J Malan Heslop

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J Malan Heslop (1923- ) was a combat photographer with Arnold E. Samuelson's Combat Assignment Unit #123 who documented evidence of Nazi war crimes.

Heslop served as a freelance photographer in his native Utah before setting off to California, where he studied the craft at Los Angeles City College.

Following America's entry into World War II, he joined the National Guard with hopes of being recruited for the U.S. Army Signal Corps. In October 1942, Heslop was assigned to the 167th Signal Photographic Company and sent for training to Paramount Studios in Hollywood. Three months after D-Day (June 6, 1944), he landed on the Normandy beaches and served in France. During the German counteroffensive into the Ardennes, he covered the Battle of the Bulge (December 1944).

Photograph of liberated Ebensee prisoners by J Malan Heslop

In March 1945, Heslop was one of two still photographers in Lt. Arnold E. Samuelson's Combat Assignment Unit #123 (One of twelve Combat Assignment Units in the 167th Signal Photographic Company). As part of 167th, Heslop covered the activities of the 9th Armored Division, the 80th Infantry Division as well as many other U.S. Army units serving within the 12th Army Group area of operation. In May 1945, Heslop was among the first American photographers to document evidence of Nazi crimes and the plight of surviving prisoners at Ebensee, a subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria.