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The GERMANY BASIC HANDBOOK was a huge 8-1/2 x 13-1/4 inch (about 1-3/4 inches thick!) 700+ page, hardcover book that was printed in April 1944 by the British Ministry of Economic Warfare in London for use by Allied G2 (Counter Intelligence) Units of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF). Because the huge book covered all of Germany, the Allies also printed individual ZONE HANDBOOKS that had additional information on local topography, geography and climate, history and local characteristics of each zone described.

The sections we offer on this USMBOOKS web page are the GERMANY HANDBOOK ZONE 4 MAP SECTION RESTRICTED dated July 1944, GERMANY HANDBOOK ZONE 5 SECRET dated June 1944 and the HANDBOOK ZONE IV NORTH-WEST GERMANY INDEX RESTRICTED dated January 1945.

The GERMANY BASIC HANDBOOK was intended to explain, "the administrative system, political organizations, economic features, and national characteristics - together with so much of the history of the country as is required for an understanding of the above subjects".

Most advanced collectors, readers and researchers of World War II history have a basic appreciation for the extremely complex nature of the organization of military and civilian life in Nazi Germany, but only those who read Third Reich German fluently have any real understanding of just how complex that organization actually was. It remains for many, one of the great mysteries of World War II.

So sensitive was this material in the days immediately before and after the D-Day invasion in Normandy, that even the sections of this book are marked SECRET and each bears a serial number in the upper right hand corner.

Interspersed throughout the text are charts depicting some of the the most complex aspects of Nazi administrative organization, such as charts that clarify the chains of command and overlapping organization of the Police and the SS (Sicherheitspolizei, Gestapo, Kripo, Schutzpolizei, Landespolizei, Grenzpolizei, Gendarmerie, Ordnungspolizei, etc.) in this case in Zone V of Germany.

The entire text is very well written in the English language by experts who translated much of the substance from obscure Nazi publications. The text is NOT cold, dry statistics, but extremely in-depth explanations of how the amazing system of control was kept in place on the German populace by the many paramilitary organizations of the NSDAP.

1) HANDBOOK ZONE 4 NORTH-WEST GERMANY MAP SECTION containing fold-out administrative maps 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the area in northwest Germany that includes Land Oldenburg, Hansestadt Hamburg, Hannover, Aurich, Land Bremen, Lüneburg, Stade, Osnabrück, Hildesheim and Land Braunschweig, Serial Number 1929 dated July 1944. Maps 1 and 2 are missing, very good used condition.

To recap, offered on this
USMBOOKS web page are:

2) HANDBOOK ZONE IV NORTH-WEST GERMANY INDEX dated January 1945, Serial Number 837, consisting of 12 pages. The front cover of this Index is stamped No 1 CDN FIELD SECURITY SEC. for Copy number 1, Canadian Field Security Section, which apparently owned this book at one time.Very good used condition.

3) HANDBOOK ZONE V RHINE-RUHR dated June 1944 that covers the area of Westphalia, the Rhine Province, Lippe and Schaumburg-Lippe and towns like Essen, Recklinghausen, Paderborn, Münster, Dortmund, Olpe, Düsseldorg, Koblenz, Oberhausen, Duisburg, Aachen, Cologne, Solingen, Wuppertal, etc.

HANDBOOK ZONE V has information on local industry, local Nazi Party membership, important factories in the Ruhr area, the nationalities of foreign forced laborers in different factories such the IG Farben Industry labor camp at Marl, reception centers for evacuees in different towns and provinces, local dialects, population movements and statistics, Nazi Party organizational structure and the intricate structure of the Nazi police system, the local fiscal system, education and legal system, the Gesundheitsamt or health services, religion, press and propaganda, and the Central Government and Administration of Nazi Germany is shown in fold-out charts. There are also conversion charts for distances, weight, temperature, etc. Serial Number 1585, dated June 1944 and consisting of 138 pages. The binding edge of the front cover is frayed but all content is in very good condition.

The total number of pages in this lot is 157.  The binding of the handbook was of the "shoestring" type so that obsolete pages could be removed if necessary and replaced with updated ones. We offer only the inserted material, we do not have the hard covers or the shoe string that would be used to bind the covers with these very rare text pages.

A few collectors are aware of the existence of GERMANY BASIC HANDBOOK (many advanced collectors DO NOT know of it) but almost no one has actually seen or held a genuine example. IT IS THAT RARE.