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

A snowHead

Thanks for the thanks and comments.
Ibt - did you mean combine the ski and Belsen photos? Not sure IWM would be interested in that. (?)

I thought I should explain that "Phoebe" was the car he had commandeered (see "Maggie" in the ski photos)

At university (Christ's, Cambridge) he learned to fly and belonged to the Apostles. The entry requirement was to drink a pint of beer in 10 seconds. Each of the the 12 members took the name of an apostle and the local publican was Jesus Christ.

A snowHead

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

He said you couldn't really swallow that much in that time, you had to learn to sort of open your throat and pour it down (!)
Knowing him only much later I find it difficult to imagine him doing that sort of thing.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

snowball, there's definately an art to doing it....... Wink

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

This has been a fascinating thread and the pictures of Belsen harrowing. I was filming in Derbyshire a few years ago and started talking to a semi-retired farmer who was bombing about on an old tractor. I thought he wanted some money to go and drive his tractor somewhere else but almost immediately he produced a bundle of letters and photos that he kept under his coat. I was shocked and humbled by what he had. He had been a young paratrooper and had been one of the first soldiers into Belsen. He had taken photos of what he had seen to send back to his fiance. They weren't the usual subjects of piled up bodies, but were a series shots of haunted faces looking at the camera, dull eyed, shocked faces that had been brutalised by their experiences.
This farmer, who could only have been 18 when he experienced this, kept these photos on him bundled up with his letters home to his girl friend and wanted to tell every one today that these awful things did happen and that we should never never forget it.
Sorry to bring this up in thread about skiing but there must be many photos out there from people who took these powerful images that should be seen by a wider audience. He (the farmer) wasn't anti-German, just worried that a modern population would forget about how awful we can be to our neighbours.
The pictures of skiing before the war are fantastic too, thankyou for sharing them.

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Extraordinary coincidence! Sounds like he must have been one of Dad's group! It's a pity there is no way to check (or is there?). Yes, I'm told the experience changed my father too, though of course I never knew him how he was before, unfortunately.

One of the strangest of Dad's photos is No 11 because of the disjunction of atmosphere (for us but not them) between foreground and background.
The group of women normalise the background.
It's like a cruel parody of Manet's famous painting "Dejeuner sur l'herbe" which originally shocked the ladies at the Salon, but only with its (to us) innocent sexuality.

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

Thank you snowball, an incredibly moving story, more revealing and personal than any books I've read on the subject.

After all it is free

Snowball,

I have a contact at the Imperial War Museum. If you think it is appropriate I could direct her here to look at this site and would be able to give you a good idea of what best to do (or not to do) with your records.

On a personal note they are a very humbling and real view of what we were fighting for.

benjj, Yes, certainly, please do, (I expect she will tell me that details of my memory of what my father told me are inaccurate. He didn't talk about it much and he died in 1980).

Since my mother is still alive (age 90) and strictly speaking the letters still belong to her, I would have to consult with her.
I am hoping she does not destroy the bulk of the letters she still has, but of course they are hers to dispose of as she wishes.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Snowball,

I've mailed her and given details of the URL you have hosted your records on.

I did not suggest for a moment that you were going to simply hand them over, but more as a request for her to review them for their historical value.

I was (and still am) quite gobsmacked by these photographs. As mentioned in another thread my Grandfather was murdered in a concentration camp due to his Masonic connections, though I have never seen in such graphic detail exactly what these places would have looked and felt like.

Given the general 'desensitiveisation' (if that is even a word) of people today, these photo's are a stark reminder of our not too distant past. The photograph of the detainees shoes was, for me, the most shocking and harrowing of all.

I will be in touch directly as soon as I have any feedback.

Benjj

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Thank you.
No, I have not seen the thread about your grandfather (can you give me url).

snow reports

Absolutely fascinating (as well as gahastly) thank you very muich for this posting. A father to be very proud of.

Very harrowing snowball, but pictures that should be seen. The picture of the women sitting in the foreground with the piles of dead bodies was extraordinary. Death had become the norm.

You know it makes sense.

Snowball,

I contacted my friend at the I.W.M. with regards to your records and photos. She is away for the next 4 or 5 days but will have a good look on her return. I'll let you know her findings as soon as she gets in touch.

Benjj

Help!!

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

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