Book Review: The Ghettos of Nazi-Occupied Poland, Ian Baxter (Images of War)

As someone who literally loves the uniforms, equipment, materiel, and quite often even the combatants and their stories, the whole racist/fascist aspects of the Nazi regime are anathema to me. It would be beyond churlish, in my view, to even attempt to downplay, ignore or worse still deny or support those aspects of what was an appalling ideology.

Having said that, for the most part I do separate the two aspects: the fascinating military machine/history, and the contemptible visions it was employed in furthering. In the same way I could happily assemble both sides of American Civil War forces, or, for that matter, English Civil War armies, without declaring allegiance to any of the views espoused (or not) by the combatants.*

With those thoughts in mind, what of this book? Well, thus far I haven't read much of the textual content. Instead I've just studied the many interesting images and read the captions for them, and occasional parts of the text, like the short intro/aftermath segments. In some ways, whilst the underlying segregationist concept is, to me, awful - if not as unusual historically as some might suggest - what strikes one most, at first glance, is the ordinary everyday banality of much of it, street scenes and people milling about, even markets, policemen, firemen, postal workers, people working in factories, etc.

Ghetto residents working in a shoe-factory, Lodz.

But this disguises, now as it did for the Germans back then, including perhaps those who took most of these photos, who might've look at some of these images and fooled themselves they weren't being all that bad, several key things: first and foremost these weren't ghettos 'naturally' formed, so to speak, by ethnic groups choosing to congregate, as many around the world to this day remain. They were government enforced relocations, and part of the more sinister so called 'cleansing', i.e. institutionalised genocide. Aka the infamous 'final solution' to 'the Jewish problem'. 

And whilst the Germans, lovers of bureaucracy and form filling, list-making and so on, did create the semblance of normal institutions within ghettos, these were token gestures, beneath which racist contempt saw them utilise the Jewish population as a disposable low-maintenance workforce. Those who weren't dying of starvation, or diseases like cholera, typhus, and so on, would be working in German industries, mostly towards the war effort

This photographic study concentrates mainly on the ghettos as photographed, on the whole, by a number of German servicemen. Some of these collections of photos only surfaced in fairly recent years.  And, unusually for a WWII Images of war title they include a segment of colour photographs. 

One of a number of colour images. Biebow visits Lodz.

The main chapter headings convey the content:

Ghettoisation - Jews** are removed from their homes and relocated, mostly by train, but also on foot. This section also has numerous pictures of german 'brass' and functionaries, like Hans Biebow, a businessman turned Ghetto administrator.

Life in the Ghettos - This is, at first glance, the most apparently humdrum chapter. But the banality belies the underlying brutality, as the casual littering of corpses occasionally reminds the viewer

Liquidation of the Ghettos - as ominous as it sounds; this is the segment that, inevitably, depicts - even if only in a few shocking images - the most brutal part of the Nazi war crimes process, the wholesale butchery of unarmed non-combatants.

The Warsaw Uprising - Another brutally bleak chapter in this sad story sees the largest of the ghettos rise up, only to be mercilessly crushed.

The book ends with The Aftermath and two appendices. The first lists major Polish ghettos (but by no means all of them), many illustrated by single photos, and the second and last says a brief word on the infamous Reserve Police Battalion 101, who were instrumental in facilitating Nazi policy in these tragic times.

Personally I think it's very salutory to remind oneself of the reality and the enormity of these crimes against humanity. Their scale beggars belief, and their proximity in time should be a warning against complacency. On a European tour with a band I was once in, our Dutch tour bus driver took us to a transit camp in, I think, Belgium. To stand in a place of that type - not even an extermination camp - and think how whole categories of humans were treated as disposable trash, was a very powerful experience.

Note on photos: the two colour photos I've used here - so washed out they almost look black and white - are, like a number in the book, from the USHMM, or United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

---

* It's worth remembering that many soldiers are not primarily fighting for the causes their leaders say they stand for. Many just fight for their nation, homes and families, each other, or simply to stay alive.

