What is this book?

[Bcarver]

This was brought back by my Granddad, he was an interrogator and brought back loads of books that had classified stamps on them. This is loaded with illistrations of the structure of the Reich government.

[bhholst]

This is a quick reference guide :
Du bist sofort im Bild or "You will be immediately in the picture.
A lively citizen's handbook".
This book does not seem to qualify for a confidential or similar classification. rather an everyday guide to some questions which may arise.
Bernhard H. Holst

[Bcarver]

t

Thanks Bernhard, he had several picture books from Hoffman also that had the stickers on them. He was with a unit that worked on propaganda and these may have been marked classified because they didn't fully understand what the books were about? He also went to the place Himmler died and saw some of his letters and such that were left in a suitcase. It's funny because he felt the Brits killed him even before recent authors made that claim.

[F L Clemens]

Hi, just a couple of comments. If your grandfather was an interrogator assigned to a propaganda unit, I'm sure one or more of the unit members spoke German. Thus, they certainly knew what the books were about. That they were marked as classified may have more to do with how they got the books than with the actual content. Also, units sometimes get carried away with classifying materials because it is better to be safe than sorry when inspectors take a look at your unit operations.

Is your grandfather still alive and have you interviewed him on what unit he was in and so forth?

[Bcarver]

btt

Exactly, you worded it better than me, but I meant they marked them just to be safe. He was more of an interigator and spoke German. He went all over western Germany and the USA interviewing high level scientists and govt people. I really didn't get to talk to him alot about his job, but I now wish I had. I think he felt the Germans did create and attempted to use some super bomb (A-bomb), because I was watching some show in the 80's with him about the war and they mentioned the German A-bomb was a failure, he muttered that the commentator was wrong. He also told me he held some of the most important documents in history in his hands at the end of the war. Never knew what he meant.

[F L Clemens]

That's a shame he has passed away without leaving a memoir or something.

Perhaps you can request his service records and then reconstruct his career. There should also be clues from his materials, such as unit markings along with the classifications on the books.

Concerning his statement about interviewing scientists - he may have been part of Operation Paperclip which was the effort to round up Germany's scientists and tap into their research for weapons information useful to the West.

Whether he found any startling information about the German atom bomb project depends on his own comprehension of the subject. Building an atom bomb was not so much a problem in theory, but it was a much more difficult issue to put all the pieces together in practice. That is why, 60 years later, it still is not a simple matter.
He may have found documents detailing PLANS for an atomic device, but it is not likely that he had anything showing that the Germans were successful in actually constructing one. Other people would have discovered that as well.