1945 SPLIT - Mail from Lika

Mail bearing the Split Provisional Issue stamps, posted in southern Lika, is rarely seen. The coastal and island post offices, where the newly issued stamps were mainly used, did not cover the Lika area. Censorship in Lika was also not part of the broader censorship system, so the unified censorship mark "CENZURIRANO / Br. N" was not applied there.

1945 Split Provisional Issue, registered letter, franked 50kn with No.4 and No.7 (2x) (20kn basic rate, 30kn registration fee), sent from Gospić Lika (24.VI.45) to Sesvete near Zagreb, censored my military censor in Gospič "★ / VOJNA CENZURA / GOSPIĆ / DANA 25 VI 1945" and initial.

Pre-overprinted parcel card for civilian internees

Preserved concentration camp mail is rare, but parcel cards are even rarer. I have encountered them only for a few parcels, all addressed to major camps in Italy. Most were returned to the sender because the addressee was unavailable—either transferred to another camp or deceased.

Recently, I discovered an intriguing parcel card pre-overprinted with the Italian Red Cross symbol and with some fields already prefilled in red. The field "Valore" (= Value) contains the inscription: "Pacco per prigioniero internato civile di guerra" (= Parcel for Interned Civilian Prisoner of War). The overprint was done using the letterpress technique, suggesting a large circulation. However, to date, I have only come across this single example.

Ljubljana Province, parcel card, pre-overprinted for Red Cross usage, for a 5kg parcel, sent from Ljubljana to Concentration Camp Arbe. The parcel was handed over to Ljubljana 2 Post Office on 9.11.42 and forwarded on 11.11.42. It passed through customs in Trieste on 13.11.42 and was delivered to the Arbe Post Office and the Concentration Camp on 17.11.42. However, because the addressee was unavailable, the parcel was marked for return to Ljubljana with the manuscript annotation "Al Mittente Retour Lubiana." The parcel returned to Ljubljana 2 Post Office on 26.12.42 and transferred to Ljubljana 1 Post Office on 28.12.42 with the label "Esente da diritti doganali / Prosto carine" (= Free of customs). On 29.12.42, a warehousing fee of 80 cents was applied before it was handed over to a representative of the Red Cross.

1943/44 ŠIBENIK - Mixed franking

In the spring of 1944, the Croatian Kuna was introduced as the regular currency. The postage was denominated in Kuna as follows: Postcard 2.00 Kn, Ordinary Letter 3.50 Kn, Registration Fee 9.00 Kn, and Express Delivery Fee 10.00 Kn. As all stamps were overprinted with the 3.50 Kn face value and in the absence of appropriate denominations, minor tariff divergences of one or two Kuna were tolerated. Mixed frankings with the First Šibenik Issue denominated in Italian Lira was calculated based on 1.00 Lira = 4.00 Kn.

Registered letter, franked with 10.50 kn and 80 cents, surcharged 2 kn with War Tax stamp, mixed franking of first and second Šibenik issue, sent from Šibenik (26.VII.44) to Osijek (4.VIII.44), censored in Osijek "CENZURA / 43 / OSIJEK". Since the addressee travelled away ("Otputovao / Parti"), the letter was returned (handwritten "Retur / Šibenik") via Split (21.VIII.44) to Šibenik. Certificate Zrinjšćak.