Winterhilfswerk

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The Winterhilfswerk (WHW) was a Nazi charity program with the slogan "None shall starve nor freeze". It was designed to provide food and fuel to indigent Germans, and of course it was an excellent propaganda opportunity.

The Hitlerjugend and Bund Deutscher Mädel (boys' and girls' associations, respectively) were extremely active in collecting for this charity.

Donors were often given small souvenir gratitude gifts of negligible value, somewhat similar to the way modern charities mail out address labels and holiday cards. A typical such gift was a small propaganda booklet (a VERY small booklet, reminiscent of Victorian-era miniature books; about 0.8" wide x 1.5" tall). The front and rear covers of such a book from approximately 1938 are shown in the pictures linked below. Observe the hole punched in the rear cover; this appears in most such books and was apparently designed to allow people to hang these booklets on a Christmas tree.

Image:Fua front-600dpi.jpg Image:Fua back-600dpi.jpg

The book shown here contains 33 pages, almost all of which show Adolf Hitler with smiling citizens. Titles of the photos are such things as:

• Reichskanzlerei, 1937 (Reichs Chancellory, 1937)
• Mit Arbeiter 1935 (With the Workers 1935)
• Autobahnarbeiter (Workers on the Autobahn)
• Alte Bäuerin 1936 (Old Farmer's Wife 1936)

The end of the book has a short closing statement by Dr. Robert Ley.

More generous donors would receive concomitantly better gifts, such as lapel pins (often a single rune with WHW and the year printed around it), or a full-size photo book.