July 2018 - Sneak Peek

Intelligence and counterintelligence have always played
crucial roles during wartime. Vigilance against the surreptitious
passing of messages to the enemy can make the difference
between victory and defeat, and it has long been documented
that the mails were an important means of sending
clandestine information. Seemingly innocuous letters and
postal cards have been known to have been written in code,
contain microprinting on the back of postage stamps or secret
writing in invisible ink.
The postal card shown [at left and below] is a good example
of means used to thwart the clandestine passing of
information. The card was mailed from Kalmar, Sweden, to
“Rotary International” in Zurich, Switzerland. The card was
posted on February 8, 1945, only months prior to the end
of World War II. Despite its status as a neutral country, or
perhaps because of it, Sweden was a backdrop for international
espionage. Because of the flow of diplomats, businessmen,
and refugees, Stockholm has been referred to by some
sources as the “Casablanca of the North.”
Switzerland was another one of only eight neutral European
countries in World War II. The others were Portugal,
Spain, Ireland and the postage stamp-sized countries of Vatican,
Liechtenstein and Andorra. So, it’s not surprising that
mail between Sweden and Switzerland would be especially
scrutinized by the Germans. Like most items mailed throughout
Europe during the war, the card shown was subjected to
German military censorship, as indicated by the Nazi censorship
marking in red, along with the red “714,” presumably
another censorship marking. It contains a rather mundane
message, written in German, which translates as follows:
January 27, I sent you my account for January, which had as a
total sum 354.40 Swedish Crowns, and I also asked you to send
me a sum of 450 Swedish Crowns for the costs of the Radiorede
(translation unknown), requested by the directors on February
23. Please telegraph me if you have received these letters and
answered.
With warmest regards,
C.H. Trolle
Please send me a copy of the last Rotary directory of Europe.
The particularly interesting aspect of this card is that in
addition to the censor markings, it also was tested for secret
handwriting by brushing a chemical such as copper sulfate
across the front and back of the card. I am among those
who think this can occasionally be seen as a blue streak on
German-censored covers, particularly those sent by foreign
workers in Germany or on postal items sent to or from international
organizations. This card, which was not addressed
to any individual by name, would seem to have been a prime
candidate for espionage activity.
A C. Harald Trolle, of Kalmar, Sweden, is listed in the
September 1945 issue of The Rotarian. He was named as the
newly appointed committee member responsible for the admission
of clubs for Continental Europe, North Africa and
the Eastern Mediterranean region. While the message may
be totally innocent, it contains enough numbers and dates to
be a coded missive.
Another prime candidate that could conceivably be rife
with subterfuge is a postal card shown from Portugal [Figure
1]. The card was posted in Lisbon, Portugal (Lisboa Central)
on June 4, 1943, and also was sent to Zurich. Once again,
two neutral countries were involved, one of which, Portugal,
is considered by most historians to have been the capital of
espionage during World War II.
The card was sent to a Mademoiselle E.P. Achard at 21
Boersenstrasse, Zurich, with a return address in Lisbon. It is
written in French and translates as follows:
Lisbon
June 4, 1943
Dear Mademoiselle,
I have just now received your letter of May 29, for which I
thank you. As for the question of reimbursements, let’s no longer
talk about it: I am very happy to be of some use to two sons
of my colleagues.
Please accept, dear mademoiselle, my best regards.
E. Bastof
Kalmar, Sweden
8 February 1945
On December 29 I sent you my bill for December (in original)
and on Dec. 30, a copy, but as of today, I have not heard
from you. Today, I received from you the Bulletin No. 2 of 25
January. Please check if you have received my invoice. It was
for 248.50 Swedish Crowns, part of which was for the director
and part of which was as a member of the committee. On
The woman apparently asked the writer for some sort of
favor to help the sons of a mutual acquaintance, to which the
writer agreed. As with the first postal card, this is apparently
a very innocent and innocuous correspondence. However,
there is a lightly stamped circular German “Oberkommando
der Wermacht” (OKW) postmark in red on the address
side – along the red graphic at top. On this postal card, the
secret writing detector brush strokes occur only on the mes-
JULY 2018 / AMERICAN PHILATELIST 647