Photos in Soldbuch

[cesky67]

Hi,

I am a bit confused about photos on the Soldbuch and I was wondering if someone could answer the following questions for me, I read the pinned articles and noted that Soldbücher before oct 1943 should not have a photo unless Kriegsmarine.

1) A soldier with a Soldbuch issued 1939, 40,41 etc did he keep this Soldbuch and retro fix a photo to it or did he have to get a new one with Photo or did he just carry on without a photo?

2) If the photo is retro fixed to the Soldbuch is this noted anywhere in the book?

3) if there is a photo in the Soldbuch and it has various items listed before oct 1943 such as awards and promotions. Is that Soldbuch ok provided that none of the stamps are before oct 1943.

Thanks

[hucks216]

Soldbucher issued from 1939, 40, 41 etc were kept and used by the soldier for as long as needed (i.e. if he wasn't discharged from the Wehrmacht) or as condition allowed so in alot of cases a SB issued in 1939 could still be carried by the soldier in 1945 with the photo being affixed when the time came. SB's too badly damaged or too full of entries would require a new SB. But there are plenty of examples of SB's being issued in early/mid war and carried to wars end without ever having had a photo attached - maybe the admin in those cases never managed to catch up with the process.

I'm not sure I follow your Q3 so hopefully this is the answer you were looking for: if a SB was issued in Oct '43 then it might well have promotions, awards etc entered that were awarded from before that time with the relevant dates ('41, '42 etc) but none of the stamps should be from a unit that he had served in and left (having never returned) before that time.

I haven't seen any notes in a SB stating the fixing of a photo (that I can remember anyway), but it is a huge 'playing field' so there might well be examples out there, but I have seen examples where a note was affixed stating that a photo couldn't be attached at the time due to the man being at the front or elsewhere at the time.

[Ian Jewison]

This might help.....it is pinned to this forum:

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=156876

There used to be other threads where I post other examples but the photos appear to have disappeared over the years....I will take a look later in the week for them.

Also:

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...ght=16.11.1943


/Ian

[cesky67]

Thanks Hucks and Ian,

I think I'm getting there. After reading the articles again would I be right in saying that if you have a Soldbuch belonging to soldier who was killed or became a PoW before Oct 1943 that his Soldbuch should not have a photo in it. If he was enlisted from 1939 onwards and his Soldbuch was in a good enough condition then a photo was attached to that Soldbuch when the process caught up with him and If the Soldbuch was in poor condition he got a new one and the photo is attached.

Hucks you answered my question 3 anyway. What I was trying to say was that when i read that Oct 1943 was the earliest that a photo was attached and I see people putting scans of a Soldbuch up with Photos and awards and promotions dated 1940 or 41 in the book I was wondering then if this was wrong but your reply that books in good condition had the photos attached when it was available answers that query and Ian's answer that a note could be attached saying the photo was not available yet after the required date for attachment clears up another point.

Thanks again to both of you.

[bsmith56]

If you find a soldbuch that was either closed out or KIA before October 1943 and has a picture in it I would be very skeptical of it.

Besides that, there is no golden rule for pictures in soldbuchs really. Technically soldbuchs used in 1944 and 1945 were supposed to have a picture, but the reality is that not all have one for various reasons. I have a few books with a note stating there was no time to get a picture. Front line units late in the war had bigger worries than getting pictures into all the soldbuchs, especially when portrait photos were taken in studios. I have some that were used late into 1944 and never had a picture and some that were added in late 1943. Sometimes you will even see some issued in 1944 or 1945 and never had a picture.

[cesky67]

Thanks Brandon for taking the time to answer everything is much more clear to me now in relation to the photos. I might be able to move on to page 1 now.

[Marcel Banziger]

I here have a Luftwaffe Soldbuch dated 1939 with a photo and it looks all ok to me. I also had this one posted for review here on WAF and it was found ok. So how should I see this with this pass? Was the photo perhaps added later in his military carreer? Or is there something else I didn't see? I would be grateful for all help!

Best regards,
Marcel

[hucks216]

It would of been issued originally without a photo and then had one added at the appropriate time later in the war. Looking to see what unit is in the stamps on the photo could help provide a time-frame for the addition of the photo when compared to his unit pages.

[JUNGCO]

On this one, you can see he was an Unteroffizier i the photo and he was promoted in May, 1943. Therefore, the photo would have been added after May 1943.
Jeff

[Marcel Banziger]

Thanks for the replies gentlemen! I indeed overlooked that part so I could've known it was added after May '43. I furthermore tried to read the stamps placed over the photo-edges but I didn't succeed to decipher these unfortunately.

[hucks216]

Well if you can find any similar looking stamps in the SB then you can still provide a time-frame. Maybe an award entry, security check or a period of leave?

[Admiraal]

And check when he received his EKII (you can see the ribbon on the picture).
Don´t forget that they used allot of old photo´s!
I got soldbücher myself with all kinds of photo´s attached.
Civilian pictures, RAD pictures, Waffenrock pictures, early war, cut-outs.. etc.

[bsmith56]

Funny thing, there was a nice soldbuch on eBay recently and there was no picture of page 1. I asked the seller if there was a picture or if it had been removed or never had one. Here was the response I got:

"Most Soldbooks between 1940-45 had NO Pictures best regards"

Lol. That was enough, I just passed on the book.