My dad's ski photos 1933-35 (+ link to his photos & letters from Belsen concentration camp

A snowHead

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[See new link (hosted by Peter Horn ) just added- to access some of my father's material from Belsen as promised previously on this thread. Be warned that some are shocking]
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[Original thread starts here:]

I recently found my father’s pre-war photo album which included photos of ski holidays between 1932 and 1936. Here he is at St Anton with his girlfriend (1934) and his car “Maggie" at Lenzerheide and again (1935) at St Anton (where?) and St Christoph skiing (with an odd arm position) and then the next year and with his friends at Oberstdorf. And finally an earlier photo (1932) of friends, one with a snow bike!

My father (HD “Johnny” Johnson) once took part in a ski race that the world champion was in. The course was not marked and he had worked out a quicker route than the one most people skied, down a a gulley that had just enough snow. He won the race.
Also, before the days of safety bindings, he had designed a variety of safety binding. However when he sent it to a ski manufacturer he got a letter back saying they didn’t think skiers would be interested because skiers liked the danger (!)

A snowHead

Excellent photos! Thanks for posting them.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

snowball, thanks for sharing them. They're wonderful!
Do you have any records of the ski binding design, and the correspondence?

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Wow - that really was another world. Great photos.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Fascinating! Thanks.

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Marvellous stuff, snowball. It's variety like this that makes snowHeads such a great place. Look at the bottom right one of his friends ..... the man is wearing a tie, if I am not mistaken. Clearly it must have been a cold day. Laughing

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David Goldsmith, no, unfortunately by the time I was interested the designs and correspondence had been lost (well, there had been a world war!). He also designed and made de-misting goggles for skiing etc, which had a squeeze-bulb attached to a long length of tubing wound several times around his waist under his clothes - thus warming the air - which divided in two and entered the goggles under each eye. Also his own record player and car, which he raced at Brooklands, and many other things (including the clover-leaf flyover, but since there were no motorways yet nobody was interested). This on top of his profession as a surgeon where he made many discoveries (in many countries the types of stomach ulcer are known as JohnsonType A, B, C) and pioneered several operations.
During the war he was a surgeon in the paratroops (6th Air Airborne division) and was with the first group of the Allies to enter Belsen. (The Germans had been afraid if they simply abandoned Belson when they retreated the inmates would escape and spread Typhoid through the German population, so they asked the British to send people to take over the camp several days before they withdrew, while it was still occupied by German troops and guards. The British, not knowing what concentration camps were like, sent a platoon of sappers and a field ambulance unit (which my father was seconded to) and discovered a camp covering 2 square miles.

I have some photos he took in those first days (he had only 2/3 of a roll of film having taken the first 1/3 a few days before at the Rhine crossing - the only time he ever shot at a German, who was bayonetting his friend who was tangled in his parachute rigging which had caught in a tree).

I also have some letters he wrote my mother from Belson before he discovered he wasn't supposed to mention it.

I could scan and post the photos and letters if people are interested (but perhaps not on Cardiff Ski which I usually use. Any suggestions!)

He died in 1980 and I designed his grave like a Roman altar , calling him "surgeon, researcher and brave gentleman".

After all it is free

snowball, wow, what an amazing man, you must be very proud!

Thanks Nade.
kuwait_ian, yes you are right, I looked and it is a tie!

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I wouldn't mind seeing the photos & letters, and I have some unused webspace (currently nothing there except a link to snowHeads) that could host them. PM me if you want to use the webspace for your scans.

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Pete Horn, Thanks, yes, I'll PM you. But do you have room for a dozen photos and about 20 pages of scanned letters?

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I love the way that nowadays we all panic about wearing breathable this, waterproof that and never venture out without at least 15 layers on, whereas your father seems just be wearing a stout V neck jumper and a spare pair of golfing plus fours! Fantastic!!!

We are all such wimps today Very Happy

You know it makes sense.

stanton, Yes, after looking at a map and from what I can remember (I've been twice but it's years since I've been there. But I'm going in Feb.) I think you are right.
PS I'm just going to add a photo to my first post of his girlfriend (1934) I had missed out.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Brilliant photos snowball!!!! Thanks for sharing them with us!!!! Your dad was a true snowHead

A snowHead

How many of us like to have 'olde-worlde' ski photos up on the walls, especially in whatever ski accommodation we're staying in? It must be wonderful for snowball, to not only have photos like that but also to know that their actually of your own family!!

