9th October 1939
Polish Internment
Postcard from a Polish officer interned in the Calimanesti Camp to an address in Warsaw. Featuring cachets from the Romanian Red Cross and the Deutsches Okupationsgebiet Osten Dienstpost (scarce). Stamp Mi.494. Ref: 09.10.1939.
FROM TWITTER:
IMHO fake: There is no sign of any Romanian or German censorship. The designation would be Deutsche Dienstpost Osten & doesn't make any sense on incoming mail. It's Okkupationsgebiet (with 2 'k'). I have never heard of any German cancel with the word 'Okkupation'.
FROM G&CPS:
'The rate of 7 Lei is correct for October 1939. The increase to 8 Lei in the UPU rate was from 1 Dec 1939.
Until the end of 1938 there had been a concessionary rate to Poland. For the last two months of 1938 this had been 5 Lei.
Rate info from Calin Marinescu’s book (1993 edition).' Ref: Rex.
'In my collection I have three postcards similar to your own, but all of mine come from the internment camp near Targu-Jiu. They all have the two line cachet reading Deutsches Okupationsgebiet Osten Dienstpost (in red) with the circular Romanian Red Cross handstamp close by. They were posted separately in January, February and March 1940. None of these cards show signs of German censorship: this goes for possibly half of the postcards and covers in my collection. I see no reason why your card should not be considered genuine.' Ref: Albert
Polish-Romanian Internment 1939
POLAND 1939: After the German invasion on1st September 1939 and that of the Soviets on17th September 1939, the government of the Second Polish Republic, Polish military units and the multitudes of civilians accompanying them were forced to cross the southern border of the country and move into Romanian terrain. The soldiers and members of government were interned. In total, about 50,000 refugees found themselves in Romanian territory. They were quartered in various places from Banat through to Wallachia, and as far as Dobrogea. In Câmpulung-Muşcel, an internment camp for Polish soldiers existed from September 1939 to March 1940. In this place Polish refugees spent the entire war, in numbers of anywhere from a few dozen to as many as several hundred at a time. One person who stayed in Câmpulung-Muşcel was long-serving functionary of the MSW (Ministry of Internal Affairs) Security Division, Stefan Szymborski, who died in 1941 and was buried in the local cemetery. A Polish preschool and school were in operation and in the summer there were musical concerts. The Commander in Chief of the Polish army, Marshal Edward Śmigły-Rydz was lodged in a special place in the nearby town of Dragoslavele from the autumn of 1939. In December 1940 he escaped from his place of internment and found himself in Budapest, where he lived under a false name. From there he managed to enter occupied Poland. Most of the Polish refugees left Câmpulung-Muşcel for their home country after the end of the war in Europe. Those who did not want to return to a country ruled by communists emigrated to Great Britain, the USA and South America.
Also see article on Polish-Romanian Military Co-operation here
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