Uncategorised A Christmas Gift from Heinrich Hoffmann and Me

[MJC]

For the past year or so, I have been compiling a name list of personalities who are featured in the excellent Heinrich Hoffmann photo collection at NARA. There are roughly 30,000 images by best estimate, and I have identified nearly 950 distinct names so far. Most of the personalities are military, but some political figures as well, and there is a good balance between formal portraits, group, and location shots. All images were taken between 1928 and 1945 and are in original negative format, with contact prints available.

Until now, there has only been an outdated and decidedly inaccurate name list, that is unavailable to the public in any event. NARA will receive a copy of my list upon completion in the new year.

The list is much too large to post here, so what I am proposing is this. If you want to determine if your "man" has an image in the Hoffmann collection, email me his name. If he is on the list, I will take a digital image of the contact strip and send it to you for your reference. Please don't ask for "Hitler" or "Himmler", or any other overtly famous personage, there will be hundreds of hits, but if you have been salivating for an image of "Grenadier Jakubeck", this is your opportunity.

Please note that the contact strips, while often excellent in and of themselves, are reference sheets and the photographic quality may be lacking. If you want to order a beautiful professional copy of the print, you must use one of the three NARA approved photo vendors. We have no relationship with any photo vendor, and we will not recommend one over another.

This is simply an opportunity for you to determine if a photo exists within this excellent, unindexed collection. I will try and accommodate all requests, but please note that I may have to limit the scope of this offer if the number of requests gets out of hand. Rather than send a private message, please email me at the address below.

Merry Christmas,

Mike

mjc@westmorelandresearch.org

Edited December 29, 2008 by Mike Constandy