LOOKING FOR WORLD WAR 2 RELATED ITEMS OF THE 9TH INFANTRY DIVISION
– Please consider donating for future preservation and education –

Over the years I have collected various items related to the 9th Infantry Division in World War 2. The items range from a personal notebook or pictures to a wool shirt or field jacket. These items can now be preserved in a good way, and will be used for education and display purposes to keep the story and memories of the men who served with the 9th Infantry Division, alive.

Today, many of the bigger museums are no longer looking for most of these items. Their archives have been filled with thousands of items, and will not be able to display a lot more. So, many of the donated items end up in a room where no one will ever get to see them. In other cases, collections are being sold through auction site often taken apart, forever deleting the story and unique history of the grouping. This is very sad; the unique items that tell the stories of the soldiers,  will then be forever lost.

It happens that people get in touch with me, telling me they “used to have” a bunch of pictures, but didn’t think they would be of use to anybody and threw them out. Or they found an old jacket and some other old army clothes in a box on the attic, and just donating them to charity shops, not knowing the history behind it. I would like to prevent this from happening. I am offering a way to preserve these items through display and education.

This is how you can help:

If you have any uniform related items of the 9th Infantry Division in WWII, and they are just laying in an old box on the attic or garage, please consider donating them.

If you have photo albums of the war, 9th Infantry Division reunions that took place after the war, documents, journals, booklets or anything else related to this Division, I would be honored to keep them safe, together, and preserve them for future generations.

What will happen with your items?

All paper and picture related items will first be digitized. I am currently building up a database with the biggest photographic collection of the 9th Infantry Division in World War 2. I will then index all digitized items and add them to a project I have named the  9th Infantry Division in WWII Photo Archive.

For all uniform related items, I am currently looking for place to display them. I have contacts with various museums in Europe, in locations where the 9th Infantry Division fought. Also, when I do presentations about the Division, I am displaying items and tell the stories behind them. Right now I am in the process to build up my collection in order to create a good display.

My goal is to be a central place to preserve items and pictures for the 9th Infantry Division. Below are more examples of items in my collection.

HELP TO PRESERVE THE HISTORY OF THE 9TH INFANTRY DIVISION

If you would like to donate anything related to the 9th Infantry Division in WWII, I would love to hear from you. We will obviously discus this. I understand that not many people will donate items to a complete stranger. Feel free to email me any questions about this. I just want to make sure to keep all the 9th Infantry Division related items somewhere where they will be appreciated for their historic value, and where they will be taken care off properly.

If you have anything of the above to share with me, please let me know through the form below:

For now I would like to thank you for considering donating any items.
As mentioned, all of this will be used to preserve the history of the 9th Infantry Division.

Thank you.

Yuri Beckers