"Secret" Hitler Speech 78 RPM Album?

[JSngry]

Today I had a very unsettling experience while looking through some 78s - there in the middle of a bunch of innocuous garbage appeared an old-school six pocket sleeve 78 album that on the spine indicated "Organ Favorites" on Columbia, and on the back was a generic Columbia catalog ad, but the front cover...just a regular brown board, but printed with a small, faceless brown-inked line drawing of a head, hairline, and mustache that was unmistakeably Hitler. On the inside front was a taped, a ptinted image and a word in German, not big at all.

And then inside, one "regular" 78, but two more of speeches. I found an example of the label here:

http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/.a/6a00d8341c464853ef0177444b366e970d-pi

And another mention of the records themselves here: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/music/2012/08/martin-moir-donation.html

The really creepy thing, however, was that this album showed no signs of being a homemade paste job, it was too perfectly assembled for anything like that. It had obviously been constructed as a "secret container" or some such. A place for somebody to keep the records on their shelve or to carry them about without calling any attention to itself except by pulling it out and showing it.

The thing was mixed in with a lot of other 78 albums and was priced at $3.00, and I really don't think that anybody involved in putting it on sale in the store bothered to look at the details, they likely just saw another 78 album, slapped a price sticker on it, and threw it in with all the others.

I didn't buy it, didn't want to buy it, didn't even want to snap pictures of it. Shit like this gives me the creeps from the mojo, and I don't want it in or near my house/family. Call me superstitious, you're probably right, but still... I'm left with the question - is something like this a "known quantity" historically? Was it a post-war thing, some underground Nazi-exile way to keep the memory alive in your new country or something like that. In other words, is there any real, objective historical value to it, dark as it is?

I'm fully aware of the sensitivity of an item like this, and like I said, I did not buy it, It was just creepy as hell. But there it was, and I'm left wondering just how many of these things were there in the first place, how many survive, and, really, WTF? in so, so many ways.

[page]

Aw, I wonder with you. I'm speechless.

[mjzee]

It doesn't surprise me, Jim. But you can console yourself with the thought that it was probably from some old person's collection and was found while cleaning out their house. Texas, as you well know, has large areas that were founded by German immigrants, so it wouldn't surprise me that this disc was in someone's collection (and was circumspect enough about it that they didn't want others to know they had it).

If I had found it at a garage sale, I would have bought it just to have the pleasure of breaking it.

Edited November 2, 2014 by mjzee

[MomsMobley]

i'm using fictional examples only because the realiy is too mortifying/infuriating still. but there's (obviously) a VAST history of German-inspired Amerian anti-Semitism (from late 19th c. on) & Nazi this/that that many (most?) people would rather not recall. Given that-- though I'm not otherwise familiar with this type of disguised heirloom-- anything is possible. (And don't forget the great blues/cajun/swamp pop producer & music store proprietor J.D. Miller of Crowley, Louisians (just off I-10) also recording & selling-- under the counter in later days-- Klan records too.)

interviewer is dim & I agree w/ PR that the book is not veiled allegory etc, which is actually insult to plural realities of both time periods.

The book is excellent, the audiobook likewise if you indulge.

Edited November 2, 2014 by MomsMobley

[gmonahan]

Well, I'm a historian, so I would have bought it in a minute as a fascinating historical artifact.

gregmo

[JSngry]

"Disguised heirloom", yes, thank you, that is what I'm wondering about. This thing looked professionally done, too much so, it seems to me, to be a one-off. If it looked like a scrapbook kind of thing, I could just chalk it up to individual fuckedupness, but there's a degree of..."production" to this thing that is a little too "efficient" for "comfort", if any of that makes sense.

Is there documentation of anything like this being done, it seems like there would have to be more than one of these, it really doesn't look like something that was done as a hobby.

I'm tempted to go back and buy it and take it to an appropriate museum/historical society/whatever, but I have no idea where to begin. Maybe I'm suffering from Pawn Stars mentality, looking for that Mark guy with the big hat & beard combo to come walking in and have the whole back story.

Is Miller the man responsible for those "Johnny Reb" records?

[MomsMobley]

Is Miller the man responsible for those "Johnny Reb" records?

Unfortunately, yes--

http://www.discogs.com/label/155968-Reb-Rebel

I mean, in a way I'm glad these things exist as (further) evidence but...

And yet this is J.D. Miller also--

dub quality here is a little rought but...

[xybert]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTT1qUswYL0

[Big Beat Steve]

Not such a big surprise, these records.

Understandably someone who would have owned such records even after WWII would not have made them too conspicuous, hence the cover-up inside a different record album.

If you know a good bookbinder (or are one yourself) you can do a professional job even as a one-off. I've seen examples of such cover-ups e.g. of 3rd Reich items (more recently thrown on the market as "antiques") that survived the 40 years of Communisn in Eastern Germany.

But these records themselves have been around in numbers and there was nothing secret about them being pressed that way as they came as part of a book published soon after Hitler's rise to power.

Actually I owned that book years ago (it had come as part of the estate of some distant relative who was of adult age in that period) but without the records; and since I did not really fancy keeping that sort of stuff around I sold it off along with the other books of that type long ago. Helped me finance a bit of my own hobby interests so they did do some good after all.

Edited November 2, 2014 by Big Beat Steve

[A Lark Ascending]

I want a copy of that set of a Stalin speech where side 8 is the applause.

Vinyl only, please!

[erwbol]

Probably many more Germans owned such books than actually read them, like Mein Kampf?

