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RARE ILLUSTRATED 1940 NAZI PUBLICATION ABOUT THE WESTWALL OR SIEGFRIED LINE

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Unbezwinglicher Westwall or “The Impregnable Siegfried Line” is a rare 1940 educational book published by the Kraft durch Freude (KdF or Strength through Joy) department of the Deutsche Arbeitsfront (DAF). The 5-1/4 x 7-7/8 inch, 96-page softcover Nazi book has a Foreword by Dr. Robert Ley, 41 pictures and many maps, and starts with a photo of Adolf Hitler during a visit to the Westwall.

There are chapters on the French Maginot Line fortifications, construction statistics (men and equipment), excavating work and site preparation, as well as the military-political meaning of the Westwall in wartime. The Kurt Kölsch poem Am Westwall wacht die Ehre is followed by a chapter honoring the many experts who contributed to this book. Reichsminister Dr. Fritz Todt is referred to as Festungsbaumeister des Führers or Master Fortification Builder of the Führer and that the Westwall should be considered the high point of his life-work!

The back cover shows the front and back of the 1939 Deutsches Schutzwall-Ehrenzeichen or West Wall Medal. This medal was given to those who designed and built the fortifications on Germany's western borders, and eligibility included members of the Wehrmacht who served on the Westwall for at least ten weeks.

According to Dr. Ley, the Siegfried Line is “more than a Defensive Line” and should be considered a piece of world history created in the mind of the Führer and built by the might of German labor comrades. Ley thought the book “should have a place in every German home due to the historic greatness of the mighty defense work”.

The importance of the defense of the area throughout history is explained and shown in maps as old as the year 600 AD! The expansion of old existing fortifications on the German-French border is described and RAD laborers and servicemen who worked on the Ausbau des Westwalls are pictured inside and outside of the bunkers. Many of these photos of equipment and the underground facilities are rare and not published in other Third Reich books.

The material in Unbezwinglicher Westwall was assembled by Dr. Camillo Sangiorgio and it was published by Verlag Deutsche Volksbücher GmbH in Wiesbaden in the spring of 1940. This rare 85 year old Nazi DAF publication is complete and in very nice, little used condition. It has a tight spine, no writing and no odor.

Photos include Reichsminister Dr. Fritz Todt in civilian clothes inspecting a Westwall construction site (right), Adolf Hitler and an entourage of high-ranking Nazis visiting the Siegfried Line (at the top of this USMBOOKS web page), Dr. Robert Ley in conversation with Westwall workers, as well as Wehrmacht artillery, concrete dragon’s teeth, Flak emplacements, huge Wehrmacht searchlights, excavating equipment and trucks, wash facilities for the workers, etc., etc.