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A PoWs needs, WW2.

I have been reading through some of the letters and cards, which my late father sent home, form Prison camps in Poland and Germany.
The communications were written on formal German noteletters and post cards, and heavily censored by the enemy. All the letters and cards were written and addressed in pencil and sent home between my father’s capture after Dunkirk and his repatriation at the end of 1943.
Whilst he speaks generally of being well treated, in the circumstances, he appears to have had several additional needs, both to sustain his well being and to pass the three long years of his captivity.
His priority need was for letters from home, especially those letters, which contained photos of his wife and two young sons.
Bacccy (cigs) cake and chocolate he deemed as luxuries and wanted all that could be got through to him, though he was mindful of the extra expense that parcels would burden his wife with. His wife worked during the war as both a domestic and as a seamstress sewing on flashes and other insignia to a variety of different military uniforms.
Socks soap, pullovers against the bitter cold and blacking for my fathers boots were also requested. He was also desperate to receive a pack of cards, an important item since time dragged so heavily for all the PoWs.
On his well being he oft noted, especially around Christmas time, how some men used to fashion makeshift dresses and dress pretending to be women when a dance party was instigated. He said they had a band and concerts at times and they played football and baseball, the Germans wanted, he said, ‘them all to keep fit’.
My father was repatriated at the end of 1943 he indicates because he was a non-combatant nurse. On his capture after helping to hold back the enemy so as to allow the great escape of Dunkirk to happen he was a bands-man soldier in the 1st Battalion Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry. Then, some time during his incarceration he was made a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps.

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