Kriegsgefangenenpost Stalag XIIi

I recently purchased this because Hogan's Heroes was filmed just a few streets away from where I lived as a youth.

I can't read it but it does bring back memories of the television show.

My dear little one, François and Yvonne are there. Mrs Bonnardelle has just left. We went together to Papa's grave for All Saints' Day. We talked about you and what you did when you were a child. François also sent you parcels of linen, shirts, boxers, etc.. We hope that you received them well,as well as mine. We embrace you all three very tenderly and so do your uncles and aunts - Mum -

Thanks for that translation Vayolene , me reading into those statements tells me there was some people that were part of the "labor group " not all were P.O.W's

I've never seen those Hogan's Heroes stamps before. Cinderellas?

From the website: https://www.uncommon-travel-germany...alag_13.html

Life in Oflag and Stalag 13 became grim as the war neared its end. The Germans were running out of food and fuel and having difficulty getting supplies for the prisoners.

A Red Cross report following an inspection of Oflag 13B by the Swiss in March, 1945, revealed dreadful conditions.

Daily calories provided by the Germans were 1050 per day, down from 1700 calories earlier. The average temperature in the barracks was 20 degrees F (or -7 degrees C) due to lack of fuel.

Many men were sick and malnourished, and morale and discipline were low. No Red Cross packages had reached the Americans since they started arriving in January. They only reason they didn't starve was the generosity of the Serbian officers, who shared their packages.

On April 6, 1945, the 47th Tank Battalion liberated Lager Hammelburg without a fight. Lt. Col. Waters was still there, recuperating in the hospital with some other sick or wounded men. Otherwise, the only prisoners left were the Serbian officers and the Polish and Yugoslavian enlisted men.

Several days later, the tank battalion left to rejoin the fighting, leaving a supply unit at the camp. For the next month, no one was in charge of the POW's and there was widespread looting of the surrounding villages, including Hammelburg.

When peace came with the German surrender on May 8, 1945, the Americans returned to occupy Lager Hammelburg and restored order in the town. The remaining prisoners were sent home.

The Americans continued to occupy the camp until 1956. They renamed it Camp Denny Clark, after a medic who was killed in action.

The northern part of the Stalag 13 was used to intern former Nazi Party members. The camp also housed large numbers of German refugees who had fled the advancing Russian army in eastern Germany as well as ethnic Germans who had been expelled from areas of Poland and Czechoslovakia.

"Kriegsgefangenenpost" (Prisoner of War Mail)

Thank you for the history.
pat