DEUTSCHES VORFELD IM OSTEN - rare Nazi propaganda book

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WARSAW GHETTO JEWS, ANTI-JEWISH NAZI PROPAGANDA PHOTO BOOK

Hitler, Generalfeldmarschall von Brauchitsch

In the foreword of this Nazi photo book Generalgouverneur Hans Frank (shown left) describes the difficult 'inheritance' Germany received when Adolf Hitler decided to put the remaining German part of Russian / German occupied Poland under German law and order. Poland was a mess, most of its citizens living in great poverty, a country on the edge of disaster. German thoroughness was the only solution and this book focusses on what was accomplished in two short years in the Generalgouvernement through hard work and determination. According to Frank, these accomplishments should make Germans all over the Reich proud, and show that hard work under difficult circumstances paid off and that this was the reason Germans were still hard at work in the East.

Nazi dignitaries visiting Polish tobacco factory

Vorwaerts nach Osten, das Lied vom Feldzug im Osten

Deutsches Vorfeld im Osten (Germany's Front Yard in the East) is a somewhat obscure 7 x 10-¼ inch, 208-page hardcover photo book by Helmuth Gauweiler as published by Buchverlag Ost in Krakau in 1941. It has around 300 very rare photographs that show pre-war Poland, war damage in Warsaw after the September 1939 start of World War II, people in poverty, neglected Polish villages, people in rags, etc.

From page 30 onwards, the photos show the German influence after the Hitler decree of 12 October 1939, proclaiming that the fighting in Poland had ended: Reichsminister Dr. Frank in his office in Krakau, Nazi governors of other districts in Poland (Dr. Lasch, Dr. Fischer, Dr. Zörner), Nazi police in Krakau and at the border, preventing money smuggling, price fixing and retraining Polish policemen.

After German takeover refugees were returned to their homes by the Wehrmacht, new roads, bridges and railroads were built, the postal service was improved to German standards, as was the education system, and new factories were built (among them the Hermann Göringwerke). Trains ran on time again, food and clothes were for sale again in stores. Social help was provided by the NSV and German Red Cross (DRK), and there are several photos of delousing facilities to prevent disease in dirty ghettos, as well as gas chambers for delousing the clothing of people who were being deloused.

The book depicts Jews of the Warsaw ghetto in stark contrast with clean, ethnic Germans from the 'liberated' eastern part of Poland in a chapter called "Jews in the Generalgouvernement". Gypsies are also pictured in a negative way in this Nazi book.

Deutsches Vorfeld im Osten also has a photo chapter about ethnic Germans from even farther east returning to Germany (Rückwanderer), and the system set up to get them there. The Wehrmacht was involved in the transport of these approximately 150,000 Volksdeutschen from Galizien and Wolhynien, transit camps with medical facilities were set up for them and photos show Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler welcoming a group of Rückwanderer at a border crossing.

There are additional pictures of historic buildings, Nazi dignitaries at the State Opera in Krakau, pretty scenery, ski resorts and health spas, the dedication of Adolf Hitler Square in Krakau on 1 September 1940, parades of SS and Police formations, tobacco crops, visiting foreign journalists, Dr. Robert Ley in Krakau, etc.

The majority of the photos in this book are not found in other Third Reich publications, and they are all credited in the back of Deutsches Vorfeld im Osten, and there is a comprehensive index as well.

This hardcover edition is in good used condition. The dust jacket (shown at the top of this USMBOOKS web page) is a professional laser photo copy from an original in our archive.