Libraries, Prisoners of War, and the Mail
Oflag IIC, Woldenberg,
Germany
World War II
Prisoner of War Camp for Polish Officers
I became aware of the internal postal service at some World War II prisoner of war camps in Germany through my fellow bibliophilatelist Jerzy Duda of Krakow, Poland. Jerzy has a website which includes information on the postal service at the prisoner of war camp for Polish officers at Woldenberg, Germany and how this service relates to his interest in bibliophilately. Click here to see Jerzy's information.
Jerzy sent me an example (see below) of a special postmark created by the prisoners in the camp to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the Polish book.
Image on
the reverse of the item above.
At the 2007 CHICAGOPEX stamp show in Chicago, I viewed an exhibit entitled "Internal Camp Post between 1942-1945 at Offizierlager IIC - Woldenberg" put together by Roman A. Sobus. This exhibit alerted me to the to the availability of library service in the camp. To view Roman's exhibit online click here.
Roman has given me permission to include some of the images of of postal items in his collection which were mailed from the libraries in the camp. These items, which are shown below, are perfect examples of what I call postal librariana.
Poland, Internal Camp post card from Oflag
IIC, Woldenberg, Post card sent from the camp's English Circulating Library,
mailed without postage, added 10f due stamp. Red pencil notation "pobrac"
(collect).
Reverse of
card above.
Poland, Internal Camp post card from Oflag IIC, Woldenberg, Post card sent from one of the camp's libraries, franked with a stamp from the Copernicus issues, and Soldiers Day cancel.
Another
variation of the postmark to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the printed book
in Poland.
Click
here to see the Wikepedia entry on Oflag IIC.