Winterhilfswerk - WHW

[john h]

every thing you wish to know about the winter releif agency winterhilfswerk whw can be found in the book the encyclopedia of the third reich author christian zentner macmillan publishing second volume very expensive but worth getting

[Vikki]

stcamp,

That's the kind of document I'm looking for---one or more primary sources that tell what the distribution of the clothes and other personal items collected from the camps was to be, and whether it was to be handled in any way by the WHW. After your post about it, I searched for such documents regarding the Aktion Reinhard(t)---for example, in the Holocaust & War Crimes section, where the Moderator has posted many useful transcripts of original documents on similar subjects---but haven't been able to find anything related to the Winterhilfswerk.

~FV

[stcamp]

Hello,

I am begining to believe I read it in Hoess memoirs. I did some searching:

Arad, Yitzhak. Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka - the Operation Reinhard Death Camps. Indiana University Press, 1987. ISBN 0-253-3429-7
Arad, Yitzhak, Yisrael Gutman, and Abraham Margaliot, eds. Documents on the Holocaust: Selected Sources on the Destruction of the Jews of Germany, Austria, Poland, and the Soviet Union. (Jerusalem, 1981)

Rückerl, NS-Vernichtungslager, pages 109-111. See the entire list in English in Arad, op cit., pages 154-155.

Ruckerl was an attorney in Germany who used Arad as his source for the book NS-Vernichtungslager.

Arad in turn probably used an order dated September 26, 1942 from the SS Economic and Administration Head Office to Operation Reinhard headquarters in Lublin. It detailed exactly to which agency any confiscated goods were to be sent. He incorporated it into his writing. I tried a quick check of the US National Archives but did not anything.

I am going to post this on the holocaust section and see if anyone knows anything.

[pionier44]

Geli, I am also interested in the WHW program . Most of my interest lies in the collection and preservation of original WHW artifacts. My wish is to publish a pictorial series that centers around my books, tinnies, stamps, etc that are directly related to the WHW, but also provides a historical background as well. Any new info you might have found would greatly be appreiciated. What's you reason for research? Are you simply a student , or are you writing something as well? Thanks Josef.

[sts333]

Hi,

here is an example for a charity action. The foto is taken from Der Deutsche Beamtenfreund nr. 2 / 1936. The comment for this foto: "100 bedürftige Leute aus dem Bezirk einer Ortsgruppe waren Gäste der Technischen Landespolizei in der Kaserne Golsener Straße in Berlin. Es gab Mittagessen und Kaffee" - 100 needily people of a ortsgruppe are guests of the technical state police in its barrack at Golsener street in Berlin. Their got lunch and cafe.

Dirk

[pionier44]

Thanks, that's a good photo . J

[jv]

These well-organized collections were propaganda actions to give credibility to "ordinary Volksgenossen" that there was actual support for the needy in the Third Reich. Many celebrities were engaged to participate in these actions. As in this photo (source Zentner): from left to right WWI Pour-le-merite pilots Udet, Buckler, Loerzer, Bolle and Veltgens. Zentner also makes the observation that there was no accountability as to how these enormous amounts of collected money were allocated. That remained a strictly controlled secret. jv

[Vikki]

stcamp and pioneer44,

Here are a couple of examples of clothing donation receipts from my collection, which agree with examples I've seen elsewhere. Below the first clothing one is a 1940 collection document for metals which is very similar in style. Notice that these bear no insignia or identification with either the WHW or the NSV. That makes me think that the well-known clothing drives were actually part of the 1941 clothing drive promoted by Goebbels, which continued later also, and not actually drives sponsored by the WHW. These receipts may have been “made on the spot” in the necessity of the Ostfront clothing shortage of 1941, and thus bore no pre-designed logo. The WHW, and the larger parent organisation, the NSV, normally marked their clothing and material collections well with their logos; see my favourite example:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=78165

The third, pink, Reichs-Spinnstoff-Sammlung 1941 one, I wish more uniform collectors and reenactors would pay attention to the details of, when they’re worrying about the wool of their uniforms.

Below that, is an actual hand receipt from the NSV; you’ll notice that, although it’s only a hand receipt, it has the name of the NSV organization across its top, unlike some of the fancier examples---like another one cited here on the Forum (bottom of p. 6 of the thread):

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 2&start=75

These appear to be associated with the general Goebbels-sponsored clothing drives, instituted in 1941 and continuing after that (witness the special postage stamps from 1943-44), and not associated with the WHW or the NSV.

What do you think?

~FV

[Vikki]

Reichs-Spinnstoff-Sammlung1941/NSVReceipt

[stcamp]

Hello,

A letter from the local WFW leader. She made a nice contribution of 10 RM's. The 2nd paragraph is interesting.


Steve

[stcamp]

An example of what your donation might get you. There are 100's of little plastic, metal, and glass items that they gave. This is the German police set for 1939.

Steve

[R.M. Schultz]

I wanted to do some research on the WHW. Does anyone have any info/links/books/etc. to recommend?

The only work in English (as far as I know) is Thomas E.J. DeWitt’s article in the Canadian Journal of History (#12, 1978, pp. 361 – 382), “‘The Struggle Against Hunger and Cold’: Winter Relief in Nazi Germany.”

[Vikki]

Steve,

The entire letter is interesting!

I didn't know that the Traffic Signs series was for the 1939 collection by the German Police---thanks for the information.

Below are some tinnies from 1933-34, when the WHW's collection effort was generally known as the Kampf gegen Hunger und Kälte. The enamel pin is referred to by some sources as having been given out in the winter of 1934-35 in exchange for donations, but I've seen it referred to elsewhere as a pin for actual staff of the WHW organization. I'd tend to agree with the latter, since producing an enamel badge for such mass distribution would have involved considerably more cost than most of the other "tinnies" seem to show.

~FV

[Vikki]

The piece on the left below is an example of the visual propoganda frequently used on WHW items to encourage pledging and donating to the organization's drives.

On the right is an Ausweis carried by persons collecting for the WHW. The reverse side is titled Tag der Ausgabe: , with columns which appear to be for signing out the collection can and receipting its return after collecting.

[Vikki]

Documents showing the two opposite ends of the WHW collections: a receipt for a donation of goods, and a Kriegswinterhilfswerk voucher good for 5RM worth of food, clothing, or fuel courtesy of the WHW. The back has the recipient's name and address, and in this case, Bekleidung and Brennstoffe are crossed through, so the recipient got 5RM worth of food in exchange for the coupon. The coupon was cancelled by a stamp from the merchant who supplied the food, showing that it had been used.