Issued by India

Issued on Aug 12, 1999

Issued for : The Department of Posts, is happy to commemorate 50 years of the Geneva Conventions, and India’s deep commitment to the Geneva Conventions.

Design : The design of the stamp & first day cover symbolises, the commitment of this country to the preservation of the humanitarian concerns, enshrined in the provisions of the Geneva Conventions.

Credits :
Stamp : Jatin Das
FDC : Based on photograph supplied by ICRC
Cancellation : Alka Sharma

Type : First Day Cover

Colour : Two Colour

Denomination : 1500 Paise

Overall size : 3.34 x 2.88 Cms.

Printing size : 2.99 x 2.53 Cms.

Perforation : 13 x 13

Paper : Imported un w/m Adhesive Gravure Coated Stamp Paper in Sheets 50.8 x 53.5 cms.

Stamps Printed : 0.7 Million

Number per issue sheet : 42

Printing Process : Photogravure

Printer : India Security Press, Nashik

About : 

• India was among the first countries to sign the Geneva Conventions which constitute the most important humanitarian law treaties for defending human dignity in war and are among the most universally ratified instruments of law (signed by 188 countries). The stamp issue commemorates 50^th anniversary of the revised Geneva Conventions.
• Through their provisions the Geneva Conventions aim at human survival in war and protection of human dignity in situations of armed conflict. The First Convention of the Revised Geneva Conventions of 1949 provides for protection of wounded and sick members of the armed forces, medical personnel and chaplains. The Second Convention stipulates protection of the shipwrecked, wounded and sick, medical personnel and chaplains of armed forces at sea. The Third Convention deals with protection of prisoners of war, and the Fourth, protection of civilians in enemy or occupied territory.
• India’s contribution by way of customary law to the development of the Geneva Conventions in their present form is significant and dates back to its ancient civilisation with its long tradition of respect for humanitarian values. Ancient Indian law was founded on social and sociological concepts and was an admixture of religion and ethics with legal precepts. Some of the sources of humanitarian law in ancient India were the four Vedas, their respective appendices, the Brahmanas, the Smritis, the Puranas and the Upanishads. The epics of the Mahabharat and Ramayan are of considerable importance in the evolution of humanitarian law because the references to the precepts of war, the means of warfare and treatment of combatants and non-combatants bear a startling resemblance to the modern concepts enunciated in the Geneva Conventions. Ancient Indian law made a distinction between military objects that could be the target of attack and non-military objects that could not be attacked. The distinction made between combatants and non-combatants in modern humanitarian law was recognised.
• In the post-independence period, in the situations of war imposed on India on a number of occasions, the spirit and sanctity of Geneva Conventions was fully maintained by India. In the aftermath of the 1971 war with Pakistan, India looked after 93,000 prisoners of war.
• Text : Based on materials supplied by International Committee of the Red Cross.

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Issued by Israel

Issued on 13 Feb, 1979

The Designer : Asher Oron was born in 1939, in Poland. He immigrated to Israel in 1947 and later studied Graphic Design at the London College of Printing.

His current work covers many areas of graphic design with the emphasis on integrated design and its application to the fields of information, publicity and marketing campaigns for public institutions and industry.

He has designed a set of Hebrew type (known as “Oron”), several books, packaging units, posters and symbols.

In 1968 he was appointed a lecturer in the Department of Graphic Design at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem and in 1976 was promoted Associate Professor. He has represented Bezalel at various international conferences devoted to graphic art and typography and methods of teaching them. He is also a member of the educational committee of the International Typographical Union.

His articles have appeared in various international journals and professional publications in Europe, the USA and Japan.

Type : Stamp, Mint Condition

Colour : Multi colour

Denomination : 5.10 Pound

About : 