** And, let's not forget, other so called 'undesirables', such as leftists, gypsys, homosexuals, and so on. But obviously, as per the title, this book concentrates on the Jewish aspect of Nazi persecution, it being the largest and primary 'out group'.

Book Review: The Fall of Berlin, Ian Baxter (Images of War)

Symbolically the fall of Berlin seems like end of WWII in the West, even though combat actually sputtered on in numerous other places. This latest Images of War title starts with the Russian Vistula-Oder offensive, so actually some way from Berlin, moving through the Defence of the Oder and the Battle of the Halbe. 

Each of these forms a chapter, with a brief synopsis of events from Ian Baxter and sections of black and white photos. It's not till the fourth chapter that we actually get to the Battle for Berlin. At the end there's an Order of Battle appendix, listing German and Russian forces.

The text is ok, but the captions for the pictures recycle the body text too often for my liking (not at all would be best). The pictures are by and large ok, but some are rather poor, including several so poor I don't think they should've been used. Neither the best nor the worst in this very useful series, this is still a good bit of reference material for those of us who like collecting such material on WWII.

Book Review: 7th SS at War, Ian Baxter (Images of War)

As the cover blurb for this book informs us, Pen and Sword's Images of War series now has numerous volumes dedicated to various SS formations, this being (like it's subject!) the seventh. And from what I gather from reading further they may all be by Ian Baxter. 

Whilst the comprehensiveness of the aim is great, the execution isn't quite up to par with the best in the IoW line. I say this because more of the images herein are either of related units - such as Gebirgsjäger (mountain troops), regular Wehrmacht or Bulgarian forces, or SS troops who may or may not actually be Prinz Eugen - than are clearly and definitively of the stated/titular subject. This and the fairly poor quality of some images occasionally make this feel a bit thin and cobbled together. Still, as the Panzerwrecks guy's are fond of saying, a poor quality image is better than no image at all.

This fellow isn't in the book.

Nor this one neither (I don't think?).

In just over 100 pages, organised as five very short chapters, each preceding blocks of captioned photos, Baxter's main body of text is okay. Very brief and outline like, it does at least stay closer to its core subject than does the visual element. The history of the unit is covered, from its formation to its demise, with coverage of its major deployments/operations and some info on commanders.

Prinz Eugen's main theatre of operations was the rugged and brutal Balkans, where Nazi ideology was pursued with utmost ruthlessness. The 7th SS were instrumental in this, being constantly deployed in anti-insurgency capacities that frequently included merciless reprisals for partisan activity, routinely visited indiscriminately on the local civilian population. No winning hearts and minds here. Whilst Baxter mentions this frequently in the text, there's very little imagery on this aspect, aside from a few relatively innocuous looking round-up/interrogation photos (of course what happened next may have been far worse). [1]

When you see that Odal rune, you know it's Prinz Eugen.

Neither this chap, nor the one above, are in the book.

On the positive side, and despite the fact that the images that are certainly of Prinz Eugen forces aren't always as clear or as copious as one might wish for, the subject is a very interesting one. Called a volunteer (Freiwilligen was part of the original unit title) and Mountain (Gebirgs) unit, it was in fact made up of conscripted troops as well as volunteers. And, as with other units operating in the same region, such as SS Handschar, it stretched or diluted the Aryan superman ideology that was a central tenet of the SS/Nazi creed.

Perhaps in keeping with the inherent racism in this scheme, Prinz Eugen, like more and more units in the German armed forces as time went on was, whilst basically armed and equipped as German troops, issued with less 'purely' Teutonic high-end gear. This is a theme Baxter and the photographs substantiate at several points, and is of interest to us WWII gear nuts.

French tanks of Prinz Eugen, in impressively rugged settings.*

A Czech ZB-53 or MG-37 machine-gun in German service. *

But perhaps best and most noteworthy off all, the landscapes in which Prinz Eugen fought are also sublime, in the original romantic sense, meaning both beautiful and yet terrifying/inhuman. And the weather was equally extreme. The war that was fought in this pitiless natural paradise brought hell to earth in a Dantean way whose repercussions have echoed down into later days. But whilst Baxter touches on the WWII aspects of 7th SS' part in this long-running and often ethnically based tragedy, no real mention is made of the long-term roots or latter 20th Century aftermath.

