Contents of Red Cross Parcels

Discussion in 'Prisoners of War' started by David Layne, May 9, 2012.

  1. David Layne

    David Layne Well-Known Member

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  2. Varasc

    Varasc Senior Member

    Great comparison David, very interesting for whatever WWII POW search project.. Thanks indeed for sharing.
     
  3. South

    South Member

    Thank you for putting this up. Grandad Charlie was a POW and spoke of the Red Cross parcels and I had been wondering what was in them. He told us a story about one of the Prisoners dying, and they buried him in the Union Flag and when they refused to do the Nazi salute at the funeral, their Red Cross parcels were with held for quite a while!
     
  4. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Great stuff.
    Took the liberty of transcribing so it can be picked up by Googlers who might be looking into this stuff - pretty authentic source.

    Contents of Red Cross Parcels

    American:
    8 oz. Cocoa or 2 'D' Bars.
    6 Oz. Jam.
    1 Oz. Salt & Pepper.
    12 Biscuits 'K2'.
    1 Lb. Prunes.
    12 Oz. Bully Beef.
    12 oz. Meat & veg. or Spam.
    6 Oz. Meat Pate.
    8 Oz. Cheese.
    1 Lb. Powdered Milk.
    8 Oz. Sugar.
    1 Lb Oleomargarine.
    4 Oz. Soluble Coffee.
    8 Oz. Salmon or 2 Sardines.
    2 Soap.
    80 Cigarettes.
    7(?) Vit. C Tablets.

    Canadian:
    5 Oz. Chocolate.
    1 Lb. Jam.
    1 Oz. Salt & Pepper.
    12 Biscuits.
    6 Oz. Prunes.
    12 Oz. Bully Beef.
    10 Oz. Ham.
    7 Oz. Raisins.
    4 Oz. Cheese.
    1 Lb. Powdered Milk.
    8 Oz. Sugar.
    1 Lb, Butter.
    6 Oz. Coffee or 4 Oz. Tea.
    8 Oz. Salmon.
    1 Sardine.
    1 Soap.

    English:
    4 Oz. Chocolate.
    8 Oz. Jam.
    1 tin Egg Powder (2 Oz. Approx.).
    8 Oz. Service Biscuits.
    8 Oz, Prunes or Apricots.
    12 Oz. Meat Roll.
    16 Oz. Meat & Veg.
    4 Oz. Oatmeal.
    1 Soap.
    3 Oz. Cheese.
    1 Tin Condensed Milk.
    4 Oz. Sugar.
    8 Oz. Margarine.
    4 Oz. Cocoa.
    2 Oz. Tea.
    8 Oz. Salmon or 8 Oz. Bacon.
    1 Pancake Powder or 1 Creamed Rice or 1 Apple Pudding.

    Argentine Bulk:
    3 Oz. Bully Beef.
    5 Oz. Meat & Veg.
    3 Oz. Ragout.
    2 Oz. Corned Mutton.
    4 Oz Pork & Beans.
    5 Oz. Butter.
    2 Oz. Lard.
    2 Oz. Honey.
    5 Oz. Jam.
    2 Oz. Milk Jam (?).
    4 Oz. Condensed Milk.
    8 Oz. Sugar.
    7 Oz. Cheese.
    8 Oz. Biscuits.
    1 oz. Pea & Lentil Flour.
    3 Oz. Chocolate.
    2 Oz. Cocoa.
    1 Oz. Tea.
    1 Soap.
    3 Oz. Dried Fruit.
     
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  5. Springbok

    Springbok Junior Member

    My late father-in-law was in camp 52 and my mother-in-law said he always preferred the Canadian parcels. I don't know why, but if he got one of the others he would always try and exchange it.

    Seeing the list of contents here, there are many similarities, so I still don't know why he found the Canadian one more to his liking.
     
  6. David Layne

    David Layne Well-Known Member

    One must presume German POWs also received Red Cross parcels, does anyone have any information about this?
     
  7. RosyRedd

    RosyRedd Senior Member

    That list is great David. Thanks for posting it.
     
  8. Jakob Kjaersgaard

    Jakob Kjaersgaard Senior Member

    Thanks for sharing this and your recent postings.
     
  9. geoff501

    geoff501 Achtung Feind hört mit

  10. RosyRedd

    RosyRedd Senior Member

    My late father-in-law was in camp 52 and my mother-in-law said he always preferred the Canadian parcels. I don't know why, but if he got one of the others he would always try and exchange it.

    Seeing the list of contents here, there are many similarities, so I still don't know why he found the Canadian one more to his liking.

    Just come across this recollection of Bruce Ismay Cheape's about Canadian Red Cross Parcels:

    ...a lot of people, families, seemed to be able to fill up a lot of their from home parcels with large quantities of chocolate which was a wonderful currency of trading and then, when the Canadian Red Cross came into the equation, they used to send enormous numbers in bulk of cigarettes for everybody's benefit. Things called Sweet Caporal, the one thing that we would always trade with the Germans for a white loaf of bread or whatever, cigarettes were always..with the German guards. I daresay they could probably buy a lot of civilian goods because they had a supply of decent cigarettes or relatively decent cigarettes.
     
  11. Drayton

    Drayton Senior Member

    One must presume German POWs also received Red Cross parcels, does anyone have any information about this?

    As the name implies, Red Cross parcels were organised through the International Red Cross, and they were only done on a reciprocal basis, i.e., that the parcels were made available to both sides of any pair of belligerent countries. It is not at all surprising that the contents were very similar, because the cintents themselves were organised by the Red Cross, on the basis of what was easily available, would travel well - in terms of not easily damaged or perishable - and would be generally acceptable as "extras" rather than basic food, which the holding country had to supply under international law.

