Wartime Propaganda Publications as Reasearch Sources

[drmessimer]

In addition to being interesting to look at and read, and admittedly propaganda, German wartime publications aimed at the civilian market are valuable research sources for collectiors and historians. I have a fairly large collection of those books from both wars that I have used successfully for several years, though some are more useful than others. The book shown here is particularly useful because it focuses on a single operation; the invasion of Norway, 8 April-10 June 1940. In addition to some fine photographs, this book offers translations of British documents the Germans recovered from the British Embassy, as well as almost daily German forces progress reports and press releases. The "From the Library of..." label is particularly interesting.

Unfortunately, these books are usually printed on cheap paper and are now rapidly deteriorating, so they have to be handled carefully. As you can see, this book's pages are already very brown, but it's still in pretty good shape. Dwight

[Signalmagazines]

Very Nice Dwight,
I second the info about the paper quality, but nevertheless, I have a good few items that were printed on good paper, and almost look as fresh now, sometimes it depends on how the books have been stored in the last 70 years

[Paul D]

Very true Dwight these type of books are an exellent resource and i have several , many collectors seem to avoid them despite their merits due to lack of knowledge of the German language !!

[Signalmagazines]

Very true Dwight these type of books are an exellent resource and i have several , many collectors seem to avoid them despite their merits due to lack of knowledge of the German language !!

or maybe its the fact of getting something original, instead of wondering, with other items/material, if its fake or not

[drmessimer]

Signalmagazines & Paul: Indeed, paper quality and the way a book is stored has a great deal to do with how long it will last. It seems that during the very early war years--maybe just months--German paper was reasonably good guality. But as the war went on, the quality approached pulp. It's certainly true that people who don't read a foreign language probably won't buy books in the language for any reason, except possibly an interest in collecting them for their value as resale items. Unfortunately, many people who can read in a foreign language don't use wartime publications because they feel that the contents are nothing more than lies and propaganda. Well, the propaganda part is probably true, but what's published--propaganda or not--isn't always a lie. As an example there is this book:

This is the German version of the so-called Altmark Incident in which the British destroyer, HMS Cossack boarded the German oiler, Altmak, inside Norwegian territorial waters and liberated 299 British seamen who were being transported to Germany as POWs. In the course of liberating the British prisoners, several German sailors were killed and wounded, specifically, 6 dead and 8 wounded. The Germans accused the British of war crimes for the act, which of course went nowhere. Despite the one-sided view of the affair presented in this book, there are some solid facts and some good photos, which are reproduced below. The book is just one source of many that should be used when examining this affair.

Those of you who use books such as this as references, please tell us about them, how you used then, and and post some photos. Dwight