Some of the picture captioning is redundantly repetitious of stuff in the main text (or other previous captions), and occasionally looks either a bit lazy or slapdash, as when the caption to an image of greatcoat wearing troops without any other visible gear crossing a rickety wooden footbridge opines about the slow progress made in such rugged terrain by heavily laden troops. The caption is of course quite correct. But it doesn't sit well with the accompanying image, which shows very lightly burdened soldiers. [2]

Prinz Eugen troops scaled mountains... *

... trudged through mud and snow... *

... and relied on horses and mules as much as trucks and armour. *

Despite all my criticisms, I do like this book, and it is very interesting/useful reference. I imagine over time I'll try and collect all of Baxter's IoW titles on the SS. But it could fairly easily have been somewhat better. And I wish it was. Nevertheless, well worth adding to your library if you're a WWII history obsessive. Especially so if you're particularly interested in the Germans and the SS during WWII (as I am), obviously.

---

NOTES:

* Any images marked with an asterisk appear in this book. The others don't.

[1] The only image that I feel really captures this aspect of the conflict is a photo on p. 101, (shown below) of a group of prisoners sat in a field. Mostly they're young men, but there are a few women, and there's a fair range of ages. The fear and apprehension in their faces is palpable and chilling. The caption says they're captured partisans. And perhaps they are. Whether or not they are, they seem to know their fate will not be a happy one.

Faces that say, 'uh-oh...' *

[2] I always feel a bit bad, nit-picking on errors in books such as this which, for any/all their faults, are both very useful, and the work of people as passionate about their interests in the subject no doubt as I am. But on the other hand, we should all strive for the best we can, and especially so where the enterprise is also commercial. So for example the combo of poorly cropped image and subsequently redundant caption in the lower portion of page 94, in which we see naught but a soldier's head and the empty sky, and not the pack animals the caption refers to, shouldn't have passed the editorial process.

Inclusion of a few artefacts, such as this I.D. badge would've been nice.

Book Reviews: Hitler's Defeat on the Western Front, Seidler & Hitler's Defeat on the Eastern Front, Baxter

This has reached me in a timely fashion, right after reading a series of books such as Operation Totalize and The Germans in Normandy, which cover the same period and territory. Being an Images of War title, this is naturally a more pictorial treatment, which nicely complements the aforementioned text based books.

In this title, the text is largely confined to four brief 'chapters': Defending Northern France; Battles in Holland and Belgium; Defending the Rhine; Last Battles in the West. Each of these is followed by big chunks of captioned photographs. Some of these images will be familiar to hardened veterans of WWII studies, but there are also a good number that live up better to the 'rare photographs from wartime archives' tagline.

This view of an SdKfz 251 from atop a tank is great.

As is quite common in series such as this, there are a few editorial gaffes, such as when the same image appears twice, as does a Panther passing wrecked buildings, appearing on both p.11 and p.66. At least the captions differ! Speaking of the captions, they're okay. But given that they form the bulk of the text, they could've been better, i.e. more informative and/or interesting. Once again there's some redundant repetition.

Still, overall the pictures are great, and having them at ones' fingertips as reference in book form is fab. There are also some additional appendices, giving unit compositions and OOBs. So, all in all, a useful and enjoyable addition to the Images of War series.

Rommel inspects SPGs and crews. Note natty sackcloth tank tops!

---

This title sounds like it should be the perfect complement to Siedler's book, as reviewed above. And in some respects it is. Certainly it's a complement. But, alas, it's far from perfect. As usual with Ian Baxter's work, in my experience of it thus far, the prose is occasionally very clumsy, and some captions are either boringly obvious, redundantly repetitious, or just plain wrong.

