Red Cross food parcels during the Second World War were mostly provided from the United Kingdom, Canada and America (after 1941). An Allied POW might receive any of these packages at any one given time, regardless of his or her own nationality. This was because all such packages were sent from their country of origin to central collection points, where they were subsequently distributed to Axis POW camps by the International Committee of the Red Cross. For POWs held by Axis forces in Europe the parcel route through
Lisbon required escorted ships to bring the crates of parcels, or for British, mail bags full of parcels, to Lisbon, there being no safe conduct agreement. In Portugal, parcels would be loaded onto
Red Cross marked ships with many taken through the
port of Marseilles, for onward freighting by rail to
Geneva, from where they would be sent to various camps by the
International Committee of the Red Cross. The route from Iberia to the South of France was not safe. The Red Cross ship
SS Padua was damaged by British bombing in
Genoa in 1942 and then sunk by a mine outside Marseilles in October 1943. The
SS Embla was bombed by British aircraft on 6 April 1944 causing a fire, and the same ship was attacked again on 20 April 1944, by American
B-26 bombers, who this time sank the ship and killed the ICRC agent. On 6 May the "Christina" was attacked while at anchor in
Sete. This latest act resulted in the ICRC suspending the route. The
Operation Dragoon invasion of Southern France, preliminary bombing in July and the actual invasion in August 1944 put a stop to rail transport and then
Marseilles being used by the Red Cross. The
SS Vega sailed to the alternative port of
Toulon with parcels in November 1944. On 8 May 1945, it was reported that 7,000,000 parcels, weighing were at sea or in warehouses in Britain, Lisbon, Barcelona, Marseilles, Toulon, Geneva and
Gothenburg. A Red Cross representative said that they were not perishable and could be used for distressed civilians and as a flexible reserve.
British food parcels During the Second World War, the British
Joint War Organisation sent standard food parcels, invalid food parcels, medical supplies, educational books and recreational materials to prisoners of war worldwide. During the conflict, over 20 million standard food parcels were sent. Typical contents of such a parcel included: • packet of tea • Tin of
cocoa powder • Bar of milk or plain chocolate (often
Cadbury Dairy Milk Fruit & Nut chocolate, or a similar product) • Tinned pudding • Tin of meat roll • Tin of
processed cheese • Tin of
condensed milk (
Klim—a Canadian instant milk beverage—or else Carnation or
Nestle brand) • Tin of
dried eggs • Tin of sardines or herrings • Tin of preserve • Tin of margarine • Tin of sugar • Tin of vegetables • Tin of biscuits • Bar of soap • Tin of 50 cigarettes or tobacco (sent separately—usually
Player's brand cigarettes, or Digger flake pipe tobacco). The Scottish Red Cross parcels were the only ones to contain
rolled oats. Approximately 163,000 parcels were made up each week during the Second World War. Sometimes, due to the shortage of parcels, two or even four prisoners would be compelled to share the contents of one Red Cross parcel. Even before America entered the war in late 1941, they were supplying, through Geneva, parcels to British, Belgian, French, Polish, Yugoslav, Dutch, Greek, Norwegian, and Soviet prisoners of war. The Philadelphia centre alone was producing 100,000 parcels a month in 1942. A list of the contents of a typical Red Cross parcel received by an American
airman held prisoner in
Stalag Luft I near
Barth, Germany on the
Baltic Sea: • can of powdered milk • One package ten assorted cookies • can of
oleo margarine • package of cube sugar • package of
Kraft cheese • package of
K-ration biscuits • can of
coffee • Two
D-ration chocolate bars • can of jam or
peanut butter • can of salmon or
tuna • can of
Spam or corned beef • can of
liver paté • package of raisins or prunes • Five packages of cigarettes • Seven
vitamin-C tablets • Two bars of soap • of
C-ration vegetable soup concentrate. According to this airman, recipients of these parcels were permitted to keep only the cigarettes and chocolate bars; the remainder of the parcel was turned over to the camp cook, who combined them with the contents of other parcels and German POW rations (usually bread, barley, potatoes, cabbage and
horse meat)
Canadian food parcels The
Canadian Red Cross reported assembling and shipping nearly 16,500,000 food parcels during the Second World War, at a cost of $47,529,000. The Canadian Red Cross Prisoners of War Parcels Committee was led by Chairman Harold H. Leather, M.B.E., of Hamilton, Ontario and Vice Chairman
John Draper Perrin of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Contents of the Canadian parcel included: • of milk powder • of butter • of cheese • of
corned beef • of
pork luncheon meat • of salmon • of sardines or
kippers • of dried apples • of dried prunes or raisins • of sugar • of jam or honey • of
pilot biscuits • of chocolate • of salt and pepper (mustard, onion powder and other condiments were also sometimes enclosed) • of tea or coffee • of soap. Prisoners parcels included: • of tea • can of corned
mutton • can of
lamb and green peas • of chocolate • of butter • of coffee and milk • of sugar • of peas • of jam • of
condensed milk • of cheese • of raisins. Unlike the American and British parcels, Canadian and New Zealand Red Cross parcels did not include cigarettes or tobacco.
