If this guy is still alive, today is doubtless a significant day on his emotional calendar.
Nazi Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies sixty-three years ago today.
Sometime around that date, this guy surrendered to U.S. forces in southern Germany. In the process, he handed over three rolls of undeveloped film to a U.S. Army sergeant from northern Indiana. This is one of the images on that film. For the whole story, go back to my Oct. 7, 2007, blog post.
This is one of the few reasonably sharp and properly composed photos of this Waffen-SS private, dating from the time of his training in 1941 near Krakow, Poland. I deduced that he was the guy who owned the camera and shot the film because he shows up in several photos, most of which are slightly out of focus and poorly composed - the kind of thing you'd get it you handed your camera to a non-photographer and asked them to take your picture.
While he's doing his best to look military and serious in this photo, other shots suggest a guy who was friendly and pleasant. Unfortunately, he belonged to a part of the German armed forces that earned a reputation for being exceptionally unfriendly and unpleasant.
I'd love to know who this guy is and if he's still alive, but that seems unlikely.
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