I want a copy of that set of a Stalin speech where side 8 is the applause.

Vinyl only, please!

The first edition with a black peel off moustache on the cover?

[A Lark Ascending]

Probably many more Germans owned such books than actually read them, like Mein Kampf?

I want a copy of that set of a Stalin speech where side 8 is the applause.

Vinyl only, please!

The first edition with a black peel off moustache on the cover?

It's worth following the editions. Attendees mentioned as present in the sleeve notes of the first edition vanish in subsequent editions.

[mikeweil]

A quick research in German web pages reveals these 78's were part of a book published in 1933 by Erich Czech-Jochberg (1890-1966). He wrote a Hitler biography printed in 1930, among others, which sold in 120.000 copies within two years. The book was "Vom 30. Januar zum 21. März. Die Tage der nationalen Erhebung", it was one of several of his publications banned by the NAZIs as beeing "detrimental and undesirable" - he was sidelined by rivals in the party, nevertheless his books were considered NAZI after the war and removed from public libraries, by Russian authorities in Eastern Germany in particular. His books are considered as praise of NAZI ideology and seem to have been rather popular.

As a reaction on the banning of his writings he left the NSDAP in 1937, but was imprisoned in 1946 by the Soviets. He managed to escape into the British zone, where he was de-nazified at first but then had to face a trial - I can't find any further details as the respective web pages are restricted to library users etc. .

What I found is that he earned his living after the war by limiting his journalistic activities to non-political matters.

Used copies of his 1930s books are still sold on ebay etc., with the whitewashing remark "sold for scientific purposes only" ....

Edited November 2, 2014 by mikeweil

[mikeweil]

Sorry this kind of moves into political realms, i just wanted to post some facts for clarification.

[Teasing the Korean]

The fact that a previous owner went to the trouble of "hiding" these records in what I assume to be a professionally bound album obviously speaks to his/her likely idealogical interests in the records, as we can all surmise.

However, aside from the binding, the 78s themselves are part of a historical record, and the medium was used to preserve all kinds of audio during that era when media formats were limited. The idea of a private citizen and or an archive wanting to own these records for historical purposes is not so far-fetched. I detest fascism as much as the next fella, but I also don't believe in erasing history. Such documents are valuable, if for no other reason than to provide a reminder of paths to avoid. That said, I wouldn't devote shelf space to these things either.

Edited November 2, 2014 by Teasing the Korean

[l p]

Hitler talking in his everyday voice to Finnish military commander Mannerheim in 1942. The only existing recording of Hitlers normal voice.

[JSngry]

A quick research in German web pages reveals these 78's were part of a book published in 1933 by Erich Czech-Jochberg (1890-1966). He wrote a Hitler biography printed in 1930, among others, which sold in 120.000 copies within two years. The book was "Vom 30. Januar zum 21. März. Die Tage der nationalen Erhebung", it was one of several of his publications banned by the NAZIs as beeing "detrimental and undesirable" - he was sidelined by rivals in the party, nevertheless his books were considered NAZI after the war and removed from public libraries, by Russian authorities in Eastern Germany in particular. His books are considered as praise of NAZI ideology and seem to have been rather popular.

As a reaction on the banning of his writings he left the NSDAP in 1937, but was imprisoned in 1946 by the Soviets. He managed to escape into the British zone, where he was de-nazified at first but then had to face a trial - I can't find any further details as the respective web pages are restricted to library users etc. .

What I found is that he earned his living after the war by limiting his journalistic activities to non-political matters.

Used copies of his 1930s books are still sold on ebay etc., with the whitewashing remark "sold for scientific purposes only" ....

This is very useful information in determining that the records themselves are of pre-war vintage.

If you know a good bookbinder (or are one yourself) you can do a professional job even as a one-off. I've seen examples of such cover-ups e.g. of 3rd Reich items (more recently thrown on the market as "antiques") that survived the 40 years of Communisn in Eastern Germany.

This is useful as well, the book-binder angle. Leads me to wonder if this was a one-off, part of a small run done professionally within a certain town, or an "on demand" item offered from a certain business through word-of-mouth.

[xybert]

Neo-Nazi's are a thing, and they have disposable income. Is it more surprising that LPs of Hitlers speeches exist, or that the packaging was attempting to hide the fact?

[AllenLowe]

this makes me think of that old comedy record, maybe British, in which a jazz group plays and the speaker introduces the band, who are all, IIRC, dictators, on the various instruments. Anybody else remember this?

[danasgoodstuff]

this makes me think of that old comedy record, maybe British, in which a jazz group plays and the speaker introduces the band, who are all, IIRC, dictators, on the various instruments. Anybody else remember this?

Sounds like The Intro & the Outro by the Bonzo Dog DooDah Band...

[jeffcrom]

this makes me think of that old comedy record, maybe British, in which a jazz group plays and the speaker introduces the band, who are all, IIRC, dictators, on the various instruments. Anybody else remember this?

Sounds like The Intro & the Outro by the Bonzo Dog DooDah Band...

That's it.

[JSngry]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Intro_and_the_Outro

Hitler the only dictator on the list.

[Teasing the Korean]

The Count Basie Orchestra on the triangle.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

J Arthur Rank on gong is nicest, I think. Don't know if Americans could get it, though.

MG

[Big Beat Steve]

J Arthur Rank on gong is nicest, I think. Don't know if Americans could get it, though.

MG

Tell them to have a look at any TOP RANK 45.

A Google picture search for

Top Rank Record Label

will yield about a million examples.

Edited November 4, 2014 by Big Beat Steve