• Relatives could send personal, or ‘next-of-kin’ parcels to POWs four times a year. They were allowed to write to a POW whenever they wanted, but there were a number of rules to remember:

• Most POWs in Germany were not allowed to write more than two letters and four postcards a month
• Letters to POWs could only be two sides of notepaper, any longer and they would be delayed or even stopped
• No information to do with the armed forces or the war effort was allowed – for instance, which unit someone belonged to, or what special job someone was doing. People were discouraged from talking about politics or food and rations as well
• No photographs or drawings were allowed to go with the letter. In fact, no enclosures were allowed at all.

• Imagine how difficult it must have been to not mention any of these things, when you were trying to write to a relative and let them know how you and the family were.

• This is an extract of a letter from a POW to the JWO thanking them for sending food parcels:

• To help ease relatives worries about their loved ones in POW camps, in 1942 the JWO started a magazine called Prisoner of War, which had news and photographs from the camps.