Šilutė 1944

This is a P.O.W. postage free luftpost / airmail cover sent in 1944 from Heydekrug (now Šilutė, Lithuania) to Camp Ellis in New York, NY in the U.S. Heydekrug / Šilutė is known to be the location of the only major POW camp in Memelland but it is just coincidence, this card has nothing to do with the POW camp in Heydekrug. It is a cover sent from a family member of the German officer held as a prisoner in Ellis island in New York. It has traces of the censorship by both authorities, American and German. The returning address is written as the post office of Tennetal, Kreis Heydekrug. Tennetal was called Ramutten but renamed by the Nazi authotiry on May 1st 1939 until the end of the WWII. Today it is called Ramučiai. 

Vilnius 1944

The sender's address: Kreis/Powiat Wilno (Vilnius), Ostland

Vilnius C. (Central post office) 8. 4. 1944

Last month I have posted a WWII German POW stationery card used in September 1940 when Vilnius was under Soviet occupation. This card is visually identical but this time Vilnius is under German occupation. It is a detached answer part of a round trip double POW porto free stationery sent on 8 April 1944 from Vilnius, Ostland to Stalag IV A in Hohnstein, Sächsische Schweiz / Saxon Switzerland (not "the" Switzerland, it was part of Germany and still is now), Germany. On July 1944, Vilnius has been recaptured by the Red Army which marks the end of WWII in Vilnius but it was only the matter of one occupation being replaced by another.

Vilnius arrival cancellation 1940

This is a detached forwarding part of a porto free POW round trip double postal stationery sent in 1940 from the Oflag II-C located in Woldenberg (now Dobiegniew, Poland) to Vilnius, Lithuania SSR. Oflag is the abbreviation of the German word "Offizierslager" which was a officers only prisoner of war camp. The sender is obviously a Polish officer (the name Bohdan- is clearly Slavic) writing to his family member in Vilnius. Himself taken prisoner by the German and his homeland occupied by the Russian, it must be devastating. It looks like while he was at war, the address changed from Napoleono (today's S. Daukanto aikštė/square in Vilnius) to J.Vaižganto street. It has a nice arrival cancel of the post office Vilnius 6! The card is stampless because POW were able to send post for free basically when they write on this particular postal stationery. By the way, Oflag II-C Woldenberg had its own stamp with some of it Lithuanian themed design.

Kudirkos Naumiestis 1918

This is a Postgebiet ob. Ost overprinted postal stationery sent in 1918 from Wladislawow (now Kudirkos Naumiestis, Lithuania) to the Kriegsgefangenenlager Stammlager (P.O.W. camp) in Preußisch Holland (now Pasłęk, Poland). The sender's name is a certain Anton Kunzaitis and it is addressed to Konstantin Kunzaitis (or Kuncaitis?), probably held as a prisoner in Preußisch Holland. The card has a postmark of Wladislawow but the sender's address is in Gielgudischki (now Gelgaudiškis, Lithuania) which probably derives from the Polish name Giełgudyszki, located just 1km south west of the famous Panemunė Castle (Not Panemunė, the former Memelgebiet town!) and according to the card, it used to be part of the postal district of Kreis Wladislawow, postamt Szaki (now Šakiai, Lithuania).
By the way, the famous English actor John Gielgud's descendants are from a Polish noble family of Lithuanian origin who owned Giełgudyszki.

Šilutė 1944

This is an interesting P.O.W. camp cover sent on 14 March 1944 from the Stalag Luft 6 in Heydekrug (now Šilutė, Lithuania) to the British Red Cross in London. UK. "kriegsgefangenenpost" (written on the top of the cover) is franking-free P.O.W. (prisoner of war) post. It looks like the author is a British officer named Sergeant A.G. Fripp. According to Wikipedia, "Stalag" is an abbreviation for Stammlager which itself is also an abbreviation of "Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschafts-Stammlager" which is the term used for the prisoner of war camps. Considering the absence of reinforcements and supplies, the Germans defended Memelland effectively, it was only on January 1945 that Soviet forces fully gained the district of Memel/Klaipėda.