Floch Interview
A friend of mine interviewed Mr Floch at the SOS show with a list of prepared questions about the Pink/Birch smocks. He was forthcoming and answered all the questions with what I feel were credible replies. My comments to some of the answers are in brackets.
1/ What country did the smocks come from? Poland?
Answer/ -Lodz Poland
Lodz , Poland was one of major garment and cloth manufacturing centers in Europe before WW2 . One of their specialties was dying and color printing so doing camouflage uniforms would be very possible. The Germans kept the manufacturing going until late 1944 (employing up to 40,000 workers) . Lodz was the last Ghetto to be liquidated because of it’s importance to the German war effort. There are photos of the slave labor working on military items, they even made breast eagles and insignia.
2/ Were they directly from a film studio?
Answer/ Polski Film works, Polish state film works
( November 13, 1945, the postwar communist government decreed the formation of Polski Film as a national enterprise. Organized under the Minister of Culture Władysław Kowalski, Polski Film had control over both domestic film production and distribution of all foreign films. In the first years there was still room for smaller production companies, notably Yiddish-language.[1]
Aleksander Ford served as Film Polski's first director from 1945 to 1947.[2] As Roman Polanski noted in his autobiography, Ford was both an "extremely competent" manager and "a veteran party member, who was then an orthodox Stalinist. ...The real power broker during the immediate postwar period was Ford himself, who established a small film empire of his own." With colleagues from the Polish United Workers' Party, Ford rebuilt the film production infrastructure, a national studio, and the National Film School in Łódź, which opened in 1948. Ford taught at Łódź for twenty years.
Poland's first postwar feature was Leonard Buczkowski's musical of the German occupation, Zakazane piosenki (Forbidden Songs). First released in January 1947 and very popular, in 1948 the film was re-edited and re-released, with more emphasis on Red Army's role as the liberator of Poland and the main ally of post-war Polish communist regime, as well as a more grim view of the German occupation of Warsaw and German brutality in general.[3] Jerzy Zarzycki's Unvanquished City was similarly re-edited to become more ideologically acceptable.
Film Polski was dissolved as of January 1, 1952, succeeded by the Centralny Urząd Kinematografii (Central Office of Cinematography).[4] In its important but brief history it released a total of thirteen feature films,[5] along with dozens of short films and documentaries.
Famous Polish Film Kanal (1957) clearly shows plenty of SS camo smocks and caps so there definitely were original SS camo uniforms in the Polish Film studios.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Za7r...H3DSGms_z_Wyv4
http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/4...-Uprising.html
3/ Can you explain the marking “MINSK FILM 1947 in some?
Answer/ No (possibly because the ones he had were not the marked ones , or he didn’t look or care-see below)
4/ How many pink smocks were there?
Answer/ 100+
5/ Were there mixed in with other uniforms? What kind?
Answer -No
(this is interesting as it may be that the smocks that Floch got are the ones without the studio markings and the ones with the markings were from another source and mixed in with standard camo items.
6/ What year did they come out?
Answer/ Around 1984 or earlier
7/ How were they packed?
Answer/ Stacked in warehouse (this makes sense as it accounts for bad condition ones on the bottom)
8/ Did you have some of the dirty ones washed?
Answer/ -No, did not touch, repair or wash (well, that clears that up, any washing was most likely done by the studio)
9/ Were some damaged?
Answer/ -Yes, tears, wear and dirt
9/ What was your original selling price?-
Answer/ Sold for $350.00 each, I paid approximately $10.00 each
10/ Some collectors think these are fake and you made them (nonsense IMO) . Is there any proof of purchase, photos or anything that can help provide provenance?
Answer/ -Did not make, bought.-No records as this was during communist times and was done under the table
11/ Any other comments or background would be most appreciated
Answer/ -I was not the only buying them, there were other buyers as well
In my opinion this clarifies the source and probably where they were made. I am positive now these were a regionally made SS camouflage smock possibly made in the East remained after 1945 and were turned over to the Polish film industry as they were making numerous war films as early as 1948. They may have only been issued to troops on the Eastern front or maybe even never issued and sat unused in a Polish garment factory or SS warehouse. I realize that having resisted these for so long some non-believers will never accept them regardless of the evidence no matter how strong. At this point IMO everything points to these being pre 1945.
If anyone has spoken with Floch about this or knows who the other buyers were lets hear it!
