, and it looks like this word was penciled in later. Lots of European folks had bad things to say about the Germans just after the war - could this just be calling this POW bad names?

Peter

It's French. Hères is a town in the department of Haute-Pyrénées. The cards are all addressed (in slightly different ways) to Verner in Ariege department, not that far away. So this is probably a forwarding inscription. Less likely that it is a routing; this would be a roundabout route.

Oops, my bad - I was WAY off... Apologies.

John

Thanks for pointing out the town of Hères, hy-brasil. One thing that has confused me for a while, though, is the spelling. I think that the actual destination is Le Vernet, and not Le Verner, even though it is consistently spelled Verner on the letters. There was a Camp Vernet, in Le Vernet, Ariege, which was a German internment camp during the occupation of France. After the German surrender, it's likely that the camp was converted to a German POW camp.

Sorry, it is Le Vernet; also the department is Ariège, not Ariege. The writer is obviously a primary German speaker and probably copied (or tried to) what the recipient told them. A French speaker would not use "au"/at so many times in addressing a letter.

So, we have to wonder about what the recipient was doing away from the camp. Work furlough, maybe? And camp mail is still being censored in 1947?

Thanks again. If only I could read German, perhaps the letters could tell me the situation.

If you can show the backs of the ones not shown then perhaps someone can translate.

The last one sends birthday greetings; 4th line basically says 'we are glad to hear you are well'. Most of these messages to/from prisoners are pretty run-of-the-mill partly because censors often wouldn't allow much detail.

Sorry, but the translation of the last one is wrong.

It says:
Many birthday greetings, sent to you by Erna, and Mereke Frerichs.
We are happy how are you?
Are you as happy as we are?

It's a rhyme, but for me it doesn't make any sense to write that to a person in a prison camp.

But I found out how the story ended. Johann (Heien) Agena was released, came back to Germany and married Erna Saathoff. Erna died in 2001, and Johann in 2006 at the age of 91.

https://gw.geneanet.org/jagena?lang...eien&n=agena

Le Vernet (Ariège) No.172
https://prisonniers-de-guerre.fr/le...s-en-france/

http://www.cheminsdememoire.gouv.fr...ee-du-vernet


The camp changes under the Vichy regime. It becomes a repressive camp for suspicious foreigners. Forty thousand men, women and children were interned at the Vernet camp: volunteers from the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War, Spanish Republicans, Israelites, Italians, Russians, Germans, Anti-Nazis, Romanians, Yugoslavs, and ten other nationalities.

There were many types of Camps.Most people even today don't realize the extent of this.
http://www.histoire-et-philatelie.f...rtation.html


From this camp were deported between 1942 and 1944, six convoys to Auschwitz, Ile d'Avrigny and Dachau.___________________________________________________________________________________