World War Two (WWII) German Heer Soldier's Photo Album Featuring the German Military and Sites Around Europe

On offer is an absolutely superb photo record of the work and travels of a German soldier across war torn Europe.

The person who put this album together is a German soldier. He was a member of the Heer or Army, one of the 3 elements of the Wehrmacht or National Defence Force. A separate element of the German military was the Shultzstaffel or Nazi Party paramilitary force. They were known and recognized by the abbreviation SS, usually depicted as the distinctive lightening runes. They in turn had a combat force known as the Waffen SS.

We know that he was an army soldier vs SS soldier by the insignia seen in all of the pictures. The standard badge of the Heer is the national tri-color cockade with a concentric black and white circles and a red central dot. and a red center dot This is present throughout the photos on many of his subjects. The Waffen SS ‘death’s head’ badge or totenkopf is not found in any picture. Further, he most likely was a member of an army engineering unit as one picture depicts the presentation of a Pioneer (Engineering) Battalion flag.

The pictures were taken in widely different locations in Europe which also suggests an Engineering Unit as they were present in every theatre of war and area of occupation.

The pictures provide a fascinating look at daily life in a combat.

The pictures are almost exclusively of enlisted men. The pictures capture soldiers in a variety of circumstances. Many are engaged in parades or marches. Others are doing agricultural work. (This is not an anomaly as the German government recognized that food production was a critical weakness and sought to remedy this. Other pictures showing the transfer of wounded soldiers onto hospital trains).

Many show soldiers at rest or in casual circumstances – several sitting at a table having a cup of coffee, enjoying a beer with fellow soldiers, group pictures of soldiers out in the streets.

Some pictures can be geo-located. There are pictures taken in France as several show the Verdun Monument located in the north-eastern department of Meuse, very close to the ruined village of Fleurydevant Douaumont. Another picture shows the evocative sculpture known as the Wounded Lion also in Fleury-devant Douaumont. Still another [32/1] shows the Douaumony Ossuary which contains the skeletal remains of at least 130,000 unidentified combatants of both France and Germany.

There is a picture of the Church of St. Elizabeth in the city of Marburg, located in central Germany. There is a visible reference on the back of one photograph to the city of Wroclaw, Poland. This city was originally in Germany and was known as Breslau.. During World War II, Breslau, witnessed significant persecution of its Polish and Jewish population, including deportations to forced labour and Nazi concentration camps, Also, tens of thousands of forced labourers and prisoners of war of various nationalities were imprisoned in multiple German labour camps and prisons throughout the city which would necessitate the presence of Engineering units.

Another group of pictures are geo-located to Poland. Specifically, there is a photograph of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa as well as other pictures taken in Czestochowa. Another picture is geolocated to the Polish city of Krakow.

For a military historian, this is a superb collection of authentic photographs that document aspects of the daily life of ordinary soldiers caught up in the greatest conflagration of modern history.

This album measures 7.0 inches by 11.5. The covers are a black, pebbled leather and are in good condition as is the binding. The binding is a white cord in good condition. Embossed on the front cover in white is the distinctive ‘stahlhelm’ or ‘steel helmet’, commonly referred to as the ‘coal scuttle’ helmet The helmet bears the crest of the German army, a German eagle holding a swastika in its talons (known as the Reichsadler) . The pages are in good condition. The album contains 154 black and white photographs that measure on average x by y inches. The pictures are mounted in the album. Some of the photos that have come loose from the mountings do have notations on the back but it is not possible to remove the photos that are not loose without damaging the album.