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MasterGoodale's Mystery WWII Photo Thread (Pics Posted!)


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Originally posted by MasterGoodale:

... I was eating chocolate and I dropped a picture on my desk on some chocolate flakes and he said 1000 historians just rolled over in their graves.

Just be careful not to accidently eat the photos.

By the time you get finished fooling around, the pictures will be smeared with food and splattered with TNT. You'll also probably be finding the faces of Napoleon, Joan of Arc, and Julius Caesar in them. :D

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Ok fellas, here is the beginning of our "Quest" for the truth:

Keep in mind that these were scanned by an amatuer and touched up slightly I think by an amatuer. I have placed a hidden watermark on them, but you people are welcome to touch them up and see how good you can make them. But I prohibit anyone from disseminating the photos anywhere other than this thread. And I prohibit the printing of these photos. And I prohobit the selling of these photos. LOL, did I cover myself lawyers? Not that it matters, these are just copies and for all I know they are worthless (except to me and gramps ;) )

I think we can all identify this man. If you can't, please don't ever send me a CMBB setup. Notice the little copy cat in the back with an identical mustache. I have another pic like this with 2 people in the back with that mustache

adolf1_copyright.jpg

This is the one I think at the very least bares a remarkable resemblance to Joseph Stalin. The women could be his second wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva, who allegedly committed suicide in the 1930s. Some speculate it was murder as she was very unhappy with her life with Stalin. I have another pic similar to this one.

stalin_copyright.jpg

I appologize to those who have slow connections and may not be able to view these, but it's the best I can do.

As I said, I have about 40 - 50 more and will eventually post most of them so that we can flush out the historians and grognards to maybe identify the key people in many of the others that I don't recognize right off.

Enjoy! :D

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Well, I'm not convinced that's Stalin, but the little woman sure looks unhappy. In any case I think you have quite the find there Master G.

Hitler's looking pretty dejected don't you think? Must be near the end. I would be interested in seeing one of the younger Hitler, or is there any candid photos of Hitler or any of the top Nazis?

[ January 30, 2003, 10:36 PM: Message edited by: pavlov ]

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Originally posted by MasterGoodale:

yeah there's many more. I just need time to get them up there. I have a feeling the Hitler one I posted IS young hitler, but who knows. And can you see the symbol on the left shoulder of the Stalin look alike? Is that a Russian uniform? I'm real curious who he is.

To me it looks like a red shoulder board with gold scroll on it.
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Definitely not Stalin.

Are all the images equally lacking in sharpness? If so, this definitely looks like the work of an amateur photographer (which is good, means it's not copywork of some professional's photos). It could also mean that the prints were enlarged from a small format negative, or that the negatives were improperly developed. They are certainly from a hand-held camera, and most likely one used at eye level, rather than waist-level (like many twin-lens cameras of the time). Probably a Leica.

p.s. You can post smaller images and we'll still be able to see them just fine. I'd say go for 5 in. on the long side at around 200dpi.

[ January 30, 2003, 11:40 PM: Message edited by: akdavis ]

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Camera grogism:

A Leica would be a negative that has a longer format than these prints. The camera was probably a rangefinder (Leica is known for their 35mm rangefinder cameras, and stick to 35mm in terms of camera manufacture) I would again say that the camera is a Voightlander, or a knockoff-the format of the print fits the format of the negative that those prints were probably from(6x7cm or 2and1/4x31/4").

The rangefinder is not a great method for focusing in the dark, nor is like a modern day point and shoot. It depends upon the lining up of a split image within the viewfinder. Cameras of the 30's and '40's did not have optimal rangefinders, so this would be a possible explanation for the relative lack of "sharpness" in the pictures.

I would say that is not Stalin, however, the man at the left of the picture(in the background)does look a bit like Goering before he really went on his high carb diet in the '40's.

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Originally posted by benpark:

I would say that is not Stalin, however, the man at the left of the picture(in the background)does look a bit like Goering before he really went on his high carb diet in the '40's.

Goering started to balloon way before that.

[ January 31, 2003, 02:59 AM: Message edited by: Shosties4th ]

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Judging by what I see in the Hitler picture, I'd say that this was probably shot in some provincial capital or even a town (crude podium has only two microphones). Since there's only one other guy on the stage and he isn't identifiable as a Nazi bigwig, my guess is that he's probably a Gauleiter (province leader) or lower party official.

