During World War II (WWII), the Red Cross became a lifeline between New Zealand families and their loved ones held in prison camps across Europe and Asia. For the roughly 9,000 New Zealanders captured during the conflict, every letter, parcel, and official message carried through Red Cross channels offered proof of life and a reminder of home.

Each parcel packed, each delegate’s visit, and each letter sent reflected the same purpose: to uphold dignity in captivity and sustain the bond between prisoner and whānau.

A humanitarian network takes shape

When World War I (WWI) broke out in 1914, New Zealanders quickly recognised the need for an organised national response. At the urging of citizens, Governor-General Lord Liverpool convened a public meeting, and by 1915 the New Zealand Branch of the British Red Cross was established. In 1931 it became the independent New Zealand Red Cross Society, part of a growing international federation that combined neutrality with practical care.¹

During WWI the Red Cross coordinated aid for the wounded, sick, and captured. Families could purchase one of four standardised parcels, two food parcels, an invalid’s parcel, or a clothing parcel, to send to relatives overseas. These modest packages became vital links between soldiers and the home front. Fewer than 600 New Zealanders were taken prisoner in WWI, yet the Red Cross played an essential role in maintaining communication and relief for those held captive.

By contrast, during WWII nearly 9,000 New Zealanders were held in prison camps across Europe and Asia. The scale of need transformed the Red Cross from a charitable society into a national humanitarian operation. Rationing made personal parcels impossible, so the New Zealand Red Cross mobilised more than 1,500 volunteers nationwide to pack and dispatch over a million parcels, entirely free of charge.² While next of kin parcels weighing up to 10 lbs were sent on a quarterly basis and facilitated by the Packing Department of Next-of-Kin Parcels at the Head Office of Prisoners of War Activities, Tory Street, Wellington. ³

The Geneva Conventions and the treatment of POWs

“In 1914 … prisoners were held in captivity for years, their families ignorant of their fate. When peace returned, another Geneva Convention laid down protection for prisoners.”⁴

The lessons of WWI would go on to shape a new legal and moral framework designed to safeguard prisoners in the next global conflict.

The four Geneva Conventions form the foundation of modern international humanitarian law. The 1929 Third Convention, on the treatment of prisoners of war, governed much of the ICRC’s work during WWII.

Although Japan did not ratify the 1929 Prisoners of War Convention and the Soviet Union was not a party, Britain and Germany were, and its provisions enabled ICRC camp visits, parcel delivery and message relays between families and prisoners. Neutrality made this possible, a principle that allowed communication to cross even the most hostile fronts.⁵

Translating those legal protections into everyday understanding fell to the Red Cross and its partners. Through newsletters and official pamphlets, they explained the rules, mapped postal routes, and shared letters from the camps.

Two publications, one shared purpose

News Sheet: Prisoners of War Relatives Association

Interest in the welfare of British prisoners held in Europe led to the creation of the British Prisoners of War Relatives Association in London in 1941. Its monthly news sheet published letters from camps and official advice from Geneva on postal and parcel systems.⁶ News of the Association’s work appeared in New Zealand newspapers later that year, inspiring similar organisations across the Commonwealth.⁷

Australia soon followed with its own publication, P.O.W.: The monthly newsletter of the Australian Prisoners of War Relatives Association, which began circulation in 1942. Produced in Sydney, it mirrored the British model, connecting families and sharing guidance on correspondence and parcels.⁸

In New Zealand, the momentum continued. Families of captured service personnel established the New Zealand Prisoners of War Relatives Association in early 1942, publishing the News Sheet to share letters, practical information, and morale-boosting messages. ⁹ 

“The object of this association is to collect all the information possible about conditions in the various prison camps … By pooling this information and selecting news items of general interest, we hope to supplement your knowledge, as each man’s letter will contribute something to the picture.”¹⁰

Through this shared network, families turned private letters into a collective map of care each snippet helping others understand how their sons and brothers were faring.

