Red Cross, Displaced Persons Camps & Postage Exempt Civilian Mail

Wartime incoming civilian mail: 7 Feb 1940 postmarked stampless Red Cross postal card from BALASSAGYARMAT Hungary to TEL AVIV on bilingual French/Hungarian imprinted Red Cross stationary; noted "toll free" for internees of belligerent countries; passed Palestine censor T3 in TEL AVIV. Appears pre-stamped by Hungarian authority in Kóvár (Koláre), a Hungarian-occupied area of Slovakia as of March...

Red Cross Holocaust-era/WWII postal link: 8 APR 1940 cover on Belgian Red Cross stationary from BRUSSELS to HAIFA, franked 1.75Fr & tied by machine slogan cancel; subsequently opened by the Haifa censor at left & resealed with Sach-Q10 red/white label # 71/10833 & tied by H-29 boxed censor handstamp Sach-Q21; slit open at right. Just over a month after the date of dispatch Germany invaded Western ...

WWII Italian Jewish civilian internee mail: 9 JULY 1942 stampless cover on air mail stationary from AVELLINO Italy to HAIFA, manuscript marked "Prisoner of War Post | Civilian Wartime Internee Post" & tied by local postmark + local police headquarters cachet on front and Italian double-ringed censor inspection cachet on back; passed British military censor (numbered circle on reverse), Egyptian ci...

1950 1st airmail to Russian Zone: 8 FEB 1951 "Lacol" austerity period stationary airmail cover from JERUSALEM to old age home in "RUSSIAN ZONE" BERLIN "Germany" (East Germany) franked 40pr at the FA-2a period rate to Europe using left marginal full tabbed 40pr (Ba #34) tied by single strike of local postmark, with Israeli "zayin" censor cachet on front; handwritten arrival 14-II-51 on front; slit ...

1968 Communist Bloc unsanctioned Israeli militaristic franks on mail: 2 Jan 1968 postmarked airmail cover sent from RISHON LE ZION to CLUJ Romania; franked 0.40 Lira with 'Straits of Tiran' stamp (Ba #377) of the 1967 IDF Victory in Six Days War issue for the postage rate & tied by machine cancel; backstamped 6 Jan arrival + Romanian numbered sorting office handstamp. Remarkably the letter was not...

1969 Communist Bloc unsanctioned Israeli military franks on mail: 16 April 1969 postmarked airmail First Day Cover for Israel's Independence Day, sent from JERUSALEM (return addressed DIMONA) to BUCAREST Romania; franked 0.95 Lira with tabbed set of 1969 Independence Day stamp issue (Ba #422-423) for the 0.50L postage rate & tied by full strikes of the illustrated JERUSALEM-79 postmark; backstampe...

British WWI military mail in Egypt: 16 X 1915 British Red Cross/Order St. John stationary cover from ALEXANDRIA to LONDON, sent by Egyptian civilian post & not military post, so franked 5m at the letter rate & tied by 2 strikes of ALEXANDRIA-K postmark type A4; cover bears red "official" cachet of BRC/OSJ & would have been eligible for free postage via the British Army Post as of June. Opened at r...

Hungarian Polish internee mail: stampless 11 MAR 1942 hand-dated bilingual Hungarian & French postage-free Red Cross Prisoner of War postal card, from Anton Borsuk of the Royal Hungarian 1/2 "Polish Technical Labor Camp" (location not revealed - possibly the SZENTGYÖRGYMEZŐ region of the city of ESZTERGOM) to his wife in LEMBERG (LVOV) Poland/Generalgouvernement; the postcard is tied by a 2-line...