A friend of mine interviewed Mr Floch at the SOS show with a list of prepared questions about the Pink/Birch smocks. He was forthcoming and answered all the questions with what I feel were credible replies. My comments to some of the answers are in brackets.
1/ What country did the smocks come from? Poland?
Answer/ -Lodz Poland
Lodz , Poland was one of major garment and cloth manufacturing centers in Europe before WW2 . One of their specialties was dying and color printing so doing camouflage uniforms would be very possible. The Germans kept the manufacturing going until late 1944 (employing up to 40,000 workers) . Lodz was the last Ghetto to be liquidated because of it’s importance to the German war effort. There are photos of the slave labor working on military items, they even made breast eagles and insignia.
2/ Were they directly from a film studio?
Answer/ Polski Film works, Polish state film works
( November 13, 1945, the postwar communist government decreed the formation of Polski Film as a national enterprise. Organized under the Minister of Culture Władysław Kowalski, Polski Film had control over both domestic film production and distribution of all foreign films. In the first years there was still room for smaller production companies, notably Yiddish-language.[1]
Aleksander Ford served as Film Polski's first director from 1945 to 1947.[2] As Roman Polanski noted in his autobiography, Ford was both an "extremely competent" manager and "a veteran party member, who was then an orthodox Stalinist. ...The real power broker during the immediate postwar period was Ford himself, who established a small film empire of his own." With colleagues from the Polish United Workers' Party, Ford rebuilt the film production infrastructure, a national studio, and the National Film School in Łódź, which opened in 1948. Ford taught at Łódź for twenty years.
Poland's first postwar feature was Leonard Buczkowski's musical of the German occupation, Zakazane piosenki (Forbidden Songs). First released in January 1947 and very popular, in 1948 the film was re-edited and re-released, with more emphasis on Red Army's role as the liberator of Poland and the main ally of post-war Polish communist regime, as well as a more grim view of the German occupation of Warsaw and German brutality in general.[3] Jerzy Zarzycki's Unvanquished City was similarly re-edited to become more ideologically acceptable.
Film Polski was dissolved as of January 1, 1952, succeeded by the Centralny Urząd Kinematografii (Central Office of Cinematography).[4] In its important but brief history it released a total of thirteen feature films,[5] along with dozens of short films and documentaries.
Famous Polish Film Kanal (1957) clearly shows plenty of SS camo smocks and caps so there definitely were original SS camo uniforms in the Polish Film studios.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Za7r...H3DSGms_z_Wyv4
http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/4...-Uprising.html
3/ Can you explain the marking “MINSK FILM 1947 in some?
Answer/ No (possibly because the ones he had were not the marked ones , or he didn’t look or care-see below)
4/ How many pink smocks were there?
Answer/ 100+
5/ Were there mixed in with other uniforms? What kind?
Answer -No
(this is interesting as it may be that the smocks that Floch got are the ones without the studio markings and the ones with the markings were from another source and mixed in with standard camo items.
6/ What year did they come out?
Answer/ Around 1984 or earlier
7/ How were they packed?
Answer/ Stacked in warehouse (this makes sense as it accounts for bad condition ones on the bottom)
8/ Did you have some of the dirty ones washed?
Answer/ -No, did not touch, repair or wash (well, that clears that up, any washing was most likely done by the studio)
9/ Were some damaged?
Answer/ -Yes, tears, wear and dirt
9/ What was your original selling price?-
Answer/ Sold for $350.00 each, I paid approximately $10.00 each
10/ Some collectors think these are fake and you made them (nonsense IMO) . Is there any proof of purchase, photos or anything that can help provide provenance?
Answer/ -Did not make, bought.-No records as this was during communist times and was done under the table
11/ Any other comments or background would be most appreciated
Answer/ -I was not the only buying them, there were other buyers as well
In my opinion this clarifies the source and probably where they were made. I am positive now these were a regionally made SS camouflage smock possibly made in the East remained after 1945 and were turned over to the Polish film industry as they were making numerous war films as early as 1948. They may have only been issued to troops on the Eastern front or maybe even never issued and sat unused in a Polish garment factory or SS warehouse. I realize that having resisted these for so long some non-believers will never accept them regardless of the evidence no matter how strong. At this point IMO everything points to these being pre 1945.
If anyone has spoken with Floch about this or knows who the other buyers were lets hear it!
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