HOW TO CONTRIBUTE TO AXIS BIOGRAPHICAL
RESEARCH
12th January 2003
I am tremendously appreciative of the material and financial donations that have been made to the site over the years. While this is and will always remain a source of free information, such contributions are of immense value to the maintenance of the site.
If any of you wish to make a contribution of any size to this ongoing research project, you may do so via http://www.paypal.com. The e-mail address to which donations should be made is: [email protected]
Any and all donations made will be applied directly to the materials and fees necessary to keep Axis Biographical Research online and growing.
Sincerely,
Michael D. Miller
A Special Request for Assistance from ABR Visitors
16th December 2001
Located at the National Archives II in College Park, Maryland is an incredible treasure trove of documentation on tens of thousands of microfilm rolls relating to all aspects of the Third Reich. Found among the many collections are millions of NSDAP membership cards; personnel dossiers of SA members; records on thousands of Volksdeutsche families who were repatriated to the Reich; records of the Wehrmacht high command; records of the SS Race and Resettlement Main Office (SS-Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt); service records of Waffen-SS enlisted men and female auxiliaries; and of the greatest interest to me, 909 rolls of microfilm containing SS officer records (SS-Personalakten) detailing, in documents, letters, and photographs, the careers of over 61,000 men.
These SS officer records, classified as BDC Accessioned Microfilm A3343, series SSO, were copied directly from the original SS Personalhauptamt records housed at the former Berlin Document Center. They vary considerably in both length and quality, some of them amounting to as many as 500 pages, others to only 2 pages. Records found in these dossiers include personnel data cards, questionnaires and personal history statements (Laufbahnen), newspaper clippings in which the respective officer is named, recommendations for awards, copies of SS and NSDAP membership cards, photos of the officer, etc. Quality of the photos varies considerably- most of them are quite clear, others are of such poor quality as to be virtually unusable. The photos show these officers in a variety of uniforms and civilian attire; in most of them, naturally, the individual concerned wears SS uniform. Much information is also available concerning the families and personal lives of these men, including the names and dates/places of birth for their wives and children, their religion (generally indicated is their original denomination, e.g.- "ev" [evangelisch, i.e. protestant] and the date they left the church and declared themselves "gottglaubig" ["believer in God", i.e. a sort of agnostic status which was common under the Third Reich]), and details on their parents and early lives. Also found in these dossiers are records of prosecution and discipline by SS and other courts.
They are a veritable treasure trove, the greatest fount of information I've encountered in all my years of research. The information available there has already served as the foundation for a number of well-received books on the subject of SS biography, and are the cornerstone of my own planned multivolume series on the higher-ranking officers of the SS.
But there is one major obstacle to my use of this resource, as well as to many other researchers' use of the material at NARA II- College Park, Maryland is over 3,000 miles away from my home in California. While the quantity and quality of information I gleaned during my August 2001 research trip more than justified it, the financial and physical costs of the undertaking were quite high.
In order to simplify matters for myself and other researchers in the western half of the contiguous United States, as well as to remedy the security problem of having but one storage point for these priceless historical treasures in the entire country, I have proposed to the National Archives Pacific Region office in San Bruno, California (near San Francisco) that they help me in duplicating and storing at their facility the 909 SS officer record microfilm rolls. Total cost for this project would be less than $20,000.00. Operating on practically no budget whatsoever, I cannot come close to reaching that figure at this time. So although I have refrained in the past from requesting donations for ABR or any of my other research projects, I humbly request the help of anyone who sees this to be a viable and valuable project. Any assistance, be it monetary or simply an emailed expression of encouragement would be most appreciated.
Please contact me at [email protected] for further details.
Best wishes,
~ Mike Miller
Axis Biographical Research
