Original German Pre-WWII RAD Labor Service Erinnerungen an den Arbeitsdienst Photo Album With 48 Pictures – Unterthingau Labor Camp 1935 Original Items

Original Item: One-Of-A-Kind. This is a fantastic photo album of a young German RAD labor service trooper who appears to have been based out of the Unterthingau Labor Camp. Unterthingau is a municipality in the district of Ostallgäu in Bavaria in Germany.

The album features a lovely RAD insignia which is a silver spade head flanked by two diagonally angled sheaths of wheat. The album contains 48 photos most of which have captions written in white beneath them. They show various RAD operations such as parades, staged pictures with shovels, playing sports, parades, the various buildings inside of the Unthergau camp and many more! The photos somewhat tell a story of a group of friends and how they progress through the Corp, ending with what appears to be two of them joining the regular Heer Army, which was not uncommon.

All photos are lovely, clean and crisp, retaining all of the fine details. The writing was done in what appears to be a white paint and the color has been retained well with no fading, making them very legible.

This is a wonderful opportunity to add a beautiful photo album to your collections. Comes more than ready for translation and display!

The Reich Labour Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst or RAD) was a major organization established in NSDAP Germany as an agency to help mitigate the effects of unemployment on German economy, militarize the workforce and indoctrinate it with NSDAP ideology. It was the official state labour service, divided into separate sections for men and women.

From June 1935 onward, men aged between 18 and 25 had to serve six months before their military service. During World War II compulsory service also included young women and the RAD developed into an auxiliary formation which provided support for the Wehrmacht armed forces.