This document along with the photos have a very interesting story. I knew a World War II soldier named Louis Westerman. He told me he got these photos in a house at the end of the war. He said he and another soldier spent several days going through piles of photos. He brought home three fantastic photo albums from General Major Otto Deßloch. The albums must have been created by his staff who was very talented in the drawing the maps and creating artwork.I was fortunate to spend a considerable amount of time looking at these photo albums years ago. It was before scanners so most of my photos were taken with the camera and developed on film. Louis was a single guy and spent many hours hanging out in a local restaurant. He would bring the photo albums and sit at the bar and show them to all the customers and talk about what was in them and his war experiances. He was especially proud that there was an Adolf Hitler signature in one of the books. Two of the books were from the earlier time in France when the general was there. One of the photo albums had water damage and was not in good condition but the other one was excellent. I believe the Knights Cross Prelininary Document was in the earlier album. The third album was mostly photos and information about the Eastern front. I always hoped I could acquire the albums from him but he never would commit. Then later on he sent the album to an unknown to me relative who lived in California. That must be where they are today, so collectors go out and see if you can find the photo albums. The story had a sad ending, when he passed away, a relative came to his little apartment and took everything and threw it in the dumpster. I guess all they wanted was the money in his account. I did get a nice German helmet from him and a few other small artifacts. But never was able to get the albums.
I am going to post a lot of photos on this thread so I would like to hear your input and comments. If anyone can interpret the documents that would be fantastic and also identify some of the men in the photos. I believe a lot of these photos have never been published before.
I am going to post a lot of photos on this thread so I would like to hear your input and comments. If anyone can interpret the documents that would be fantastic and also identify some of the men in the photos. I believe a lot of these photos have never been published before.
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