• Thirty thousand men and women of the “Yishuv” – the Jewish community in Eretz Israel – volunteered for service in the British Forces during World War II carrying with them in their hearts the dream of the rebirth of the Jewish nation in its own home-land. What led them to volunteer was not only the long history of Jewish bravery that was to stand them in good stead during the War of Independence, but the urge to appear as an organized Jewish Force, to rescue the survivors of the Holocaust and to settle accounts with the murderers of the Jewish people. These 30,000 fighters constituted the only army in the world that did not have to be conscripted to fight the Nazi war machine but who had all volunteered out of a deep feeling of identification with world Jewry.
• These Jewish volunteers had four goals:
  • To fight as human beings against the Nazi Foe,
  • To fight as Jews,
  • To bring about the rescue of the remnants of the Holocaust, restore their self-respect and bring them safely to the Jewish homeland,
  • To form the nucleus of a regular Jewish army.
• The volunteers served in the British army, navy and air force and took part in all the theatres of war – Syria and Lebanon; Iraq and Persia; Egypt; Libya; Tripoli and Tunis; Ethiopia and Eritrea; Greece and Crete; Cyprus; Rhodes; France; Italy; Holland and Belgium. They even found their way to India, Burma, Singapore and Australia. 800 fell in the campaigns in Libya, Greece, Italy and the Mediterranean, sacrificing their lives fighting the Nazis in the name of human liberty.
• A million and a half Jews served in the Allied Armies in World War II, but all its citizens of their countries of birth – they were considered as Englishmen, Americans, Frenchmen, Russians, etc., although they carried in their hearts the feeling of belonging to the Jewish people. It was only the Palestinian Jews who carried on the fight against the Nazis as Jews and in the name of Jewry. It was only after a protracted and determined fight that they were granted recognition as a Jewish military force and were granted the right to fight under their own flag – the blue and white flag with the Star of David – to take an active part in the fight against the Nazi enemy. The Jewish Brigade moved to the Italian front line to face crack units of the Nazi army. These battles of the Jewish Brigade marked the highlight of the Palestinian-Jewish volunteers in their contribution, as Jews, to the allied war effort. Their national identity was displayed for all to see when they took part in the Victory Parade in London, marching proudly behind their own national flag. It also found expression in Churchill’s acknowledgement, on V-Day, when he proudly listed the contingents that had taken an active part in routing the Nazi enemy, including “the Jewish Brigade which fought courageously in the forefront of battle”.
• The volunteers were widely scattered over three continents – Asia, Africa and Europe – a fact which helped them to make contact with their persecuted brethren in the conquered territories, organize them, educate them, encourage them and kindle in their hearts the hope of delivery and a belief that the day of salvation was near. When the day of victory finally arrived, the volunteers acted as a kind of magnet to the wretched survivors of the death camps. They sought them out, aided and comforted them, gave them back their self-respect and conducted them safely past hostile borders to the shelter of their own homeland. The flag of the fighting Jewish Brigade which had flown so proudly in Italy became the banner of the illegal immigrants. At the first Congress of Jewish Refugees held in Italy, they expressed their “deep appreciation to the volunteers from the Yishuv who had brought honour to the Jewish people by volunteering to take part in the fight against Hitler; for the assistance rendered to their brethren from the devastated areas in helping them flee to the safety of their own homeland” and expressed their yearning for the day when they would fight, “side by side, for the restoration of our land and the revival of our people” (May 1945). And the day came when their hope was realised – the People of Israel’s War of Independence.
• The volunteers’ mission was not completed, however, with the shedding of their British army uniforms. All that they had learned in the military schools about the organization, training and operation of a fighting army, and the vast experience they had accumulated in the different branches of the armed forces – infantry, navy, air force, transport, medicine, engineers, artillery, armour, supplies, communications and the women’s auxiliary corps – in the different theatres of war, all this formed the solid foundations on which Israel’s own army (ZAHAL) was later founded.
  

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Issued by Russia

Issued on May 9, 1966

Type : Postal Used

Subject : Heroes of Guerrilla Warfare during World War II : Gold Star of Hero of the Soviet Union

About : 

• a set of 5 stamps consists of same face values [denomination] showing the portraits of the recipients of the Gold Star medal [Russian: «Золотая Звезда» медаль] for their contribution for Russia during 2^nd World War 
• 4k : Nikolai Kuznetsov [(1911 – 1944), a semi-legendary Soviet intelligence agent & partisan, operated in Germany-occupied Ukraine during World War II]. Colour of the Stamp is Green & Black
• 4k : Imants Sudmalis [(1916 – 1944), a Latvian editor & Soviet communist & partisan]. Colour of the Stamp is Ochre & Black
• 4k : Anya Morozova [(1921 – 1944), also known as “The Swan”, a Russian spy during World War II]. Colour of the Stamp is Blue & Black
• 4k : Filipp Strelets [(1923 – 1942)an World War II partisan]. Colour of the Stamp is Bright Rose & Black
• 4k : Tikhon Bumazhkov [(1910 – 1941), among the first organizers of partisan detachments during World War II]. Colour of the Stamp is Violet & Black

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Issued by Russia

Issued on Oct 25, 1958

Colour : Multicoloured

Type : Postally Used

Subject : 40^th Anniversary of the Young Communist League (Komsomol)

About : 

• a set of 6 stamps consists of 6 different face values [denomination] showing different pictures of youth participation in different fields of work to build the nation during 2^nd World War
  
• 10k : Young Civil War Soldier at 1919
• 20k : Industrial Brigade
• 25k : Youth in World War II
• 40k : Girl Farm Worker
• 60k : Youth building New Towns
• 1r : Students, Fighters for Culture

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Issued by Netherlands

Issued on May 1, 1946

Issued for : Victims of World War II.

Picture : Fortuna

Colour : 1½ + 3½ c – Brown Black, 2½ + 5 c – Dull Green, 5 + 10 c – Dark Violet, 7½ + 15 c – Carmine Lake and 12½ + 37½ c – Dark Blue.

Type : Semi–Postal Stamps, Postal Used

Watermark : No

Denomination : 1½ + 3½, 2½ + 5, 5 + 10 , 7½ + 15 & 12½ + 37½ Cents. [The surtax was for victims of World War II]

Printing Process : Engraved

Perforation : 12½ x 12

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Issued by United States of America

Issued on 1943–44

Issued for : A tribute to the 13 nations overrun and occupied by the Axis Powers during or shortly before World War II

Picture : Flags of the 13 Overrun Countries : 5c – Poland, 5c – Czechoslovakia, 5c – Norway, 5c – Luxembourg, 5c – Netherlands, 5c – Belgium, 5c – France, 5c – Greece, 5c – Yugoslavia, 5c – Albania, 5c – Austria, 5c – Denmark & 5c – Korea.

Colour : Multicoloured

Type : Stamps, Mint Condition

Watermark : No

Denomination : 5 cent each

Perforation : 12

Printing Process : Frames Engraved, Centers Offset Letterpress, Rotary Press Printing

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