Luciak, Steven C. (2007). Internment Mail in Canada 1914-1919 & 1939-1946.

Steve Luciak’s interest in Prisoner of War/Internee material began at an Edmonton stamp show when he was browsing through one of Allan Steinhart’s military boxes and came across a cover from Camp “N” in Sherbrooke, Quebec. The name of the addressee had been carefully removed, but the cover had interesting markings, thereby combining Steve’s interest in Canadian history with postal history. A few other POW covers were purchased, and thus started a long quest for similar material. The five frame exhibit illustrated in this book includes many of the items acquired over approximately two decades. ’Internment Mail in Canada, 1914 1919 & 1939 – 1946′ illustrates the rich variety of markings associated with POW mail from the two world wars. The exhibit received a vermeil award at Royal Caltapex 1997 in Calgary. At its last showing, at BNAPEX 1999 in Vernon, BC, it was awarded a vermeil with felicitations. The first two frames show material to and from some of the 8,000 men, mostly civilians, interned in Canada during Word War I. Mail to and from some of the approximately 38,000 World War II internees is shown in the last three frames. An additional 30 pages of supplementary material, including scarce YMCA cards given to POWs, rounds out the exhibit.After taking early retirement from teaching, Steve began a second career as a researcher with the Western Development Museum. It has branches in four Saskatchewan cities along with a Curatorial Centre, the museum’s headquarters, in Saskatoon. Steve worked out of the Curatorial Centre. This interesting position made it possible to spend more time on postal history because, unlike teaching, he did not have to bring home seemingly never ending mounds of exams and essays to grade. This also provided an opportunity to join major philatelic societies and attend some philatelic conventions and national stamp shows.