Winterhilfswerk/WHW items?

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Volxküche
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Winterhilfswerk/WHW items?

#1

Post by Volxküche » 21 Feb 2007, 10:25

i’ve very recently begun to collect Winterhilfswerk/ WHW fund raising items in a modest way. i’ve already found a very informative thread on this forum concerned with WHW drives and items posted a couple of years ago. many members appear to have very specific knowledge of WHW badges and trinkets i was wondering if anyone could offer any title towards a reading ( other thread suggests German Home Front 1939-45 Terry Charman, Into the Darkness: An Uncensored Report from Inside the Third Reich at War, Lothrop Stoddard, and A social history of the Third Reich, Richard Grunberger...which i’m sure will be very useful). and importantly, can a anyone tell me, as my German isn’t particularly functional, if there is any secondary source material written in English which details in what year what month etc individual WHW items were released?

best wishes, Sean

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Heimatschuss
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#2

Post by Heimatschuss » 22 Feb 2007, 00:49

Hello Sean,

though in German the books of Reinhard Tieste may help you a lot in identifying and dating particular WHW items.

Best regards
Torsten


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Vikki
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#3

Post by Vikki » 22 Feb 2007, 06:26

Hello Sean,

Charman and Stoddard (and Russell) are excellent sources on general history of life in the Reich, and I'd recommend them if you're generally interested in the subject. But, they are just that, general. I'd pretty much extracted most of what they have to say on the WHW in those old threads :wink: , so I wouldn't recommend you buying them solely for WHW information.

Torsten's suggestion of Tieste's books is much better for your interest in the specific release dates of series of tinnies. I haven't personally seen them, but I get the sense that they're more sort of "catalogs" of tinnies. So in spite of them being in German, they'd probably be of great use to you for the pictures of the tinnies and the "campaign" dates. MARHistorical had several of them for sale a while ago. This dealer is extremely helpful, so you can ask him about the format, and about acquiring them for you if he's sold the ones he had:
http://www.marhistorical.com/dosearch.p ... Image1.y=0

Best,
~Vikki

Volxküche
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#4

Post by Volxküche » 22 Feb 2007, 20:55

Torsten and Vikki thankyou for your time annd advice...

I thought better of purchasing the Stoddard...but I ordered the Charman after reading the original thread. It arrived this morning, yes, 'general' is the word. I’ve been researching and writing some pieces about British homefront material culture and propaganda (my WHW collection stems from the past collecting of British forces sweetheart items), and, although I may never write anything about WHW items, I’d like to approach the subject as I would other research. The Charman has too many pictures and not enough text for my liking.

I tracked down Reinhard Tieste’s own site and I’ll ordering his latest titles.

Vikki I get the impression that you’ve researched this area thoroughly and with a passion. Is the Stoddard the only personal narrative which mentions Winterhilfswerk that you’ve come across? In Britain, from 1937 through to the early-50s we had Mass-Observation - I guess the nearest US equivalent would be the Federal Writers' Project. I was hoping that somebody had dipped into a similar body of primary source material in a German archive with an eye for Winterhilfswerk...maybe it is time for me to take some German language night classes. Anyways thank you for sharing your knowledge.

best wishes,

Sean

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Vikki
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#5

Post by Vikki » 24 Feb 2007, 19:19

Sean,

My reading on the WHW hasn't been in that much depth, mainly because I've found so little reliable material written on the way it operated. It's an interesting subject to me because of the artwork and "propaganda" used to promote the campaigns. But more than that, the Winterhilfswerk is one of those things that would have been such an integral part of daily life in the Reich, which every person living in the Reich would have been as familiar with as ration cards or U-bahn lines.

And that's the main reason I posted those eyewitness accounts of the WHW. Russell and Stoddard were the most detailed accounts that I'd run across, and I think that both of them commented on it in such detail because they weren't Germans, and found it such an unusual program (and in Stoddard's case, because he was a bit of an apologist for Nazi Germany). I'll look for other references, but I don't know offhand of any kind of collection like the Mass-Observation you mentioned. If you find something like that, I'd be really interested to know about it!

Best,
~Vikki

Volxküche
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#6

Post by Volxküche » 26 Feb 2007, 13:43

hi Vikki,

i have a visual arts background and my history MA had an emphesis on visual culture also...so, i am probably approaching the subject from a similar possition. if i find anything ofcourse i'll let you know...there is a relatively famous account written by a British woman married to a German bring up her children in the Reich. i am yet to read it in full, but have ordered a copy. i read a section of it in an old Granta magazine last week. it appears to be very detailed if that section is anything to go by. although i'm not certain how much of it was written at the time it describes. it was originally published in the late-60s i believe....if it has anything relevant i'll transcribe and post it for you. if you're interested the reference is:

Christabel Bielenberg, When I Was a German: An Englishwoman in Nazi Germany: 1934-1945, University of Nebraska Press, 1998.

best,

Sean

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Vikki
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#7

Post by Vikki » 28 Feb 2007, 08:13

Hello Sean,

I've read the book, and have it still....somewhere. :)

I remember it as a very good read. I'd be very interested in your impressions of it when you get it and have a chance to read it.

One you might also be interested in: Colin and Eileen Townsend's War Wives: A Second World War Anthology (Grafton Books: London, 1990). It's alternating accounts by British and German women of their very similar--sometimes hauntingly similar--experiences on the homefront during the war.

Best,
~Vikki

Volxküche
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#8

Post by Volxküche » 03 Mar 2007, 14:56

Thankyou again Vikki - i'll search that title out also...

best,

Sean

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stcamp
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#9

Post by stcamp » 01 Jul 2007, 18:22

From a schoolbook published in WW2


Julius Junker and Jochen Jager are in the Hitler Youth. Today they help provide security for the Winter Help.

They go to everyones house and they bring food. Yes, they have one bundle for each house.

We Help!

Cheer heinrich and Lene. They help unload the wagon.

An on other days they and their Father collect money.

They help all, Old and Young.
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Hubert
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#10

Post by Hubert » 02 Jul 2007, 16:27

This primary-school-style itself is not always really easy to understand and even less if its mixed with propaganda...

Those two guys are collecting bundles (Bündel) which families had packet and ready to give for the WHW. "Weides" is a family name here (the "Weide" - family).

What they say is: Hey, we german Volksgenossen all help together! What they meant was: "IF YOU DON' T help, you´re not a good member of the Volksgemeinschaft..."

A great example for propaganda aiming on the youngest... gives me a freezing feeling in a way...

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stcamp
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#11

Post by stcamp » 02 Jul 2007, 21:25

Volksgenossen - That was an important word in the NS vocabulary? More than solidarity - it had conotations of racial and blood German?

Here is 3 more pages.
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Matt Gibbs
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#12

Post by Matt Gibbs » 03 Jul 2007, 15:57

Volksgenossen seems indeed to have been an important word in the ideaology. It is also often seen in regards to party information sent out for public consumption, and in the Hitler Youth paperwork I had I have noted it. The whole idea of ensuring the community was on-side through propaganda was extremly important, hence the huge number of personel devoted to the Propaganda Ministry.
Regards
Matt

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