Bad News from WASt

[Chris Goss]

For those expecting something from WASt, this is a precis of a letter received today:

Because of recent incidents (no details mentionend in the letter) there won't be any information from WASt anymore! Now they have to stick closely to the rules and regulations (Land Berlin) in respect of data protection which means that there will be no more VLM copies. The only way to get information, if any at all, is to provide an official document, from a university for example, that you are writing a dissertation or a thesis. Even then they will decide which part of the information they will give to you. And, in addition, the prices will rise

[Franek Grabowski]

Chris, you have beast's number of posts at the moment!
I am afraid that might be a part of wider policy that has to cut off researchers from crucial materiel hidden in German archives. I am wondering if the recent incidents have anything to some related scandals in Poland.

[RT]

Quite surprised by the reaction of Franek, Germany use us since 60 years to be the beast to beat, quite sure that problems are more with the fact that at the eyes of people in the archives, things hv to be "archivied" so for them means "stacked" they disregard wide diffusion.

Considering the things "hide" in the german archives, as all these archives were on the hands of the allies, so just name of the "hider" as changed

remi

[Jens]

Maybe it has something to do with Günther Grass. I know some historians had his records.

[Rune Rautio]

This is dramatic but not unexpected. Since mid 1980 the German laws to protect individuals have been gradually made more and more restricted. This goes for all archives storing information related to WW2. With WASt there has been at least 2-3 changes in that direction during those years, from easy avialable records in mid 1980 to the nearly total closure now. It is in some way a little odd, as normal archive procedures are often the oposite as time goes by, but here we obviously have an effect of the sharply increased focus on German military archives and German veterans among researchers, historians and others all over the World during the last 10-15 years. I remember a time when I could sit more or less alone in the reading room of BAMA through an entire week, or walk directly in the holdings of WASt and look for records. That is now history and just a memory of an easier past :-)

Rune

[Jochen Prien]

Gentlemen,

I don't think that the reaction of the WASt. is the result of some recent development over here in Germany but rather part of an official - albeit not publicly proclaimed - policy that has been going on for quite some time now and is aiming at restricting and eventually suffocating any other than purely scientific interest in the material stored at the official archives.

I have had the same experience with the Bundesarchiv / Bildarchiv over the years; when I first had contact with the BA while researching the history of JG 53 in 1985 I was helped by the staff in a most generous way, was shown around and given hints at not so obvious files where I was supposed to find what I wanted. The prints I acquired then were first class - old style photo paper, technically perfect - and were reasonably priced both as far as the acquisition of the photos as such and the payment of royalties for publication in the books were concerned.

This situation has changed constantly over the years; to cut a long story short, in the end they used plastic paper, let the quality of the prints drop considerably - blurred, too much b/w contrast, not full format - and what was the best - they did not sell the prints any longer but gave them on loan only, to be returned asap and this for prices and costs that were markedly above those where we originally started from. In my opinion all of this is meant to deter people from coming to the BA and trying to use the material that is stored there. This policy was issued higher up, definitely not at the Archive itself, and the situation was tolerable as long as the old staff was still active who knew their customers.

When I complained about this intolerable decrease of service and quality I was told that a) they didn't understand what I was complaining about and b) that they had their regulations which they had strictly to abide by. If there were a change in their services it was only for the benefit of the conservation of their assets which would suffer from extended and multiple use. At the same time they denied that this might be part of a new policy aiming at the German style of Political Correctness.

This is of course only a miniscule part of the overall issue which is that in our country these days everything is done to restrict free access to any sort of document relating to the Third Reich in general and WW II in particular where the official authorities have no control over what the user eventually does with the material he gathered. The growing number of right wing idiots - Neo-Nazis - in our country who might use this sort of material for glorifying the War and especially the Wehrmacht serves as an additional argument for this policy, doubtful or outright wrong as it may be. It all leads back to the simple truth, that Germany - the West as well as the East, although in a different fashion - have up until now failed to work up the twelve years of the Third Reich properly, to really go after all the villains and to cleanse the nation once and for all future from this sickest part of its history in order to make the next generations immune to all sorts of totalitarism. Had they / we done this properly instead of wiping large parts under the carpet of oblivion, the present situation would not have arisen.

Regards

Jochen Prien

P.S.: Didn't it all start for many of us more than three decades ago, when Hakenkreuze - swastikas - on plastic scale model aircraft were forbidden by law ? As if this could have the slightest effect when it came to preventing young or older people from becoming Neo-Nazis. But there we go: it only takes denying facts to be politically correct.

[George Hopp]

It all leads back to the simple truth, that Germany - the West as well as the East, although in a different fashion - have up until now failed to work up the twelve years of the Third Reich properly, to really go after all the villains and to cleanse the nation once and for all future from this sickest part of its history in order to make the next generations immune to all sorts of totalitarism.