Indian food parcels Indian parcels, supplied by the
Indian Red Cross Society, contained: • fruit in syrup •
lentils • toilet soap • flour • 8 biscuits • margarine • Nestle's Milk • rice •
pilchard •
curry powder • sugar •
dried eggs • tea • salt • chocolate
South African parcels From the British South African Red Cross.
Invalid food parcels Invalid parcels were specifically designed for invalids, i.e. disabled or ill prisoners. The contents varied, but what appears to be a British one contained: • 2 tins
Yeatex • 3 tins concentrated soup powder • 1 tin
gooseberries • 1 tin
Horlicks • 1 tin
Ovaltine • 1 tin milk powder • 2 tins
dried eggs • 1 block of chocolate • 1 tin cheese • 1 tin
condensed milk • 2 tins compressed oats • tea • 1 tin creamed rice • 1 tin
Rowntree's cocoa • 1 tin lemon curd At the
Changi prison camp run by the Japanese in
Singapore, an average POW received a fraction of one food parcel in the three-and-a half years that the camp was open.
Food parcels in the German concentration camps In November 1943, the Red Cross received permission from Nazi German authorities to send Red Cross parcels to inmates of
concentration camps, but only to those whose names and specific locations were known. By May 1945, 105,000 specific individuals had been identified. About 1,112,000 parcels containing 4,500 tons of food were ultimately sent to the camps, including those at
Dachau,
Buchenwald,
Ravensbrück,
Sachsenhausen,
Theresienstadt and
Auschwitz. In addition to food, these parcels also contained clothing and pharmaceutical items. A majority of the items in the packages were stolen by the SS officers who ran the concentration camps.
German POWs after the Second World War Three months after the
surrender of Germany in May 1945, General
Dwight Eisenhower issued an order classifying all surrendered soldiers within the
American Zone of Occupation as
Disarmed Enemy Forces, rather than Prisoners of War. Accordingly, the Red Cross was denied the right to visit German POWs in American prison camps, and delivery of Red Cross parcels to them was forbidden. In the spring of 1946, the International Red Cross was finally allowed to provide limited amounts of food aid to prisoners of war in the U.S. occupation zone.
Postwar study on Red Cross parcels and Canadian POWs The Canadian government conducted a detailed study of the effect of the Red Cross parcels on the health and morale of Canadian POWs shortly after the end of the Second World War. Over 5,000 former POWs were interviewed, and Canadian authorities determined that a significant number of soldiers did not get the intended one parcel per man per week; most had to make do with one-half of a parcel per week, or even less on some occasions. Soldiers were asked to state their preferences with regard to specific contents of the parcels: the most popular item turned out to be the biscuits, with butter a close second, followed (in order) by meat, milk (powdered and other), chocolate, cigarettes, tea, jam, cereals, cheese and coffee. • Denmark sent parcels to Danish citizens incarcerated in
Nazi concentration camps. • France sent parcels to their POWs and in addition, family members could send parcels. ==Red Cross medical kits==