Stalin is definitely not in the second image; nor could I ID anyone else. I do agree that the guy in the left rear appears to be in Soviet uniform. Would have to do some serious perusal of wartime Soviet military and leader photographs to have any hope of saying much more.

Regards,

John Kettler

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Guy in the background in the second picture...doesnt he look a bit like Hess?

Oh, and "Stalin" doesnt it look like he might be wearing SS Obergruppenfuhrer (or some similar high rank) collar...collar...cant find the word in english...the rank on the collar...arguhhh help me with the word.

[ January 31, 2003, 05:08 AM: Message edited by: Leutnant Hortlund ]

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Originally posted by Leutnant Hortlund:

Guy in the background in the second picture...doesnt he look a bit like Hess?

Oh, and "Stalin" doesnt it look like he might be wearing SS Obergruppenfuhrer (or some similar high rank) collar...collar...cant find the word in english...the rank on the collar...arguhhh

help me with the word.

Exactly. Immediately jumps to the eye doesn't it?

That can never be Stalin because a) he doesn't look like Stalin and B) why should Stalin be wearing what is obviously an SS uniform, probably the two-leaf collar tab of a pre-42 Brigadeführer.

MasterGoodale, calm down, keep your head straight and your feet on the ground. Your pictures are interesting and maybe even valuable, at least in a non-financial respect to historians. But it is not like you had the exclusive picture of Bigfoot or Aliens.

What you have as far as I can see is a couple of (partly blurry) pictures from Third Reich political figures, apparently mostly pre-WWE, including Schicklgruber himself.

But to put things in a perspective, pictures like that are not really rare and can be found quite often in old attics or grampa's collection of memorabilia.

Very good quality pictures of all these people already exist in official archives such as Karlsruhe, free for public access.

They might have limited value for historians. But they are nowhere as precious as you make them out to be.

That is not to say your find is not interesting. But you need to calm down. The biggest value they have IMO is that they are part of your grampa's past and his experiences. That alone is probably the highest value they can ever have.

[ January 31, 2003, 07:34 AM: Message edited by: M Hofbauer ]

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LOL! Calm down? dude, I personally think that they are worthless to ANYONE except me for my own collection. I am not making them out to be a huge deal, I just thought it would be interesting to show the community and tell my gramp's story.

It's a lot of fun messing with these pictures and having people help identify the people in them. There are many more photos that will also be interesting when I get them posted.

For those who are interested, follow the thread. For those who aren't, don't.

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Well, I for one am certainly having fun reading this thread the last week. I think it's really cool to have stumbled upon something like this. The only secret I ever got from my Grandpa, who was an engineer that arrived in Europe during the late years of the war, is that he had an affair with some hotty German girl that was actually the girlfriend of one of the german POW's they had working in the repair shops...heheh. Good 'ol gramps! :D

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So do any of you people familiar with WWII figures know who the "Stalin-Looking Guy" is? Could he be a General? Is he Russian or German? do you recognize the symbol on his left shoulder? This stuff is hard to find on the net. I'm just real curious to identify all of the people in my photos so that I can make a photo album with a little info about each picture.

Thanks! :D

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Originally posted by MasterGoodale:

So do any of you people familiar with WWII figures know who the "Stalin-Looking Guy" is? Could he be a General? Is he Russian or German? do you recognize the symbol on his left shoulder? This stuff is hard to find on the net. I'm just real curious to identify all of the people in my photos so that I can make a photo album with a little info about each picture.

Thanks! :D

read my post again. sems to be a pre-42 SS-Brigadeführer for what it's worth. which means he is GERMAN (there were few russians serving in the SS at that position), and yes, that's a General-rank.
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Originally posted by benpark:

Camera grogism:

A Leica would be a negative that has a longer format than these prints. The camera was probably a rangefinder (Leica is known for their 35mm rangefinder cameras, and stick to 35mm in terms of camera manufacture) I would again say that the camera is a Voightlander, or a knockoff-the format of the print fits the format of the negative that those prints were probably from(6x7cm or 2and1/4x31/4").

Actually, assuming no significant cropping, the prints much closer to 35mm format than medium format, at least 6x7. Of course, they could be cropped. Given the nature of the photographs, the camera was almost certainly a hand-held rangefinder type.

[ January 31, 2003, 04:20 PM: Message edited by: akdavis ]

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