F04_P01: Great Britain Declares War on Nazi Germany
1942 January 21, Front side - Post card from Corporal Jona Richfield at Stalag VIIIB to his wife in Tel-Aviv.
White post card with printed text and outline in German using black ink. Printed handwriting in English using pencil is present. At the top left, an overprint stamp reads, "Stalag VIIIB." At the right side, a cancellation dated January 21, 1942 is present.
Name/Title
F04_P01: Great Britain Declares War on Nazi GermanyEntry/Object ID
2008.4.61Scope and Content
1942 January 21, post card from Corporal Jona Richfield at Stalag VIIIB to his wife in Tel-Aviv.Context
On September 3, 1939, two days after Germany invaded Poland, Great Britain declared war on Germany. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain formed a new war cabinet, with Winston Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty (Navy Minister) and Anthony Eden as Secretary for the Dominions. Churchill and Eden had been the leading opponents of appeasing Adolf Hitler. Unusual mail from captured British soldiers: Colditz castle, designated Oflag IVC, was a special high security prison for captured Allied officers who had successfully escaped from other German prisoner-of-war camps. The May 5, 1943, formular POW post card was sent from Colditz inmate Lieutenant J.M. Moran to Scotland, censored at both ends of its travel. Corporal Jona Richfield, a Palestinian Jew, was held at Stalag VIIIB, the Lamsdorf, Germany (Lambinowice, Poland) prisoner-of-war camp. His card, send January 21, 1942, by air mail to his wife at Tel-Aviv, was rated 40 pfennigs postage due at its dispatch after passing the camp censorship, and was passed by a British censor at Cairo, Eqypt. During the winter of 1942-1943, several hundred Palestinian Jewish POWs were transferred from Lansdorf to slave labor detachments at Gliwice and Blechhammer. Letters and cards from POWs sent by air mail are seldom seen.Collection
Nazi Scourge II: Five Frame ExhibitCategory
Post Card
Philatelic Material