A snowHead

Great photos Snowball. THey also look like they're in brilliant condition. You must be looking forward to going back to St Anton now you have made this discovery.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Yes, I am, though chiefly because the skiing is so good, but it gives it an extra something.
I'll be skiing with the guide Graham Austick
Someone suggested him as having a good reputation: has anyone here skied with him?

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Wonderful photos. I have 3 pairs of skis - last used in 1938, so they might be a bit too modern - which you could try, but the bindings are a bit rusty.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

RobertC,

...

!!

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Just to add to the others - truly fantastic photos snowball, really brings it home how spoilt we all are these days with our high-tech equipment. And I do think it's important to wear a tie at all times Very Happy

Fascinating stories your Dad must have told - I hope it's written down somewhere for future generations.

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snowball,
Wonderful photos I echo the sentiments elsewhere thanks v ery much for showing them.

It must have been warm in Obertsdorf that year they seem to be skiing topless. Puzzled

After all it is free

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This is wonderful - I remember my father telling the story of his first skiing trip with my grandfather. The instructor turned round to my grandfather at the start of the lesson and said "Who brought Napoleon with them." Wish I had pics of that.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

I don't know what to do about my Belsen offer (my second posting, above).
Is it totally inappropriate on this site?
I only discovered them when my father died. They are quite historic documents, really, but I can't decide what to do with them. I am reluctant to give them away to a museum, but thats really where they should be eventually. Perhaps I should put them on a proper website of their own.

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I think you should publish them on a website. If you want them on their own website then it can be quite cheap to host them. I rent space on a server for £3 a month (a private deal), then each website costs me just £8.81 for 2 years for the name registration (.co.uk or .org.uk).

Oh, just looked at your signature - probably teaching you to suck eggs here! Embarassed

Think of a good domain name, see if you can get it & then put a static site up.

Edit: 19/11/2020
The link in the first post to HD Johnson's letters & photos from Belsen will eventually cease working when I move ISPs. The Internet Archive keeps a copy of it - https://web.archive.org/web/20170510115429/http://www.murple.free-online.co.uk/ - which will stay there for a long time providing enough of us make donations to the Internet Archive once in a while.

Thanks Pete Horn. Well, a friend set up my website for me before I was even online.
It may be a while before I get down to making a dedicated website. Meanwhile I'll send the photos and first letter to you and just make a link from the "My Dad's ski Photos" thread (if that's still OK with you).

You know it makes sense.

Yes fine.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Gosh. Just seen these. Fantastic. Ankles must have got a bit cold when they went through powder Very Happy

A snowHead

Those are really cool pics.

Def sounds like your dad was an adventurer of sorts, and way before his time too!

I would've thought if you were going to offer the letters and photos up to a museum, you'd have pretty much your pick as to where they go to, even if only for a while so as to keep them in the family (I know I wouldn't actaully give them away if I were you!).

A snowHead

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AS PROMISED PREVIOUSLY HERE ARE MY FATHER"S PHOTOS FROM BELSEN I FOUND AFTER HIS DEATH, plus THE FIRST OF SEVERAL LETTERS HE WROTE TO MY MOTHER FROM BELSEN.
Rather a jump from the innocense of the ski photos.

Thanks to Peter Horn for hosting them on his site and doing all the work.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I think that the run which you weren't sure about in St Anton is the valley that goes down from the Valluga towards Stuben, although I am prepared to be corrected.

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snowball, These photos are an important personal record and show how harrowing and horrific conditions at Belsen were. They are not pleasant viewing but must be seen. Have you thought about preserving them with the imperial war museum. My father inlaw has done similar with photos he took when Mussolini was hanged.

Thanks for posting them you must be proud of your father.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Snowball, what a fantastic history of a remarkable man.

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Before you look at those photos, be warned that the link to more photos contains some disturbing photos Shocked

Great photos etc snowball, thanks for sharing!

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Stunningly important historical documents.

Please, please let the IWM know what you have got and get talking to them about their future. I am certain that they will be very interested indeed and will be delighted to talk to you about thier conservation and display. They really are that important.

Thanks for sharing them with us. It's really quite humbling.

After all it is free

That moved me to tears.

Yeah, I feel like I've been kicked in the guts too.

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snowball, should you decide to work with the IWM or any other museum then I would humbly suggest combining the photos. The contrast is awesome.

Thanks for sharing this.

David

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My dad's ski photos 1933-35 (+ link to his photos & letters from Belsen concentration camp

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