Waffen-SS Kriegsberichter – War photographers and photojournalists

Gunter d'Alquen as SS-Hstuf. d. R. of SS-Kriegsberichter-Kompanie

Gunter d'Alquen as SS-Standartenführer of SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers

Carl Svensson as SS-Untersturmführer of SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers

The SS-Kriegsberichters or SS War Correspondents who covered the war in the 1940´s were masters of their art. The images are like snapshots taken as the drama unfolds before their - and our - eyes. Historians owe them a deep dept of gratitude for having faithfully documented this historic struggle under enemy fire and in the most appalling conditions. In 1945, several months before the end of the war, an order issued by the RSHA, or Reichssicherheitshauptamt required that all photographic material of the Waffen-SS was to be destroyed. This order was quickly carried out and all the film negatives were burned. Oddly enough, many archival albums which contained the contact strips managed to somehow survive. Today all the surviving SS War Correspondent albums are safely stored in the German Federal Archives. Top image: the then SS-Hauptsturmführer d. R. der Waffen-SS and combat war correspondent Gunter d'Alquen eating with his driver during the opening days of the invasion of the Soviet Union, codenamed Operation Barbarossa. He was chief editor of the SS weekly Das Schwarze Korps, the official newspaper of the Schutzstaffel. Photo by SS-Kriegsberichter Ernst Baumann. U.S. NARA. Middle image: rising through the ranks Gunter d'Alquen became SS-Standartenführer of the famed unit SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers in 1943. Gunter d'Alquen died on May 15 1998 aged 88. FU. Bottom image: Swedish SS-Kriegsberichter Carl Stodenberg Svensson was posted to the Leningrad front after graduation at SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz. There he received his promotion to SS-Untersturmführer in March 1943 and assumed command of a propaganda company composed of radio reporters, cameramen and journalists. Svensson, having previously specialized in radio propaganda, shadowed a Tiger tank crew for several days, something which he considered to have been his best reportage. He interviewed, among others, the Dutch SS-Untersturmführer Geradus Mooyman in Narva in Estonia, the first non-German Waffen-SS volunteer to be awarded the Knight's Cross. Svensson was promoted to SS-Obersturmführer on November 3 1944. After having been released from his contract by Gunter d'Alquen during the last weeks of the war, Svensson travelled to København in Denmark where he destroyed his identity papers and pistol before boarding a flight to Malmö in Sweden on May 5 1945. Carl Svensson died on January 17 1999 aged 83. Credit: author Lars Larsson. Photo: priv.coll. Lars Larsson Archives. FU.

ϟϟ-Standarte „Kurt Eggers“

Waffen-SS Grenadier with MG 34

SS-Kriegsberichter Wiegand

SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers was a Waffen-SS War Correspondent formation taking many famous photographs of all Waffen-SS divisions in the field. Many of Kurt Eggers photographers, movie cameramen, writers, broadcaster and recorders were multilingual foreign volunteers often accompanying advance units instead of relying on the typical posed battle shots and the relative safety of the rear units. The reporters generally served with several different Waffen-SS formations during the war. Non-Germans most often served with their own national SS formations, but were sometimes detached to cover a particular campaign and report specifically for their own domestic press. The reporters were equipped with still and movie cameras and operated in the same areas as the front line troops, armies and army groups. Usually they were professional photographers by trade before they joined the Waffen-SS. One of the most common cameras that were used was the Leica, as it was one of the best cameras of its time. They were all fully trained Waffen-SS combat soldiers. The honor title Kurt Eggers refers to the former editor of the SS magazine Das Schwarze Korps who was killed on August 13 1943 while reporting on SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Wiking's battles near Kharkov. Left image: a classic photo of a Waffen-SS soldier wearing the well known Platanentarn smock on the Eastern Front. c. Bundesarchiv. Right image: the Totenkopf war correspondent SS-KB Wiegand with a Leitz Hektor lens during Unternehmen Zitadelle at the Kursk salient. Credit: Johannes Dorn. U.S. NARA.