    The withholding of Red Cross parcels would have been a breach of international law, and the matter could have been reported to the "protecting power" which each country appointed on behalf of its prisoners.
     
  12. Bullhead

    Bullhead Junior Member

    My grandfather kept a diary when he was a POW, and he constantly refers to the Canadian parcel. I didn't realize until I came across this site that parcels came from different parts of the world and were issued out at the camp. I'm not sure of the date but it's around 1945. He mentions he's approx 200 miles from Brenner Pass, taking of Crete, Norway. He also talks about POW'S being transferred to Stalag XXB.

    Thought I'd share.
     
  13. Varasc

    Varasc Senior Member

    Very interesting topic.
    I am writing the first chapters of my book and, from several sources, I found an intriguing detail - I hope this won't be too off-topic in this thread.

    According to these books, the British MI9 provided a simple secret code to some of the largest POW camps in Italy, mostly on silky sheets hidden in tin and other stuffs, placed in common Red Cross parcels. This, because the secret service knew that many POW camps owned clandestine, rudimental radios.
    This code was then used for the famous "stay put" order, by which the senior officers in the Italian camps were ordered to keep the prisoners inside the camps at the Armistice. This obviously led to the easy capture of about 24.000 prisoners by the incoming Germans, while other escaped in spite of this order, radioed from London during famous transmissions of a reverend (or from the Cairo, according to several other data). At present I am away from home and I don't remember his name.

    I was very surprised to know about such a risky affront to the international laws; if discovered, this secret system of communication would have blocked the dispatch of parcels in the whole occupied Europe.

    Maybe you know more about that?
    Thanks,

    Marco
     
  14. Toby

    Toby Member

    Attached Files:

  15. Drayton

    Drayton Senior Member

    Very interesting topic.
    I am writing the first chapters of my book and, from several sources, I found an intriguing detail - I hope this won't be too off-topic in this thread.

    According to these books, the British MI9 provided a simple secret code to some of the largest POW camps in Italy, mostly on silky sheets hidden in tin and other stuffs, placed in common Red Cross parcels. This, because the secret service knew that many POW camps owned clandestine, rudimental radios.
    This code was then used for the famous "stay put" order, by which the senior officers in the Italian camps were ordered to keep the prisoners inside the camps at the Armistice. This obviously led to the easy capture of about 24.000 prisoners by the incoming Germans, while other escaped in spite of this order, radioed from London during famous transmissions of a reverend (or from the Cairo, according to several other data). At present I am away from home and I don't remember his name.

    I was very surprised to know about such a risky affront to the international laws; if discovered, this secret system of communication would have blocked the dispatch of parcels in the whole occupied Europe.

    Maybe you know more about that?



    Like a number of books supposedly about the war, the ones you mention have more to do with the authors' unhelpfully fanciful imaginations than actual fact. The whole point about Red Cross parcels is that the items were selected and packed directly and solely by the Red Cross, precisely to guarantee their integrity, and prevent any interference by any party, however well-meaning.

    There are accounts of varying reliability about messages being passed to prisoners by various means, including ordinary words used as codes in letters, but talk of involving the Red Cross is a clear distortion.
     
  16. RosyRedd

    RosyRedd Senior Member

    These menu lists from Oflag VB in Biberach detail the food on offer there to the PoWs in July & September 1941. Can really understand why the Red Cross Parcels were so important.

    (TNA reference WO 224/72 - kindly copied by Lee - PsyWar.Org)

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    [​IMG]
     
  17. Drayton

    Drayton Senior Member

    I note that bread is not mentioned, even though margarine is. It must be be assumed that some bread - probably German rye bread - was provided for supper, and possibly also for breakfast, which otherwise was only coffee.
     
  18. David Layne

    David Layne Well-Known Member

    An extract of my account of my father's experience of the Spring March of Stalag Luft III from Milag-Marlag to Trenthorst.

    April 23rd 1945 saw them arrive at Hamberge on the outskirts ofLubeck. The prisoners went through their regular routines of forage and setting up mess having been billeted in barns throughout the town.

    At this time their supposed destination was Lubeck but the Senior British Officer had received a report of typhus in the camp at Lubeck, along with food shortages, and a city swollen with refugees. A decision was taken that the Senior British Officer and other high ranking officers would journey to Lubeck and investigate conditions there.

    The prisoners were to stay where they were until thing got settled. The following day a supply of American Red Cross parcels arrived from Lubeck along with a rare issue of German rations comprised of 1 tin of bread per man and a little wurst.
     
  19. RosyRedd

    RosyRedd Senior Member

    I have read in some PoW accounts that a loaf of bread was issued between a number of PoWs who were responsible for sharing it out equally amongst themselves. They also had to make it last until the next delivery - whenever that happened to be. Perhaps it's for this reason, that the bread ration is not included in the lists?
     
  20. phylo_roadking

    phylo_roadking Very Senior Member

    Like a number of books supposedly about the war, the ones you mention have more to do with the authors' unhelpfully fanciful imaginations than actual fact. The whole point about Red Cross parcels is that the items were selected and packed directly and solely by the Red Cross, precisely to guarantee their integrity, and prevent any interference by any party, however well-meaning.

    There are accounts of varying reliability about messages being passed to prisoners by various means, including ordinary words used as codes in letters, but talk of involving the Red Cross is a clear distortion.


    And yet...

    See Airey Neave's comments about Red Cross parcels in "Saturday at MI9". Reading that, you'd be forgiven for thinking the entire Red Cross parcel system was compromised...! :huh:
     

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