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Subject: Re: MAPS-L: Nazi-stamped maps
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2005
From: Derrick Beckner <[log in to unmask]>
To: Maps, Air Photo & Geospatial Systems Forum <[log in to unmask]>
References: <[log in to unmask]>
We have thousands of these maps, mostly European Topo Maps, captured during
the war or transferred to the US after the war. We also have atlases and
troop planning packets that included topo maps, terrain maps, city/town
maps and landmark photo books for various nations the Germans invaded (I
think we have France, Yugoslavia, USSR, Great Britain (that one didn't go
so well for them) and a couple others. My favorites are city plans that
have locations of all the industries, businesses, police stations,
communications facilities, etc. They even had maps for the tank commanders
showing areas where they were likely to bog down or encounter slopes their
vehicles could not negotiate.
We also have a number of demographic maps showing Jewish and Slavic
populations, the most sinister of which is one of Poland (General
Government), the Baltic States, Ukraine and Belorussia which judging by the
date and content, I suspect was created for or right after the Wanasee
Conference where the "Final Solution" was agreed upon.
We also have several atlases where the Germans mapped the resources of
various nations and presumably the best way to exploit them, including the
"Goering Atlas" where the resources of all of occupied Europe were
detailed. We have a manuscript set of similar maps as well.
The Germans mapped just about everything you could imagine.
I have no idea how rare these materials really are, but they are fascinating.
I'm hoping to get a digital project going for our WWII collection one of
these years and we are aggressively preserving as many of these maps as we can.
A few years ago I did a exhibit in our library with some of our more
interesting maps, and made a few of my own. Unfortunately we didn't have
the ability to scan the maps at the time, but there is a description of the
maps at this link.
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/maps/ww2exhibit.htm
Derrick Beckner
Mapping Specialist
Map Library Supervisor
Penn State University
1 Paterno Library
University Park, PA 16802
[log in to unmask]
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/maps/
814-863-5753
At 08:50 AM 11/30/2005, you wrote:
>cc: to MapHist
>================================================
>MAPS-L ** MAPS-L ** MAPS-L ** MAPS-L ** MAPS-L
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>
>Subject: Nazi-stamped maps
>Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005
>From: Michael Fry <[log in to unmask]>
>Organization: University of Maryland Libraries
>To: Maps and Air Photo Systems Forum <[log in to unmask]>
>
>
>I recently discovered that some of the older European topo maps in our
>collection have been stamped
>with Nazi insignia (i.e., an eagle, wings spread, standing on or grasping
>a wreath w/ a swastika
>inside) and the words "Reichsamt für Landesaufnahme" and "Kartensammlung"
>(roughly translated, I
>think, as "Reich's Agency for Surveying" and "map collections"). The
>particular sheet in front of
>me, Basel-Laufen from a 1936 "Topographischer Atlas der Schweiz," also has
>"S.282" and "22.[???]
>1937" just to the left of the eagle. (I don't know if these are *related*
>to the eagle, but they're
>in the same color ink.)
>
>In addition, there's also this stamp:
>CIA Map Branch
>Received
>Feb 25, 1949
>
>According to Carlos Hagen's "Map Libraries and the Armed Services--A Story
>of Uneven Relationships,"
>some of the maps distributed by the Army Map Service were "captured from
>Axis Powers." Is this the
>likely source of the sheet I'm looking at? Are maps with the Nazi insignia
>considered rare or
>valuable (and possibly worth removing from open access), or simply
>historically interesting artifacts?
>
>Thanks for any insight you can provide.
>
>mf
>--
>Michael Fry
>Government Documents & Maps Librarian
>University of Maryland Libraries
>
>
>--
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