The New Zealand Prisoner of War Pamphlet

This collaboration between the Red Cross and the Order of St John formalised the humanitarian work that had begun in the Great War, maintaining vital links between prisoners, their families, and the public. Through clear communication and transparency, these organisations helped to humanise a conflict defined by distance and silence.

Building on this British model, the Prisoners of War Enquiry Office of the Joint Council of the Order of St John and the New Zealand Red Cross Society began publishing The New Zealand Prisoner of War Pamphlet between 1942 and 1944. The pamphlet provided updates from ICRC delegates, reports on the application of the Geneva Convention in the camps, and extracts from letters sent by named New Zealand POWs.¹² The pamphlet also provided updates on conditions in German, Italian, and Japanese prison camps based on correspondence from New Zealand POWs. The letters are rich in personal detail, describing illness, food rations, Red Cross parcels, camp routines, and morale.¹³

Families across New Zealand looked to this publication for reliable information and practical guidance at a time when silence could be frightening. It translated the global humanitarian work of the Red Cross into a distinctly New Zealand voice.

The letters quoted in this article are drawn from digitised copies of The New Zealand prisoner of war pamphlet. We have matched and updated 980 Online Cenotaph records with more than 1,800 letters transcribed. Originally published in French by the ICRC, the letters were translated by a volunteer and came from nearly 100 POW camps, hospitals, and labour sites across Europe, North Africa, and East Asia. The transcription work was carried out by Online Cenotaph volunteers Marguerite Durling and Stella Smith.

Visiting the camps

Under the Third Geneva Convention, delegates of the ICRC were authorised to visit prisoner-of-war camps to monitor conditions and report on the treatment of prisoners. Their journeys were often long, complex, and fraught with danger, crossing borders and battle zones to reach men held far from home.

Delegates inspected living quarters, food supplies, hygiene, medical facilities, and mail systems, and held private meetings with elected camp representatives to hear prisoners’ concerns without interference. Their detailed reports, sent to Geneva, were shared with national Red Cross societies and summarised in pamphlets that families could read for reassurance.¹⁴

One delegate, R. Hans de Salis, travelled 12,600 miles through Italy in six months, visiting 60 camps, writing 700 letters, and submitting 350 official reports to Geneva. His work exemplified the scale and dedication of the Red Cross mission during the war.¹⁵

As one wartime pamphlet explained to readers, the ICRC’s role was to act as a protecting power, visiting camps, reporting after each inspection, and working with authorities “in a spirit of strict neutrality.”¹⁶

Rules and bureaucracy

Wartime communication was governed by strict protocols. Letters had to be short, legible, and free of political remarks. Parcels required accurate labelling and approved contents. The pamphlet editors occasionally offered firm reminders: “It is remarkable the number of Next of Kin who do not adhere to the written instructions. Have you read pages 2–3 of the Brochure? You must remember the letters are going to Foreign countries, not to British.”¹⁷

While complaints were handled methodically: “When next of kin are passing on complaints to us … they must let us have the dates of the letters or parcels in question. It is impossible to investigate these cases without these facts.”¹⁹

Such bureaucracy reflected the scale of a humanitarian operation that spanned tens of thousands of kilometers but depended on order and accuracy to function.

The journey of a parcel

At the heart of Red Cross support was the steady flow of parcels to POWs. Each parcel contained essential food and comfort items. Parcels included tinned meat, dried milk, biscuits, and jam amongst other things.

“At the centre of support to POWs was the sending of parcels to internees. These included an initial parcel for each serviceman as soon as the Red Cross was notified of his capture and location.”²⁰

These parcels were sent to Lisbon, through Marseille and Geneva, before reaching camps across Europe. Journeys often took two to four months and were subject to bombing, censorship, and loss at sea.²¹ When land routes became impossible, the ICRC established the Fondation pour l’Organisation de Transports de Croix-Rouge in 1942, a Swiss legal entity that chartered ships under the Swiss flag to ensure safe passage of humanitarian cargo. These vessels carried no weapons.²²