Such "cleansings" are, of course, the ideal. But, you have only to look at the problems raised in Iraq but the mindless dissolution of the military, and of the political hierachy, to see that using only political or other affiliations to remove people from their duties is not the clever way to move. (The parallels are not perfect, but exist). And, then there were the beginnings of the Cold War,and needs of advanced technology for which certain Germans had the requisite knowledge. But, many caught of late are people like the Pope and Gunther Glass, who served but at low levels, with no effect on policy, and simply served their country as did many others on both sides of the conflict.

[Marcel van Heijkop]

Jochen,

What do you think this means for the personnel files in Aachen? I understand that they are being moved to Freiburg. But is this a move to make them more accessible (like all the other RL Signaturen) or to make them inaccessible like the WASt. seems to be doing now?

Regards,

Marcel

[Franek Grabowski]

George
I suppose neither of us have first hand knowledge of what actually is happenning in Iraq, therefore I would say we should not use it as a sample. All I can say is that contrary to some pacifists, Iraqi people were quite happy to get rid off Saddam, but quite unhappy from the following occupation. This I know first hand.
Concerning cleansing, whatever hard, it is neccesary if not a must in situations like in Germany, and there were several reasons, including those you mention, that made this impossible. Please do not confuse two completelly different cases here, please. The Pope was forced to serve in Flak auxillary and the fact was never hidden nor used as an argument. Grass never mentioned his service in Waffen SS and was one of the top leftist activist chasing people with a brown past, ie. Grass from 1960s would hang present SS veteran Grass, even if he was drafted there. That is the problem, and I have little doubt, that he admitted only to increas sales of his recent book. Such a sort of a man.
Regarding general overview of the situation, I have to agree with Jochen, albeit not in one place.
Quality of photos has nothing to politics - at one point original nitrate(?) negatives were contact copied (reputedly due to fire protection) and originals destroyed. This is a pure stupidity and I am afraid if this does not happen with ECPA negatives (they have problems with quality of prints as well). Owners of old prints should treat them as treasures.
NSDAP translates into National Socialistic German Labour Party - I would hardly call anything socialistic and labour a right wing organisation. More, a comparison of what communism was to a German NS movement shows strucking similarities in almost every respect. The difference was that communism was international and nazism - national.
Otherwise, indeed it a general German policy to reduce negative (for them) effects of war. This is realised by various ways, one of them being forgetting the past, and a most recent one, making Germans victims of the war. The latter propaganda increases since most of the people who could testify otherwise, passed away.
Anybody wondered why Mein Kampf is forbidden? Perhaps you never read it? Do it, as I did. You will not become any worser, you will rather get bored and tired, but when you know a little bit about current German politics, you will start to wonder about the similarities. The so called denazification turned to be a farce, anybody remembers the scandal, when one of the electors of the present German president turned to be a judge of a 'people's tribunal' involved in trials of Hitler's assasins? In fact, one of the scandals I have mentioned is directly related to. During the past years Poland handed over to Germany plenty of documents in view, that German criminals will be trialed in their country. Insted, all prosecutions were turned down, and documents dispersed among various German archives. The scandal is, that the documents and photos were original and in many cases proven to be not copied, and now Germany denies to return them. Obviously, in view of such policy, those files would generally be inaccessible in Germany. Of course, one may note that it is Polish fault, but there were several suggestions, that it was not a coincidence but a planned work by a particular people.
Again, it is a popular knowledge or a widespread gossip, that several personal files of communistic Polish secret services were microfilmed and handed over to Stasi. Germany never admitted to owe those and the one may easily guess, why they were kept if the story is true.
Then we come to another scandal, that involved WASt. During the Polish presidential elections, there was some fuss about volunteer service of a grandpa of one of the candidates. He denied it, but WASt provided a document stating otherwise, and giving few details of granddad's service. This was a real 'killer', nonetheless the man tried to save the situation by showing another document reputedly provided by WASt stating that the granddad later served with the Polish forces. This was then denied by the British MOD (they have a complete index of Polish soldiers in exile 1940-47), who stated that nobody of this name was ever registered. In the effect, the man lost the elections and this caused a lot of anger in several German circles, who favoured him and his party (it was sometimes suggested that the party has links to German secret services but nobody confirmed it officially) - this being evident from publications in the German press.
I cannot exclude, that it was not the Grassgate but the Polish elections that changed the rules. Strategically, Poland is still more important for Germany than an old writer.
Nevermind, this is politics, but our problem is access to photos and documents. I believe recent regulations affect freedom, as they are not equal for all. Apart of cost and quality, the one cannot get photos if he has no agreement with a publisher. I believe we have some lawyers here, and in my opinion we should ask them to prepare a letter in regard of free access to archives, then sign it and send to European Commission. I believe it will be a benefit for all of us.

[Chris Goss]

Marcel: I believe the personnel files have moved......to WASt in Berlin