Thurnau 13.Lehrgang/4.-11.April 37

1937. Custom-made half leather folder. Fine. A most unusual, bizarre, comical home-made book of a Nazi training camp for the SA! 20 pp., plus wraps. 29 by 25 cm. If one could overlook the sinister associations, much of the satire could apply to any military boot camp, but of course one can not escape the invidious context. In a way, this might be viewed as a pity, because the illustrations and accompanying light verse are superb, and this can be seen as plausibly publishable, but for the irredeemably unsavory context. Yet it is on the other hand a most interesting primary source document on the life of an ordinary member of the SA and by extension, other Nazi units. So we find mocked the task master commander, the morning wake-up and ablutions, the constant drilling, exercise and sporting regimen. Quite graphically depicted is the group shower, among other things. Interestingly, women were a part of the camp experience -- they lived separately, but there was mingling. Much of the training would appear to have been indistinguishable from standard military training. Was this in keeping with the paramilitary nature of the SA, or was it somehow related also to the German not so furtive strategems to evade the restrictions placed on its military activities by the Treaty of Versailles? In any case, there is strangely no allusion to Jews in the entire work. The most disturbing aspect of the work may be that, notwithstanding the gently cynical tone, the author would appear to have emerged from the program an enthusiastic member of the SA! Now housed in a handsome half-black morocco over green cloth folder.