Search Constraints
Search Results
- Notes:
- These are samples of some of the correspondence Archibald Harte received from the relatives and friends of German and Hungarian prisoners seeking information about their loved ones in captivity. Many families lost contact with their fathers and sons on the Eastern Front and Harte's trips to Russia sparked some hope that these families could find out some information.
- Date Created:
- 1915-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Western Michigan University. Libraries
- Notes:
- German censors in prison camps always had to remain vigilant regarding the passage of secret messages in POW mail. Censors intercepted this French letter which experts deciphered.
- Date Created:
- 1918-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Western Michigan University. Libraries
- Notes:
- This is a photograph of the original letter, written in French; when exposed to certain chemicals, a secret message appeared. The Germans discovered the letter and were able to expose the secret message.
- Date Created:
- 1918-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Western Michigan University. Libraries
- Notes:
- French and Belgian workers deported from their homes by the Germans to relieve the empire's labor shortage used this type of post card to communicate with their families. This type of post card was used by workers in German-occupied France.
- Date Created:
- 1917-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Western Michigan University. Libraries
- Notes:
- Translation into German of the secret message found in a French prisoner's mail. The Allies used secret codes and chemicals to conceal messages in POW correspondence.
- Date Created:
- 1918-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Western Michigan University. Libraries
- Notes:
- The Allies used these groups of letters as the basis for their secret correspondence with a French prisoner in a German prison camp.
- Date Created:
- 1918-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Western Michigan University. Libraries
- Notes:
- The World's Alliance in Geneva ran a War Prisoners' Aid (WPA) Inquiry Office to help friends and relatives get in contact with missing friends and family members in prison camps. The Inquiry Office worked with the national WPA offices and various Ministries of War in belligerent countries to locate POW's and send them needed supplies.
- Date Created:
- 1918-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Western Michigan University. Libraries
- Notes:
- After capture, German prison camp administrators sent a post card with limited information (indicating whether the prisoner was sound, wounded, or ill) to a relative. Normally, such correspondence would have traveled post free through the international mails, but this post card received a British stamp when the card was forwarded from London to Illinois. The prisoner was an American volunteer in the Royal Flying Corps. Note the card originated at the prison camp at Limburg-an-der-Lahn and the addressee is instructed not to write back to the prisoner at that site. Limburg was a Durchgangslager (transfer camp) and some POW's remained at Limburg for only a short time before transfer to a permanent camp (Stammlager).
- Date Created:
- 1917-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Western Michigan University. Libraries
- Notes:
- A recuperating British officer, suffering from an arm wound, dictates a letter home to a German nurse while another nurse watches.
- Date Created:
- 1915-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Western Michigan University. Libraries
- Notes:
- German officers and interpreters open and review recently arrived mail searching for contraband and unauthorized information. Once the letters are censored, French prisoners will distribute the mail to their comrades in the camp at Darmstadt.
- Date Created:
- 1915-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Western Michigan University. Libraries