European postcard series Unsere Waffen-SS

Propaganda postcard Our Waffen-SS

Propaganda postcard Our Waffen-SS

The European postcard series Unsere Waffen-SS were published by Kunstverlag E. A. Schwerdtfeger & Co. AG in Berlin during the Third Reich with the permission of the SS-Führungshauptamt. The photos on these rare Waffen-SS postcards were all taken in action by SS-Kriegsberichters or Waffen-SS front line photographers as part of the Nazi propaganda machine. Every postcard has two lines of text. The top line is Unsere Waffen-SS and below that, a text describing the image on the front side. Furthermore, on the reverse of all postcards, is text indicating the name of the SS war reporter who took the photograph and an authorization for publication. Left image: Waffen-SS man on an original Nazi era postcard: Ein frischer Trunk nach hartem Kampf. Right image: another original Nazi era postcard: Am Meßgerät. The Postcard shows Hans Kayser of the Leibstandarte SS Anti-Aircraft Battery in 1941. The Flak binoculars had a very wide field of view and the lenses are inclined at 45 degrees for easy viewing. Photo by SS-Kriegsberichter Franz Roth. Credit: Karl Mensburg. Photos in the PD.

ϟϟ-Untersturmführer und Kriegsberichter der Waffen-SS Roth

SS-Kriegsberichter Franz Roth

German Propagandakompanie photographer

The Austrian press photographer Franz Seraphicus Roth worked for the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda and as a photo editor for the American news agency Associated Press. The Associated Press photo department entered a formal cooperation with the Nazi regime in the 1930s and worked under the auspices of the German Ministry of Propaganda. Franz Roth joined the Kriegsberichterstatter-Zug of the LSSAH under SS-Sturmbannführer Kurt Meyer in 1940. The prominent Waffen-SS photographer Franz Roth was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class in 1941 and promoted SS-Untersturmführer in September 1942. Although he got killed during the Third Battle of Kharkov in early 1943, Roth left more than 120 rolls of film that give historians and history lovers a precious account of the war. His contact sheets are kept by the U.S. National Archives in Washington D.C. Franz Roth was posthumously awarded the Iron Cross First Class and buried at Heldenfriedhof Askold's Grave on the right bank of the Dnieper in Kiev in Ukraine. His images can be found in a variety of European World War II propaganda publications and in American newspapers. Credit: author Charles Trang. Left image: the 30-year-old SS-Kriegsberichter Franz Roth wearing a SS-Palmenmuster camouflage smock at the Eastern front in 1941. Priv.coll. FU. Right image: as this photo indicates PK photographers were very much part of the front line troops. Note unusual double Leica camera and the Mauser C96 semi-automatic pistol nicknamed Kuhfußpistole stuffed into the boot. The gaiters at right suggest a Soviet Red Army prisoner. Press photog. Hanns Hubmann for Signal Magazine. c. Bundesarchiv.

ϟϟ-Untersturmführer und Kriegsberichter der Waffen-SS Borg

SS-Untersturmführer Gösta Borg

Gösta Borg as SS-Kriegsberichter

SS-Untersturmführer Gösta Borg from Stockholm, Sweden fought with the Swedish Volunteer Corps against the Soviet invasion of Finland during the Winter War 1939-1940 were he was decorated for bravery. He was originally from the Swedish Royal Guards but volunteered for the Waffen-SS in 1941. Borg was attached to SS-Regiment Westland of SS-Division Wiking. After being wounded on the Eastern front he returned to Sweden, were he studied at the Swedish Military Academy. In 1943 Borg returned to Germany and graduated from SS Officer Candidate School SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz. He became a Kriegsberichter in SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers and covered various fronts with 5.SS-Panzer-Division Wiking and 11.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Nordland. Gösta Borg interviewed various public figures during the war, including SS-Oberstgruppenführer der Waffen-SS Sepp Dietrich, Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model and Ferdinand Schröner. He also directed the emissions in Swedish from the Königsberg's radio Deutschen Europasender. In 1951, Borg published an account Det röda massanfallet (The Red Onslaught) where he describes his experiences in the Waffen-SS. It was meant to be a guide for the Swedish Army on how to deal with a possible Soviet invasion of Western Europe. SS-Untersturmführer Gösta Borg died aged 85 on December 29 2000 in Stockholm. Images: note that the Swede Gösta Borg wears the cuff title Kurt Eggers and the early SS 'Danziger' skull that was worn in 1923-1934. Courtesy of Joakim Munter.

