På post för Sverige (On Post for Sweden): preparedness postcard with hymn stanza

A Swedish picture postcard dated 1940: black silhouettes of two helmeted soldiers on watch before a warship, on a yellow and blue ground, headed 'PÅ POST FÖR SVERIGE'. Beneath it a hymn stanza calls youth 'to holy watch' and says 'We Swedes belong to God, He Himself wants to be our king'. The tells are the borrowed sacred language and value words standing in for any concrete claim.

Date: 1940
Period: Second World War
Made by: 'På Post För Sverige' (copyright line on the card); artist signed 'Schwab'; printed by Uno S. Andersons Boktryckeri, Stockholm
Region: Western and Central Europe
Country: Sweden
Medium: Postcard
Issuer type: Mixed
Regime: Hansson Coalition Government
Leader: Per Albin Hansson
Audience: Domestic public
Purpose: Reassure
Themes: War and the military, Home front, Religion
Event: World War II
Techniques: Transfer Glittering generalities
Source: Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source: Kalmar läns museum (Kalmar County Museum), via DigitaltMuseum and Europeana, retrieved September 29, 2026
Rights: Public Domain Mark 1.0 ('utgången skyddstid', term expired), per Kalmar läns museum
Kalmar läns museum, KLMF.Krigshistoria1, via DigitaltMuseum (Public Domain Mark).

Text on the object

Original (Swedish) · read from the image, not independently checked

PÅ POST
FÖR
SVERIGE

SCHWAB   Copyright På Post För Sverige 1940

BREVKORT
Carte postale

Porto över hela världen för 5 hälsningsord och avs. namn 5 öre, som vanl. brevkort 10 öre inom Norden, 20 öre övriga länder.

Upp, ungdom, upp till helig vakt!
Och gläd dig åt vad dig är sagt
Om arvet i vårt rike:
"Vi svenske höra Gudi till",
Han själv vår konung vara vill:
Vi honom aldrig svike!
(G:la Sv. Ps. 635,7)

10.   Uno S. Andersons Boktryckeri, Stockholm

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

ON POST
FOR
SWEDEN

SCHWAB   Copyright On Post For Sweden 1940

POSTCARD
Carte postale

Postage worldwide for 5 words of greeting and sender's name 5 öre, as an ordinary postcard 10 öre within the Nordic countries, 20 öre to other countries.

Up, youth, up to holy watch!
And rejoice at what is told you
About the inheritance in our realm:
"We Swedes belong to God",
He Himself wishes to be our king:
We shall never betray Him!
(G:la Sv. Ps. 635,7)

10.   Uno S. Andersons Boktryckeri, Stockholm

Read from a 1200 px copy. The signature reads 'SCHWAB' with a stroke under the A; the abbreviated source mark is transcribed as printed.