1940-45 Polish Servicemen in Switzerland, collection of 70+ covers and cards, incoming and outgoing mail, neatly written up on a 50-page exhibit, many bearing "Internment de militaire francaise en Suisse", "Camp Militaire d'Internment/Interlaken/Suisse", "Wetzikon", "Oberburg", "Trimmis-Dorf", plus others, also in German "Militar-Internierung in Schweiz/Portofrei", some with directional labels for censored and registered covers from German occupied Krakow, Jaroslaw, Kanczuga, etc., mail to occupied Poland, censor markings, telegrams, fine-v.f., interesting collection, ex-J.J.Danielski (on 20-21 June, 1940, Polish soldiers in France made their escape through various border villages and crossed into Switzerland as German tanks overran the remains of the Franco-Polish defenses. At the border, Polish soldiers abandoned their arms and became interned under the control and protection of General Henri Guisan. About 12,000 men had escaped, which in doing so placed Switzerland in a precarious position with Nazi occupied Europe. To minimize political and diplomatic tension with Germany, the Commissaire Federal a l'internment et hospitalization decided to construct a mass internment camp at Haftli near Buren in the Canton of Solothurn to partially contain 6,000 Poles and remove local tensions as the Swiss men were away from home defending their border. With the war over, the first convoy of interned soldiers left Swiss soil on 22nd November 1945 with the assistance of the Red Cross. Only 2,000 returned to Poland with the majority of about 9,000 returning to France, approximately 1,000 staying in Switzerland and the rest scattered around the World) (Image)

Est.$1,500