Representative images and illustrations of World War II, including important and rare artifacts.
Select SS men of Hitler's personal guard (Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler) have proven themselves worthy of their name. Original black and white photograph.
From left to right: Hitler; SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS Karl Friedrich Wolff, liaison officer between Hitler and the SS; SS-Obergruppenführer Martin Bormann, Executive Secretary of the NSDAP and Hitler's secretary; and Air Force Major General Karl Bodenschatz.
Original photograph obtained from Karl Wolff.
Original photograph from 1944, of SS-Oberstgruppenführer "Sepp" (Josef) Dietrich inspecting the rifle of one of his soldiers. He had attained the highest rank, one of only four men, in the SS. This picture was presnted to me by a former SS-Hauptsturmführer (captain).
Lidice. Eleanor Wheeler, Prague: Orbis, 1957.
A book providing a descriptive account of the destruction of Lidice, a village in Bohemia which harbored the Czech parachutists who assassinated the Reichsprotektor SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich in May 1942. As a result, the village of Lidice was razed, adult males were shot, and women and children were sent to concentration camps in which most of them perished. A few Aryan-looking children were adopted by German families. Where Lidice stood is today a memorial.
A fortune in counterfeit money was sunk into Austrian lakes by the Nazis at the end of the war. Austrian authorities continue to recover sunken treasures, which include British counterfeit pound notes. They are stored by the Austrian Ministry of the Interior and occasionally some are kept illegitimately by those who have recovered them. The Austrian ministry claims that the recovered pound notes have been destroyed.
Counterfeit ten pound notes were used to pay spies, imports, and other transactions. The counterfeiting project was called Unternehmen (Enterprise) Bernhard and was carried out in inmates in a special compound within the concentration camp Sachsenhausen.
Run-of-the-mill decorations for bravery and service beyond the call of duty. The medal on the left was for the SS, the middle one for mothers who had more than six children, and the medal on the right for bravery in combat.
Copy of an original signed statement by Hitler, given to me by SS-Obergruppenfuhrer General K. Wolff. "A modern military leader can be only as good as the men of his staff".
Signed by:
Adolf Hitler and the men of his staff,
Herman Goering, Reichsmarschall of the Luftwaffe [Air Force] and Hitler's officially designated successor;
K. Wolff, SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS and liaison to Hitler,
SS-Gruppenführer Julius Schaub, Hitler's personal aide,
SS-Obergruppenführer Martin Bormann, Hitler's secretary and successor to Rudolf Hess as Executive Secretary of the NSDAP (Nazi Party),
Heinrich Hoffman, Hitler's official photographer, and
Hans Baur, Hitler's pilot.