During the last 18 months of the occupation, air raids and railway sabotage also hit the postal service's mail wagons. In 1944, this parcel from a Danish advertising bureau never reached its destination in Geneva and had to be returned on 15th January with the German note "Durch Feindein-wirkung beschädigt" in the lower right corner.

 

During the German occupation of Denmark the obstacles to the mail delivery were totally different from those of today. You actually had to accept the fact that all letters to abroad were read by a censor of the foreign mail control, that a letter to Sweden would consequently take a couple of weeks, and at the end of the occupation even a Christmas parcel for Jutland would go on an unsafe journey.

Already in October 1939 shortly after the outbreak of World War II the Danish Government had instituted censorship of all foreign mail as well as the telegraph and the telephone. Censorship was part of the attempt by the Government to keep Denmark neutral with regard to the belligerent parties. Nevertheless, Denmark was occupied on 9th April 1940. During the occupation the Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs continued to exercise this control which became an important part of the policy of collaboration towards the occupying power.

Contact to the outside world was thus limited to Germany, Scandinavia, and neutral countries. It was no longer possible to send letters to Great Britain and as of December 1941 the US. The only way to contact the countries at war with Germany was by Red Cross letters not exceeding 25 words. It was allowed to send no more than one Red Cross letter per month and even this form of letters was not free from censorship. Moreover, they were often long on their way. 

Censorship and difficult transport conditions meant that sometimes letters could be on their way for years - in this case two years and two months. At the top is a recommended letter sent from China in May 1941, which in France was returned to sender because of the interrupted postal service. The letter was sent again on 18th May 1942 in the den nethermost envelope, but not until the year after, on 16th juli 1943, did the contents reach the recipient, Postmaster-General, K.J. Jensen.







 

Domestic Censorship

During the first three years of the occupation delivery of domestic mail was not affected by censorship, but in September 1943 when the Danish Government had resigned, the German intelligence service, Abwehr, got the possibility of seizing postal matter. However, the continuous cooperation between the German occupying power and the Danish permanent secretaries ensured that this took place to a small extent only.

Towards the end of the occupation a new danger to the Danish mail delivery arose when railway sabotage hit also the bureau wagons, the mobile post offices of that time. One derailed train might cause several days' delay and sometimes destruction of letters and parcels.

Post-War Censorship

Luckily, in the liberation summer of 1945 bureau wagons hit by sabotage were no longer a problem and it was again possible to send ordinary letters to Great Britain and the US, but the letters were still censored by the Danish foreign mail control now working for the British. Not until 2nd October 1945 did the British authorities abolish postal censorship to and from allied and neutral countries whereas mail to and from Germany was totally permitted in 1947 only.