Der Opel Kamerad 1941

"Our Tank Armor," Der Opel Kamerad, January 1941.

After 1933 the Opel management published its factory magazine in cooperation with the press department of the DAF, the Nazi Party's "German Labor Front" which had replaced all trade unions. By 1941 the bimonthly glossy (the paper got cheaper as the war went on) was distributed across Europe among the Opel workers who had gone to the front as soldiers and mechanics.

The contents of a typical issue included:

Nazi ceremonies at the factory, including the frequent military honors given to bosses and model workers, in lavish features. Bombastic appeals from "Company Leaders" (the management) urging the "Following" (the personnel) to work harder for Führer and Vaterland. Sporadic threats to shirkers and defeatists from "Shopfloor Leader" Liebermann. Tips for moonlight gardening to help "ease the situation on our meat market." "Victory on the Front," where the brave Wehrmacht footmen are "saving the German race from Bolshevism and Jewish conspiracy," comes only through "Sacrifice at Home." A Letters Page with dozens of dogged, cheerful greetings from Opel workers at the front, with pictures like a vacation. Invariably: testimonials to the hardiness of Opel vehicles, as proven over Libyan sands and Russian tundra. Theater, music, and Rhine steamer trips for "Our Soldiers' Wives," all courtesy of the DAF leisure organization, Kraft durch Freude (Strength through Joy). Reports on factory sport teams, the S.A. rifle squad, and the Opel shooting range.

Always, a black-bordered page listing the "factory comrades who fell heroically for Führer and Vaterland."

Thanks to Anita Kugler for the photo.

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