• 9.7 million individual food items
• 86,828 cases, each containing eight parcels (totalling nearly 5,000 tons in weight)
• 1.39 million tins of tea, 989,000 packages of sugar, 494,500 bags of peas, and thousands of boxes of mint
• 4,800 pounds of nails, 140 miles of wire, and over 738,000 square feet of timber used in case construction

This voluntary effort ensured that up to 2,400 cases could be handled in a single day—equivalent to 800 parcels packed every hour.²³ Though parcels bore the Red Cross emblem, the work was funded through the National Patriotic Fund Board, with the Red Cross acting as the international distributor under the Geneva Convention.²⁴

Logistical updates in the pamphlets kept families informed: when ships were damaged in Marseille, parcel deliveries slowed; when Italy renumbered its POW camps, dispatches paused entirely. Such details reminded New Zealand families how fragile the line of communication could be.²⁵

Writing home

For prisoners, writing home was both privilege and lifeline. Letters were strictly limited in length and frequency, and all were read by censors. Yet even within these constraints, men found ways to communicate good humour and gratitude.

Private Robert Alexander Anderson (29865) from Okaihau in Northland wrote home from Stalag 306 ( XVIII D ) describing the small joys that punctuated captivity.

“There's great excitement in the house today for one of the boys received the first home parcel from New Zealand. It was dispatched on 8 Sept, so my hopes are soaring. Have had no mail for a while owing to the post being held up by the snow, but I still head the Kiwi pack with 31 letters.”²⁶

Nine days later, his much-awaited parcel arrived:

“Everything came through all right and arrived in top-dog order…I brought the contents into the lager, dished out some chewing gum all round and everything was inspected and admired to the accompaniment of appreciative grunts emitted from numerous ruminating jaws...I'm very, very grateful for everything and many, many thanks to all.”²⁷

Prisoners longed for the normal routines of home, and even small memories offered comfort. From behind barbed wire in Austria, three New Zealand POWs at Stalag XVIII A wrote to beloved broadcaster Aunt Daisy, not because they could hear her radio programmes, but because they remembered her warmth, her voice, and her recipes. Their letters spoke of a yearning for normalcy and connection to the lives they had left behind.

“TO AUNT DAISY…Situated as we are, i.e., in a working camp, we often think longingly of the recipes you used to broadcast over the air. We are three unfortunates who mutilate the food we receive in our Red Cross packets owing to the lack of foresight on our parents’ part in not providing us with cooking lessons in our youths.”²⁸

Those men were Private James David Henley (30127), Sapper Frank Balloch (2152), and Private Compton Tickle (21402), all Aucklanders who survived years in captivity and returned home in 1945.

Private Hector McPherson (12422), writing from Stalag VIII-B on 10 December 1941, looked ahead to the Christmas season with excitement. “We are looking forward to our Christmas parcel which is already here and these parcels contain cakes and puddings and chocolate. These parcels are extra issue on top of the ordinary weekly parcel so you can bet your life this lad will be busy.”³⁰

Through these letters and parcels, prisoners knew they remained part of the life they had left behind. Humour, makeshift recipes, and small acts of generosity bridged the distance between camps and home. Across borders and through hardship, the Red Cross network carried the voice of care that sustained them.

Closing reflections

Support for New Zealand prisoners of war during WWII was shaped by constant adaptation, rerouted ships, renumbered camps, changing rules of censorship. Yet through every challenge, the Red Cross remained a bridge of humanity.

Through its pamphlets, families learned how the system worked. Through parcels and letters, prisoners felt remembered. And through its delegates and volunteers, the Red Cross turned principles into action, linking New Zealand with its sons across oceans and barbed wire.

Next in this series: Red Cross medical support in POW camps—how medicines, instruments, and invalid rations reached men behind the wire, and how New Zealand’s Capt (Dr) John Borrie used them to save lives.

References

Cover image: badge, membership (x2), 2001.25.73 © Auckland Museum CC BY

¹ New Zealand Red Cross. (n.d.). Our history. New Zealand Red Cross.