The Art of War: Staged War Photography

SS-Division Totenkopf

SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Leibstandarte SS

World War II came as a breaking point in photography as elsewhere. It was documented on a huge scale by thousands of photographers and artists who created millions of pictures. While some photographs are taken in the heat of battle, others are staged. One of the many powerful images of Waffen-SS in action during the Battle of Kursk showing a SS-Panzergrenadier climbing the banks of an anti-tank ditch. Contact sheets reveal that this photo was staged behind the lines where it was safe by the war correspondent SS-Kriegsberichter Johan King who covered the Leibstandarte SS at Kursk. Note the face-mask at his neck: meant to provide camouflage, it was seldom, if ever, used by soldiers in combat because it hampered visibility, especially when on the move. The photo is taken when the Waffen-SS were at its peak. Highly trained and equipped with the latest warfare technology, the elite Waffen-SS was to spearhead the expected German summer offensive of July 1943: Operation Zitadelle. Credit: Rui Manuel Candeias. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. The photograph to the left shows a SS-Kradschütze happily posing for the talented photographer SS-Kriegsberichter Ernst Baumann in July 1941. Ernst Baumann was assigned to the Totenkopf during the opening days of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Credit: Doug Banks. Commons: Bundesarchiv. War photography provides us with the opportunity to learn about war from the safety of our homes. It engenders knowledge, understanding, and empathy, but also desensitization.

Filmberichter der Waffen-SS im Einsatz

Kriegsberichter of the Leibstandarte SS

Leibstandarte SS troops after the battle

Photographing in the midst of battle

The Waffen-SS Kriegsberichters role was to; Report on the war through text, photographs, drawings, radio and films. They were soldiers first and war correspondents second and were never to far away from the combat zone during the war. They were expected to take part in assaults, offensive operations and fight next to their comrades as their positions were being overrun by the enemy rather than taking photographs. They gained respect very quickly as most Waffen-SS war correspondents demonstrated remarkable courage in the face of battle. The SS war reporters covered the actions of all the Waffen-SS formations in the field. They were able to operate independently of each other equipped with still and movie cameras to enable to visually document the actions of Waffen-SS men in combat. It is estimated that during the whole war the SS-Kriegsberichters produced over 80.000 written reports and more than a million photographs. Top image: according to some accounts, an SS-Kriegberichter of the Leibstandarte SS filming a swearing-in ceremony of new recruits to the division. However, other sources claims that the photo was taken during the Normandy invasion in France in 1944. The photographer has never been identified. Credit: Marwan Geitner. c. Bundesarchiv. Middle image: Leibstandarte SS troops in Ukraine in 1942. Photo by Paul Augustin who served as a SS-KB with the Leibstandarte SS from at least 1940 until March 1943. During that period, Augustin took many hundreds of photographs of his unit, and a collection of those photographs is maintained by U.S. National Archives. He was promoted to SS-Hauptscharführer on March 1 1943 and killed in action eight days later, on March 9 1943. Credit: Karl Mensburg. U.S. NARA. Bottom image: Soviet prisoners captured by men of the Waffen-SS being treated on the battlefield by an SS-Scharführer during the German Operation Zitadelle. Photo by the Totenkopf war correspondent SS-KB Hermann Grönert who served with the SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Das Reich at Kursk in July 1943. He held the Infantry Assault Badge and the Wound Badge in Silver and was awarded the Iron Cross First Class the following year, 1944. Credit: Bekors. U.S. NARA.

Waffen-SS Kriegsberichters Hamsun and Sveinsson Björnsson

SS-Unterscharführer Arild Hamsun

Björn Sveinsson Björnsson as SS-Hauptscharführer

According to various sources, the left photograph shows the Norwegian SS-Unterscharführer Arild Hamsun, son of the famous writer and Nobel Prize winner in Literature Knut Hamsun. Public domain. The right photograph shows the then SS-Hauptscharführer Björn Sveinsson Björnsson, son of the wartime Icelandic President. Fair use. They both served with SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers and were attached to SS-Regiment Nordland of the SS-Division Wiking as war correspondents. Arild Hamsun, whos famous father meant that the Germans were fighting for all Europeans, received the Iron Cross Second Class in October 1943. After the war he was sentenced to a short prison sentence before he took over his parents’ farm Nørholm in Grimstad in Norway. The Icelandic President's son Björn Sveinsson Björnsson joined the Waffen-SS in 1941 and followed Regiment Nordland on the advance on Rostov-on-Don, Kuran Valley and the Kaucasus-mountains before heading up the Nazi propaganda machine in occupied Denmark. He was taken prisoner in May 1945 and held in custody in Denmark but was released the following year to great public outrage. Upon his release he traveled incognito to Sweden and was smuggled back into Iceland. Björn Sveinsson Björnsson decamped for Argentina in 1949 before moving to Germany. He worked at Encyclopædia Britannica and his memoirs were published in 1989 entitled Ævi mín og sagan sem ekki mátti segja (My life and a story not allowed to be told). SS-Unterscharführer Arild Hamsun died aged 74 in 1988 in Grimstad in Norway and SS-Untersturmführer Björn Sveinsson Björnsson died aged 89 in 1998 in Borgarnes in Iceland.