Heyman-tragedy

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Location
Helmond, Netherlands. My hometown is located near
It was in about 1985, as when I learned to know a former "Landjahr"-member from
Wuppertal, when reading a newspaper during a short vacation in Germany in the
Lüdenscheid-area. Kurt was very interested in early youth-organizations. Kurt and
his wife Gretha had a rather good contact with me, but pitily (due to all kinds of reasons),
he hardly had any from his old photographs left from the TR-period. Some years later
he brought me into contact with a friend, who always had been a member from youth-
organizations: an about 75 year old bachelor, August Heyman.

Various times I visited kind August and during one of his visits he showed me at least
four photo-albums from him as an early youth-member, who automatically became
a HJ-member. He was a short period also in the RAD before he became a member of
the German army. As he had no relatives at all he promised me all of his albums when
he would die. One day he gave me some reproductions of his photographs, not the
best quality, but that was okay, as I would later get all of them. I was very patient.
The photographs I got were randomly chosen by him. It was an average from being a
youngster, wearing a students-cap (1927), along with his twin-brother, with his mother,
friends (about 1931/1932) and a grouping from the HJ (1933-1937), as well as a nice
photograph from him and his twin-brother during a parade in (I think it was) Berlin in
July 1938 during the "home-coming" of German-Austrian troops. This photograph was
even published in the German press as it was quite remarkable what the both twins did:
they saluted simultaneously with the hand at the head, but not as how it shoulw have
been with the "Hitlergruss"!

I was quite shocked one day when I was informed by my old friend Kurt that August
was murdered in his home in the early 1990's. The people that cleared away the house
either may have kept the albums (to get money out of them) or they may have thrown
all away in the dustbin. As far as I know it must have been this last, as no album whatever
has popped up in later years at any of the known dealers from those days from that area.
The murder was bad luck for August and also to me as I did not get any of the albums.
Some of the photographs I will show seperately!
 
Beautiful photos. Thank you very much for showing these. Some of the photography in these are so striking.
 
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