BA-MA Entry for "Nordland"

[Stephan H.]

Gentlemen, please take a look at the below BA-MA entry. Does Benutzungsbeschränkungen: Benutzbar ab: 2021 mean that this is not available until 2021 or does this mean something else? Does anyone have expereince working with this Record Group?

I appreciate the assistance.
Stephan

Bereitstellendes Archiv: Bundesarchiv
Findbuch: Nachlass Wolfgang Vopersal
Bestand: N 756 Vopersal, Wolfgang
Überschrift: 11. SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division ""Nordland"" (einschließlich Vorläufer)
Bestellsignatur: N 756/164b
Titel: Unterstellungsverhältnis, Gliederung und Einsätze Jan. 1944 bis Mai 1945 sowie Kameradschaften nach 1945
Bandnummer: 2
Enthält/Darin:
Enthält u.a.: Tagesmeldungen, Zustandsberichte, Kriegstagebuch-Auszüge, Lageplanskizzen, Fernschreiben Dokumentationen, Erlebnisberichte, Korrespondenz und Zeitungsberichte nach 1945 Suchdiensttreffen, Kameradenwerk Korps Steiner e.V.
Enthält auch:
Fotografien
Laufzeit:
(1944) 1959-1991
Benutzungsbeschränkungen: Benutzbar ab: 2021
Endprovenienz: Vopersal, Wolfgang
Bemerkung: Vgl. BArch Bestand RS 3-11 11. SS-Freiwilligen Panzergrenadier-Division "Nordland"

[John P. Moore]

Stephan - That is my understanding too, not available until 2021. However, it makes no sense based on the description of the content. The only possible justification I can see are the post-1945 holdings of Wolfgang Vopersal and Kameradenwerk Korps Steiner, possibly waiting for the likely death of those veterans who provided the input. But then there are plenty of post-1945 vet contributions from the Vopersal papers that are unrestricted at the BA because I know researchers that have accessed them. Probably something to do with strict interpretation by the BA of the Datenschütz BS.

[Stephan H.]

John - Thanks for your take. Now that you pointed out the involvement of Kameradenwerk Korps Steiner in supporting the research I guess it makes sense. I do not recall the earlier Nordland entires (pre-1945) having the same restriction. This entry seems to hold the possibility of yielding some excellent late war information so it would be a shame to have to wait another 11 years to access the data. I'll probably e-mail the BA-MA to be sure.

Stephan

[Richard Hargreaves]

Funny, I spent a lot of time flicking through the Vopersal catalogue when I was at BA-MA last week and didn't notice any limitations, although I probably skipped over the Nordland pages in the guide as it's not really my area...

Luckily, Vopersal's is just about the only N series which has a printed out catalogue in the reading room - it needs it because it runs to hundreds of pages. I much prefer using them to the online version.

It's an amazing collection, certainly much better than the 'official' Waffen SS documents held in Freiburg, but despite being organised by theme or unit, once you open that file, it's a bit of a jumbled mess. I did find a few nuggets among his papers; the real nuggets are the correspondence and the first-hand accounts within, but there's a lot of duplication, photocopies from books/journals (without necessarily saying where from!) Still, at least there were rich pickings for Sevastopol and the Caucasus.

[lustrum]

I'll probably e-mail the BA-MA to be sure.

It maybe an mistake, it wouldn't hurt to double check.

Last week I was told by B.A Berlin that an officer's file was unavailable to view because it was with another archive in Germany.....the Landshauptarchiv Magdeburg....(its available at NARA not the Ohio state archive )...no explaination....

There are always some "strange" anomolies at the bundesarchives...so it doesn't hurt to ask what it means.

stuart

[MadDog]

What is a "Vopersal catalogue" and what would it contain ?

thanks,

Mad Dog

[Jan-Hendrik]

The military heritage of the great Wolfgang Vopersal, his complete archive...his research of the "Kriegsgeschichtliche Referat" of the "Der Freiwillige"-magazine, uncountable letter exchanges with eyewitnesses etc....I got already some material..awesome



Jan-Hendrik

[Stephan H.]

Thanks for all the input. I found another entry in the BA-MA catalouge that had read "Benutzungsbeschränkungen: Benutzbar ab: 2015" except this was for a H.Gr. Weichsel record that had nothing to do with a veteran association (at least none that was apparent in the description). The only commonality with the Nordland entry was that it was sourced to Wolfgang Vopersal.

I've e-mailed the BA-MA on these entries and I'll post a response when I receive one.

Jan-Hendrik - I would like to learn a bit more about Vopersal since I see his name referenced on many BA-MA document entries dealing with the Endkampf. Are there any threads at Panzer-Archiv or somewhere else that have more information?

Cheers,
Stephan

(Maybe this thread should be moved up to the Operational Map Project & Archival Research section)

[Richard Hargreaves]

I would like to learn a bit more about Vopersal since I see his name referenced on many BA-MA document entries dealing with the Endkampf. Are there any threads at Panzer-Archiv or somewhere else that have more information?

Allow me to offer a little help. Vopersal's an ex-Totenkopf division member who became its historian post-war compiling the divisional history (some people have a complete set, but sadly not I ). Beyond that he compiled masses of material on the Waffen SS and, to a lesser extent, the Heer (and I mean masses: correspondence, documents, photographs, newspaper cuttings, journal articles, maps). On his death in the early 90s it passed to BA-MA and is now Nachlass 756. Thankfully, there's a very comprehensive A4 lever arch volume in the reading room which serves as a guide; the electronic Findbuch is a carbon copy from what I can tell.

Just to give you an idea of how good the series is, the Findbuch for the Waffen SS official papers at BA-MA is a very thin affair; Vopersal's file is brimming.

A simple search here using his name will elicit plenty of "hits".

http://startext.net-build.de:8080/barch ... s=selected

I only had time to work through about four files relating to the final fighting in Austria in April/May 1945 (N 756/444, 445, 446, 396). There are several files on the Vistula/Oder fighting (N 756/392a, 392b, 393, 525) and Schwedt (N 756/394, 395a, 396b). Once in the file, there's not really any order (or logic), but you'll find something of use there.

Hope that helps. Now if someone has a cheap copy of the final volume of Soldaten-Kämpfer-Kameraden going spare, I'd be chuffed.

[Stephan H.]

Hope that helps.

Richard - thanks, this does.

[Stephan H.]

I thought I'd let those interested know that the BA-MA responded to my question on this entry and they confirmed that indeed quite a few holdings are off limits for another decade. This entry was not a mistake. So there will be plenty of untapped research material waiting for researchres to delve into in the future. . .

[Richard Hargreaves]

Sounds like a 30-year rule (I think Vopersal died 1992, so the early 2020s for lifting the ban would make sense).

Just because it's locked doesn't necessarily mean it's juicy; I remember waiting avidly for the ban on some cabinet office EDS papers to be released at Kew. When the 30 years passed I eagerly ploughed through the file. It had only been closed because some dull civil servant had appended a note in the early 70s to say he'd photocopied a couple of sheets!

A far bigger problem at BA-MA is the reams of material still being catalogued (RH37, for example, still isn't done in toto and it contains some absolute gems...)