In this particular addition to the highly useful but quality-wise fairly variable Images of War series, Baxter seems peculiarly obsessed with the SS. The SS are, I would say - and I perhaps share the fascination many, Baxter quite obviously included, have with this darkly fascinating branch of the Nazi war machine - very over-represented here. And a lot of the references to them seem almost gushingly admiring.

A nicely dramatic shot. SS? Yes!

The only real acknowledgement of their complicity in war crimes comes in reference to the crushing of the Warsaw uprising. The rest of the time Baxter continually sings their praises. As much as I'm fascinated by the SS myself, I found this irksome. And in a book purporting to cover the Eastern Front as a whole, this SS-focus just seemed a bit odd.

One possible explanation might be the sourcing of the photos, perhaps? In his acknowledgments Baxter refers to his gratitude re the use of photographs from several private sources. Maybe those sources are mainly SS related? If so, some kind of mention of that fact ought to have been made. 

More SS...

... and more.

On the positive side, this is one of the few Images of War titles wherein I haven't recognised lots of the images from other sources, such as the Bundesarchiv. Structurally it's akin to Seidler's Western Front book, with five brief chapters - Kursk; Fighting Withdrawal; Winter Warfare; Bagration & Aftermath; Last Battles - supported by the captioned photographs. But there's more text here than in Siedler's Western counterpart. This means more detail. However, it also means more lumpen prose and repetition. So, a mixed blessing!

The photos themselves are useful and interesting, if of quite varied quality. The over-representation of the SS may or may not irritate others. As I like their funky camo' gear, I can live with it. But it's not as broadly representative visually as Siedler's Western Front counterpart. Several appendices cover info on organisation, equipment and uniforms. I only glanced at the latter, so won't pass judgement on them here, they may be useful additions. Then again, they may not.

Can it be! Is this possibly not an SS unit?

Not the best of the Images of War offerings. But still interesting and useful for reference.

And lest ye forget... yet more SS!*

* I will confess that SS camo' gear is something I never tire of seeing.

Book Review: Images of War, Hitler's HQs, Ian Baxter

N.B. This is one of those occasional archival posts I do, started ages ago, and then forgotten about. Having subsequently read and reviewed another Ian Baxter Images of War title, I thought I'd return to the unfinished draft of this and get it done and online.

Having only just read Hugh Trevor Roper's book on Hitler's last days, I picked up a copy of this book cheap (I believe I paid £5), at a model show, some while back. If I'd paid the full retail asking price, I'd have been a bit miffed, for several reasons. So let's get the critical stuff out of the way.

The first thing that struck me was how many pictures here aren't of the subject, but are just general WWII German stuff, only very tenuously connected to the books subject, if at all. That was after a first glance through the pictures. The second was the catalogue of typos, lumpen prose, and even captioning mistakes, when I came to read the text. There are, sadly, times when specialist literature such as this seems to slip through the editorial net. One does have to wonder, in an instance such as this, if an editor even looked at it.

Hitler sitting outside/beside his train, Amerika.

Nice colour photo of Amerika, showing the loco' and a flak carriage.

On the positive side, there is a good deal of info here on Hitlers numerous HQ, including a number of decent pictures, and this is a very fascinating topic. As well as the static installations, Hitler's trains are covered (although more and better info on this latter would've been good). Another plus is the then and now contrast, where the author shows some more recent images of what's become of some of these installations. Sadly, and creating historical lacunae, due to the toxicity of Hitler's racial/ideological policies, these fascinating and historically important sites are not being conserved (for fear they'd become celebrated/shrines to the Führer, etc.), in fact quite the reverse.

Personally speaking, I think this instalment of the often very good Images of War series needs re-doing: editorially it needs correcting and tightening up, and pictorially it needs to be 'on topic' in a more focussed way. Plans of the various HQ, for example - surely they must exist? - would be a good addition.

Hitler and staff at Wulfschanze, East Prussia.

This arrival scene shows how heavily wooded the Wolf's Lair was.

Bombed out remains at Obersalzberg, in the Bavarian Alps, 1945.

Baxter includes some of his own pictures, similar to the one above, showing Wolfschanze as it is now. The installations were gutted, dynamited, and left to be reclaimed by nature.

