WW2 German Unpublished Hitler & Göring Photo plus Himmler Photo Lot

We receive consignmennt from pickers, veteran’s family members and collectors.

Typically the prospective consignor contacts us and lets us know what they want to send and the price range they would like to realize.

Other times we don’t get a super detailed idea but perhaps something like “a box of stuff my grandfather had or a few things I bought years ago, etc.” It varies a lot and makes things interesting when we open boxes.

This week we received a box of what were described as “German Smalls.”  In the collecting world “smalls” generally means small items that don’t necessarily have an exorbitant value and might fit in your hand.  Many of the items you see listed preceeding this lot were in the box with this small stack of photos. This box came from a consigner who has been sending us German, Japanese & US items. He always sends good stuff.

We unpacked his box of Germam smalls and sorted as we typically do: like-things-with-like. He was correct in that he sent us German smalls.  In it was a small stack of small photos of German soldiers of seemingly no particular note. As such, we put the photos aside and in processed the “better items.”

Eventually, we got to the stack of ordinary looking snapshots and started to look at them. We saw the German soldiers with dark green collars, kinda cool, early; the white drillich tunics, dont see these much; the guys about to swim, kinda asked ouselves who collects German WW2 Swimwear?; the two German Shepherds running, we love German Shepherds; and then we saw the Hitler – Goring  photo! Our necks snapped!!

What??? Fat Goring in his flashy uniform and Hilter with his smug, stupid face! Turning it over, we found the 1936 date and “Wurstrow” and knew it was the Luftwaffe School.  Made sense. We also saw the wartime German paper Agfa Lupex  and knew it was right.

Quick research showed Hitler visted the school often.  Since Goerring was the head of the Luftwaffe, he was likely always there when Hitler showed up. The photo shows them talking but nothing we see indicates they knew the photo was being taken. It shows two guys talking with a General present. There are no bodyguards or aides, just three infamous guys talking.

We then found the Himmler photo. He is wearing the black uniform, party armband and his unique Blood Order.  There was no writing on it,  but the wartime German paper Agfa Lupex gave it provenance.

We immediately called the vendor and asked what he knew about the Hitler and Himmler photos? He asked “What Hitler and Himmler photos? I didn’t send you any Hitler or Himmler photos!”

After we told him what we found, he said he bought the small stack of photos “years ago” and “never  looked at them.” He put them in a box of other German Smalls & thought nothing more about them. He could not recall when or where he bought them. He previously told us he has collected constantly since the 1970s. He was never a photo collector.  The photos were bought because they were cheap, were German and looked neat or they were thrown in when he bought something else.

So now you know what we know.  These were bought years ago as a small stack, in an unknown location from an unknown person.

In the stack was one photo of three Americans crossing the Rhine near Oberwesel, Germany.   He did not know if this photo came with the German photos but since they were in the stack, he would have to guess that it did.

Quick research indicates that the U.S. 89th Infantry Division crossed the Rhine near Oberwesel, under heavy fire, in late March 1945 as part of Operation Plunder. The division, from the U.S. 3rd Army, made its assault crossing under heavy German fire, using landing craft.