a nice SS portrait ruined by the sense of guilt

[Zeller]

This could have been a very nice SS portrait. It came in a lot of other family pictures and as you can see, it has been permanenty ruined.
the blackening of the runes has been done a long time ago and it penetrated till almost the other side. I tried to clean it up gently (with some alcohol and by rubbing it), but it is completely dry. Most probably they wanted to keep the picture of him but they wanted to get rid of his allegiance to the SS. A real pity ...

[HouweTrouwe]

Sad

[Robin Lumsden]

Still, they left the totenkopf.

[Zeller]

yep, but it is a bit scratched too

[HouweTrouwe]

Still, they left the totenkopf.

Still the black spots ruined everything

[scarey]

granted its value is lost by the black spots. but it is still a piece of history and something I would keep (if it were mine)

[corporalSteiner]

just photoshop the tabs back into place if you cant bare a runeless sturmann...in fact some one may care to do it as a mini contest...

[Ron C.]

With more time a better job could be done, but you could digitally repair it.

Ron

[byterock]

you can most likely remove the black with some rantehr nasty solvent like Toluene or Benzine but do you really want to acetone might help as well as these will not effect the silver underneith if it is a period pic.

I would fist soak the photo in water with a little home made preiod 'print fixer' and wetting agent in it once soked and refixed you may be able to lift the black marker with some of the above solvent and a Q-tip.

This is all speculation and allot of work. Like the other says it has historical value as it so why mess with it just to see something you know is there anyway.

Oh BTW home make 'period' print fixer would be an easy thing to make.

Water 2 l
Hypo 480g

Add 160cc of water at 80c
add 30g of Sodium Sulphite
add 96cc of acetic acid (28%)
add 30g of Potassium Alum

this would give you a fix bath the was used at the time and should work on this print.

[Zeller]

Thanks to everybody and congratulations to Ron for the photoshop'd version!
I will keep it as it is, because it has also some writings on the back and I failed in chemistry so I think that my attempt to clean it would be a disaster ...

[deejay]

Hi,

a pity that one ! Here are two of mine, the first one with a pencil and second actually scratched out...

Anyway still nice to have and a piece of history (ironically) Thanks for showing !

[deejay]

2

[Zeller]

Thanks Dirk! It's really a pity...

[PzV]

I got this colored SS Pz officer large format years ago and it is the same situation unfortunately with collar tabs, skull and eagle colored over. This picture was originally framed and also torn out of the frame!

[Steve Campbell]

Just leave it. If it was done by a family member it's a part of the photo's history. As collectors we have to sometimes look at these items not as mint collectables but as part of people's history. The SS did and still has a bad reputation and was not something anyone would want to admit to being associated with after the war. The deathshead is still there but maybe the person who marked out the runes never knew the signifigance of the skull. Perhaps done by a relative who only had this photos to remember a son or brother by. Altering an item just doesn't do it for me.