Book Review: Images of War, The Armour of Rommel's Africa Korps, Ian Baxter

Author Ian Baxter's CV, as given in the front of this book, looks impressively diverse and prolific. I initially thought this might be my first book by him, but then realised I've got and have read his book from the same series about Hitler's various HQs.

The narrative element of the text is very minimal, being confined to three short year-themed chapters: Desert Blitzkrieg, 1941; Attack & Retreat, 1942; Destruction in Tunisia, 1943. A larger portion of text, by volume, is given over to the captions to the 161 or so black and white photos.

The Pz III, along with Pz IV, formed the backbone of DAK's armour. [1]

Titles in the Images Of War series pretty much always make the bold claim, as is the case here, that they feature 'rare and unpublished photographs'. Unlike Baxter, 'an avid collector of WW2 photographs' (according to the back cover blurb), I'm not expert enough to pass judgement on the truth or otherwise of this bold claim. But I will say that the more of these books I collect and read, I am impressed with how rarely I recognise pics from other sources.

As no picture sources are credited (they normally are in other titles from the Images of War series), I imagine these must all be from Baxter's personal collection. Sometimes being sourced this way can mean some of the pictures aren't of the highest quality. And there are a few here so blurred I'd have left them out myself. But by and large picture quality is acceptable through to very good. And there's an awful lot here for the military buff, modeller or wargamer to chew over, digest and enjoy.

The Sturmpanzer II Bison, mounting the 15cm sIG 33 gun.

I think the use of the word armour in the title is possibly a little misleading because, as Baxter says in his intro, he covers everything from halftracks and wheeled reconnaissance vehicles to armoured cars, SPGs and tanks. To my mind the word armour conjures up tanks, and little else. On the other hand, whilst the vehicles pictured do include some motorcycles and softskins (cars and trucks, etc.), mostly it is armoured vehicles.

These range all the way through, from the early light Pz Is and IIs, to the medium IIIs and IVs, even including Tiger Is. Although, re the latter (and like so often with German tech), it was too little too late. Most of the vehicles here are very familiar. Less well known to me, and therefore more interesting, were the pics of Bison II SPGs. That's one I'm going to have to build in 1/72!

North Africa and the campaigns there have never drawn my interest as much as other theatres of WWII. And this book, as interesting and useful as it is, hasn't really changed that. But I do now feel I know a little more about the materiel Rommel and his fellow Germans (and to a much lesser degree the Italians) had to work with.

A really great picture! [2]

One of my favourite photographs shows a Me 323 Gigant disgorging an Opel Maultier towing an artillery piece. I like it because both the plane and the tracked truck are somewhat unusual, and both are quite striking looking. Another particularly good spread is a series of four photos showing a Tiger crew servicing/replacing an engine, and then having a well earned tuck break!

There's no index, glossary or bibliography, all of which would be useful. But there are three appendices, the first giving DAK OOB, and the second and third listing vehicle types and variants. Sadly this is one of these special interest books slightly marrred by lack of editorial finesse, with quite a lot of information in the captions being repeated, and a few too many spelling errors or questionable relations between captions and descriptions.

I read this in its entirety in just a couple of hours. There really isn't that much text. It's not the best written or most exciting WWII book I've read, by a long stretch. But it's still a good addition to the WWII history nut's book collection, mainly thanks to the images.

There are quite a lot of pictures of Rommel and other DAK (and even Italian) staff. [3]

---------
NOTES:

[1] This is one of a number of pictures where the captioning seemed a bit off the mark. Described as having 'halted at the side of the road', the projectile clouds of dust and sand being fed through the the tracks on the right/starboard sides of the first two tanks suggests they're in fact in fairly rapid motion!

[2] This is an example of a picture that was easy to find online, being a Wikimedia Commons/Bundesarchiv image.

[3] Given the title of this book I thought there were a few too many shots of Rommel and/or brass in conference or reading maps. And again, the one shown above, which appears in the book, was relatively easy to find online.