The unloading and sorting of mail at Gustrow prisoner of war camp, Mecklenberg, Germany, 1917 (c)

Photograph, World War One (1914-1918), 1917 (c).

Letters were the only way of communicating with friends and family, but it could take months for letters to reach home. Prisoners and their families had to be careful about what they said as letters were read by their captors. Sometimes they resorted to writing in code. POWs could not always be honest about how they were treated as they risked reprisals in the form of physical punishments or the withdrawal of privileges.

From a collection of 83 postcard photographs collected by Corporal F H E Wilkins.