Authors and Readers of SS books

[infantryscout]

I am writing my own regimental history. However, I just do not get the fetish where some people are fascinated by things like on what date an officer was promoted to obergruppenstandartenjunkerfuhrer or what his NSDAP party number was? Sheesh what trivia!!!!! God forbid there should be something in there on why he joined the SS instead of the army!!! However, we do know when when Peiper made Sturman!

My six-cents,
PWL

[101stDoc]

Authors do not decide the cost of a book. Likewise, few authors determine which photo is done large, which is done small.

Unless, of course, the author is also the publisher.

Doc

[101stDoc]

I have heard cases where collectors calling themselves authors have duped people into contributing items, never to be seen again.

Or other cases where authors have received contributions and then published them with little to no credit for the contributors.

Not to forget, many have paid good money for the items in question and are reluctant to let a stranger profit from them. I

Hi Frederick!

Yes, indded there are collectors posing as authors and/or serious researchers requesting items or copies of items that do that. Sad but true.

As far as accrediting research and contributions, you are also correct there. There are a couple websites out there and a few other formats that have used some of my material without accredidation. It's a small gripe, but a fripe I guess.

As far as the money aspect, boy you hit a nail on the head, especially for SS related items which draw a premium (look at wehrpassen and soldbuchen). Photo albums too. I think another part of it these days is people copying photos without permission, but that is another topic also here in the forum.

Doc

[101stDoc]

How often do you find that when a book description says "many new photos not in print before" is actually a true statement.

I'm not Mark, but I thought I'd toss in my two cents. There are a LOT of SS related photos out there. However, they are quite expensive in general, so people tend to be a little more aggressive in how they are released. In some cases, it may be that the individual in question has a small collection, or knows someone who does. They then allow said writer to use them, even though they may or may not actually own the rights to them.

I'd say there's a fair number of pubs out there with new/not seen photos, but it is always best to browse if possible before you by. That is why I LOVE militaria shows and stores that carry a well stocked militaria line (usually army surplus stores, militaria stores etc).

Doc

[101stDoc]

If you horde material and simply wish to keep it for others to never see, you're a collector and not a researcher.

I agree in general, but there is a group in the middle ground. Those who don't have a problem, necessarily, with offering access to their material, but perhaps do not want elements of it published. Who knows.

Doc

[101stDoc]

I'm speaking outside the collector of militaria area since few of them have any history interest, being concerned mostly with originality and value alone.

As a hobby reader, the complete lack of book in English on Japanese topics overall is frustrating and covers a VAST unexplored area.

I don't know about your first point. I know plenty of militaria collectors that have immense interests in history. But there are those types of blokes, yes.

I am curious: what specific areas in Japanese and English (I assume you mean British Commonwealth) are you interested in? What German units would you like to see more work done on (or started in some cases I suppose)?

Doc

[101stDoc]

The biggest, and unexplaned, frustration on Japanese is the great material available in Japanese language books that nobody releases in English.

Well, we're also talking Japan here. A nation that barely acknowledges the war outside of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I suspect some of the Japanese only languaged works are highly suspect, to say the least. I have read a few books about Japanese aviation written by Japanese authors (and in a few cases the vets themselves). Some of the details are either blatantly overlooked or outright falsified in some cases (usually in regards to kill claims). Of course, it's not like that is limited to the Japanese.

Doc

[Timo]

I am writing my own regimental history.

...Which unit?

However, I just do not get the fetish where some people are fascinated by things like on what date an officer was promoted to obergruppenstandartenjunkerfuhrer or what his NSDAP party number was? Sheesh what trivia!!!!!

...Don't agree here. Such info can be most valuable if you want to know when somebody joined. And if you know when somebody joined, you have (for example) a clue about which actions they took part in. It also tells you, together with his NSDAP nr., if somebody joined as a pre-war volunteer or perhaps as a late-war concript. Promotions tell you if someone had a quick career or slow and (again for example) if you compare this with the promotions of his comrades you can determine if he was perhaps appointed in a certain position because he was the best available or the only one left (due to kills or other transfers/promotions). In short: the info that can be found through such "trivia" is endless, if combined in the right way.

God forbid there should be something in there on why he joined the SS instead of the army!!!

...Even with such questions the NSDAP-nr. and promotions are most important, if combined with the other results of research in the right way.

However, we do know when when Peiper made Sturman!

...Shouldn't that be Sturmmann?

[sid guttridge]

Hi Guys,

I am somehere in the middle on this one. I have no particular interest in individuals as individuals, and so I don't have much interest in collecting the trivia of officer lists etc.

However, every now and then I come across a piece of information that can only be checked from these sources. Last time it was because I read that Col.Gen. Friedrich Fromm, head of the Ersatzheer, had a personal feud with Martin Bormann dating from WWI. Sure enough, both served in the same artillery regiment in WWI. It appears the enlisted Bormann had had to shine Fromm's boots in depot in 1918. His revenge was to have Fromm executed in March 1945!

Only the trivia lists could confirm this story was plausible.

On another occasion we were discussing the route by which recruits reached their units at the front. However, a poster who had over two hundred soldiers' Wehrpasses (?) pointed out that the theoretical route was hardly ever followed. If investigated up, this might reveal how fractured the German replacement system was.

So, while I don't find such trivia records very interesting in themselves, they do contain really useful information.

Cheers,

Sid.

[pak40]

to Mark,

I have 7 of your books, they are all fantastic.

Chris

[Massimiliano Afiero]

I am very pleased that on this forum are the leading experts in historical waffen ss and no one deigns to answer (for the umpteenth time) to some of my request (In Waffen SS sector). Then someone of the same historians of this forum also allowed you to talk about lack of cooperation and sharing of resources. I think that except for a few, the majority wants to keep for himself and his knowledge when the knowledge is not shared is doomed to fail.

Waffen211

[dgc47]

Having read Mark's books and see the amount of research put into his books, I feel he is totally justified in posting his comments / opinions. I totally agree with him....even 12 years after he originally posted this. Mark C Yerger is a respected author and historian and when he speaks out, everybody should listen.

That's my respected opinion of the man.