GPS April 2020

rational and method of censorship. The documents are photocopies
and are in English! We find, for instance (p. 33) that:
The main objects of censorship in the Protectorate are:
To prevent any trading, or attempt at trading, with the enemy.
To detect and prevent any action inimical to this administration.
Part 2 – Zensurstempel/Censor Cachets follows in the same cataloglike
fashion (pages 41-58). There is a lot of detailed information here:
cachets with information about time of use and place of use, as
well as a scarcity rating. Pages 59-61 are captioned as “Postsperre/
Detained letters” but unfortunately there is no translation of this
text. So the story is that after the mail services had worked well for
a year and a half, the British imposed a Postsperre - this was a blockade
– as far as I can ascertain – mail was ‘detained’ until early 1919.
The service was blocked because the British had demanded that
Germany provide similar service for Belgians in Europe to relatives
outside of German-occupied Belgium. Also, contrary to the Haag
Convention, the Postsperre was in extended to SW-African German
POW mail for the remainder of the war.
Part 3 – Zivilpost/Civil Mail was initially permitted, as long as
this was routed via intermediary neutral states. This was true for
mail going to Germany, as well as mail from Germany. This part lists
all the various organizations and routes available for civil mail. The
2 page introduction here should have been translated as well. The
following pages illustrate the topic with numerous covers which will
be helpful to those not reading German.
Part 4 – Die Post- und Lagerstempel in den Lagern für
Kriegsgefangene und Internierte aus Deutsch – Südwestafrika 1915-
1919 (the post office cancels and Camp cancels of German POWs
and Internees in German SW-Africa 1915-1919. The introduction to
this section is in both German and English. What follows for the next
100 pages is a listing of all the POW and civilian camps. Each Camp is
described by: 1) its location on a map; 2) person in the camp – sometimes
with names of officers; 3) time period of camp’s existence; 4)
camp commander; 5) postal service; etc. However, there is much
more here because, where available, the authors have provided
excellent background material. There are excerpts from letters and
memoirs; citations from official reports; list of daily rations for prisoners
(p. 127) – 1 and ¼ pounds of ‘fresh meat’/day - same as the
occupying forced received! A box of matches every week, a quarter
pound of tobacco; firewood and disinfectant etc. I suspect that
no soldier on the western front was that well supplied. This section
also features the various camp cancels and other markings. But
what impressed me most if the effort to provide a background and
138
German Postal Specialist