page_title: Winterhilfswerk
section_title: Gifts and tokens
hierarchical_section_title: Winterhilfswerk / Operation / Gifts and tokens
caption_attribution_description: English: Ceramic medallion issued by the the Gausammlungen of the Winterhilfswerk (WHW). Depicts a funerary urn of the Przeworsk culture (ca. 2nd century AD), found at Biala near Lódz, the urn itself is incised with a swastika symbol. Inscribed with "EWIGER DEUTSCHER OSTEN / Urnenfund bei Litzmannstadt / 100 n. Z." This is nr. 22 of a series of such medallions issued by the WHW entitled "Ewiger Deutscher Osten" ("Eternal German East") in the collection drive of winter 1942/43. Reproduced in Andrej Mikolajczyk, 'Didactic presentations of the past: some retrospective considerations in relation to the Archaeological and Ethnographical Museum, Lódz, Poland' in: Gathercole and Lowenthal (eds.), The Politics of the Past (1990), fig. 19.5, p. 250 (caption "Ceramic medallion issued by the Nazi authorities showing urn with swastika.") The entire series of "Gau 36" (Wartheland) issued in winters 1941/42 and 1942/43 consisted of Neue Heimat Wartheland (1941/42) 007 Am Ziel 008 Aus Bessarabien 010 Aus Galizien 011 Aus Wolhynien 012 Bei 30 Grad Kälte 013 Der große Treck 014 30 Tage Marsch Ewiger deutscher Osten (1942/43) 015 Der große Kurfürst 016 Deutscher Ritterorden[1] 017 Die Hanse 018 Die Wikinger 019 Friedrich der Große 020 General Litzmann 021 Heinrich der Löwe 022 Urnenfund bei Litzmannstadt 023 Wartheland - Kernland des deutschen Ostens 024 Wir sind fest entschlossen Literature: Reinhard Tieste, Spendenbelege des WHW. Band V: Gausammlungen 1933-1945, Gaue 31-40, 1993.[2] Polski: Ceramiczny medalion z 36. krajowej kolekcji [3](org. Gausammlungen) gadżetów wydanych przez akcję Niemieckiej Pomocy Zimowej (org. Winterhilfswerk des Deutschen Volkes, WHW). Na medalionie wizerunek ozdobionej symbolem swastyki popielnicy z okresu tzw. kultury przeworskiej (III w. p.n.e. - V w. n.e.) znalezionej w Białej pod Łodzią. Całość sygnowana tekstem "Odwieczny Niemiecki Wschód / Wykopalisko spod Litzmannstadt / 100 n.e.)" (org. EWIGER DEUTSCHER OSTEN / Urnenfund bei Litzmannstadt / 100 n. Z.). Pozycja 22. tej kolekcji wydanej w okresie 1942/43 i zatytuowanej "Odwieczny Niemiecki Wschód". Reprodukcja z prezentacji Andrzeja Mikołajczyka "Didactic presentations of the past: some retrospective considerations in relation to the Archaeological and Ethnographical Museum, Lódz, Poland" na konferencji w 1990, Conference Proceedings edition: "The Politics of the past" / edited by Peter Gathercole, David Lowenthal ryc. 19.5, str 250 (podpis "Ceramiczny medalion przedstawiający urnę ze swastyką, wydany przez władze Nazistowskie.") Literatura: Reinhard Tieste, Spendenbelege des WHW. Band V: Gausammlungen 1933-1945, Gaue 31-40, 1993.[4]
context_page_description: The Winterhilfswerk des Deutschen Volkes, commonly known by its abbreviated form Winterhilfswerk, was an annual drive by the National Socialist People's Welfare to help finance charitable work. Its slogan was "None shall starve or freeze". The drive was originally set up under the government of Heinrich Brüning in 1931, though Adolf Hitler would later claim sole credit. It ran from 1933 to 1945 during the months of October through March and was designed to provide food, clothing, coal and other items to less fortunate Germans during the inclement months.
context_section_description: A paper Monatstürplakette (monthly placard) was issued to place on one's door or in one's window to show others that one had given and also to keep the roaming bands of charity workers at bay.
  Donors were often given small souvenir gratitude gifts of negligible value, somewhat similar to the way modern charities mail out address labels and holiday cards. A typical such gift was a very small propaganda booklet, reminiscent of Victorian-era miniature books; about 0.8" wide x 1.5" tall. Booklets included The Führer Makes History, a collection of Hitler photographs, The Führer's Battle in the East 2 and Gerhard Koeppen and other decorated heroes of the war.
  More generous donors would receive concomitantly better gifts, such as lapel pins on a wide variety of themes. Some depicting occupational types or geographic areas of the Reich, others animals, birds and insects, nursery rhyme and fairy tale characters, or notable persons from German history (including Hitler himself). They were made from a variety of materials. Each individual miniature book, badge, badge set or toy set was only available for two or three days of a particular collection drive. The populace would be encouraged to donate the following week and thereby collect the latest in the series. There could also be consequences such as nagging by the appropriate official if your local Blockleiter saw that you were not wearing the current, appropriate pin by about Tuesday of the week.
  When he visited Germany in 1939 as a reporter for the North American Newspaper Alliance, Lothrop Stoddard wrote:
  Once a fortnight, every city, town, and village in the Reich seethes with brown-shirted Storm Troopers carrying red-painted canisters. These are the Winter-Help collection-boxes. The Brown-Shirts go everywhere. You cannot sit in a restaurant or beer-hall but what, sooner or later, a pair of them will work through the place, rattling their canisters ostentatiously in the faces of customers. And I never saw a German formally refuse to drop in his mite, even though the contribution might have been less than the equivalent of one American cent.
  During these periodic money-raising campaigns, all sorts of dodges are employed. On busy street-corners comedians, singers, musicians, sailors, gather a crowd by some amusing skit, at the close of which the Brown-Shirts collect. People buy tiny badges to show they have contributed—badges good only for that particular campaign. One time they may be an artificial flower; next time a miniature dagger, and so forth. The Winter-Help campaign series reaches its climax shortly before Christmas in the so-called Day of National Solidarity. On that notable occasion the Big Guns of the Nazi Party sally forth with their collection-boxes to do their bit.
  Stoddard described visits to a Winterhilfswerk facility where he was shown winter clothing and other items meant for distribution. Few others describe the charitable work of the WHW and the historical record contains many details on the collection of money and goods, but little about what was done with either. William Russell's book Berlin Embassy surmises that the entire program was a sham and that all proceeds were used to produce armaments. The 1933–1945 collection drives issued a large number of themed ceramic medallions and other badges given to donators.
caption: Ceramic medallion issued in the WHW collection drive (Gausammlung) of winter 1942–1943 as they were themed with individual Reichsgauen, in this case Wartheland
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