BACKGROUND: One of the NSDAP’s most ambitious, and successful, projects was the elimination of the overwhelming unemployment suffered in Germany following WWI. To achieve this goal a national labor registration law was enacted on February 26th, 1935, and the "Arbeitsbuch" was instituted, as a record of an individual’s employment history. The Arbeitsbuch underwent three minor modifications during the Third Reich, with the first pattern book issued in 1935, a second pattern in 1939 and a third pattern in 1942.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: This second pattern, twenty-leaf membership book has, to its 4 1/8" x 5 3/4" brown and grey cardstock cover, "Deutches Reich" above and "Arbeitsbuch" beneath the national eagle and swastika. To the first page, entitled "Arbeitsbuch (Gesetz vom 26. Februar 1935, RGBl. I S.311)," is the book’s number and the individual’s name and signature. The second page details the individual’s personal information . The third page, entitled "Berufsausbildung" (Vocational-development), outlines their professional training, and has no entries. The fourth page, entitled "Bisherige Beschäftigungsarten von längerer Dauer" (Hitherto Employments of long Duration), lists their work history prior to that recorded in this book, and has a single entry. To the fifth page is the issuing authority’s stamps and signature, dated "13.Juni 1945" (13.June 1945). The following twenty-four pages would chronicle the individual’s work history but there are no entries. The last seven pages, to the first of which is the title "Anmerkungen für Arbeitsbuchinhaber und Unternehmer" (Notes for [the] Labor-book-holder and Employer), have thirty points regarding the book’s usage. To the reverse cover is a space with the individual’s signature above "Arbeitsbuch" and the printer’s logo. As this book was issued 3 months before the end of the war, other than a small ink stain to the bottom corner of the spine, it is a nice clean example.

GRADE****1/4                             PRICE $35.00