Figure 1.-- Here we see Luftwaffe soldiers giving a boy a hair cut. Unfortunately the photograph is not identified. It is impossible to tell where the photograph was taken. We suspect that the boy here is foreign, although we can not be sure. The tatty clothes and long pants suggest to us that the boy is foreign.

The NAZis through the SS committed some of the worst attrocities of the 20th Century. The most prominant was the NAZI Holocaust targeting the Jews. Other attroicities were aimed at other ethnic groups, especially the Gypseys and Slavs. There were also attrocities associated with the shooting of civilian hostages. While the SS was the central frce involved, the Wehrmacht played a major contributing role in the Holocaust and was invoved in numerous reprisal actions against civilians. Many of these actions involved youths and sometimmes even children. HBC has chronicled much of the crimes committed by the SS and German military. We have noted another side of the Germany military. Quite a number of soldiers, we think mostly officers took photographs during their assignments and compiled photographic albums. Some of these privately compiled albums have come up for sale in Germany. We also notice sales from the Ukraine. We think these albums may be war booty brouht back tonthe Soviet Union as war booty. We note in many of these albums photographs of cildren. They of course give a rather different image of the individual German soldiers than that we have from the terrible policies implement by NAZI officials. We are not sure how to interpret these images, but it is an aspect of the German soldier that we think needs to be explored. Unfortunately, many of these photographs are not identified. Some of these images are condescending. Others show an element of affection like the image here (figure 1).

Created: 7:36 PM 5/9/2007
Last updated: 7:36 PM 5/9/2007