Figure 1.-- Here we see two images of a German boy at a train station with German soldiers. We assume it was taken somewhere in Germany, but as it appear to be a small station it must have been a small town. There is a railroad hotel near the station, the Hotel zum Guten Hoffnung. There are also carts aboard rail cars in the second photigraph. The soldiers look to be regular Whermacht soldiers and officers. We have no idea if the boy has some relationship with the soldiers. Something seems to be happening that interested the boy. Click on the image to see the second photograph of the young OT workers loading a rail car.

Here we see two images of a German boy at a train station with German soldier. There is no indication when the photograph was taken. Surely it was taken during the War, we suspect during the middle years, probably 1941-43. The photograph appears to have been tken at a small train station. It looks to have been a small town. But we do not know just where in the Reich the photograph was taken. There is a railroad hotel near the station, the Hotel zur Guten Hoffnung" (Hotel the Good Hope). This presumably places the photographs somewhere within the Reich. There look to be carts and construction material aboard the rail cars. The soldiers look to be regular Whermacht soldiers and officers. We have no idea if the boy has some relationship with the soldiers. Something seems to be happening that interested the boy. He is wearing a coat as are some of the soldiers so the pghotograh was probably taken during the Winter. The boys loading the rail cars look rather young and wear destinctive uniforms. I think they may be a labor brigade. A HBC reader writes, "The young guys in the light-colored uniforms working on the open rail wagons belong to the Todt Organisation. Fritz Todt (1891-1942) was the creator/designer/builder of the German autobahn. He also built the Atlantic Wall, roads in the occupied territories from the northern tip of Norway to France, and the reconstruction of miles and miles of the Russian railways. His crews (always dressed in white uniforms) also helped out in emergencies like bomb attacks in the cities and other disasters. Anyway, I have seen Todt crews in action in occupied Holland, but I am sure that not all of them were Germans because Todt used slave laborers as well." Yes much of the work on the Atlantic Wall was done with slave labor. I don't think the slave labor, however wore the white OT uniforms seen in the second photograph.

Created: 6:34 AM 4/25/2006
Last updated: 6:15 PM 9/25/2009