Garde du Corps by the WHW

This figure of a Prussion Garde du Corps at attention was made for the WinterHilfsWerk (WHW) or Winter Relief Charity in germany in the late 1930's or early 1940's. The WHW made all sorts of items for sale to raise funds for the needy, including a few sets of toy soldiers. I've recently finished reading a novel (based on a true story) called "Alone in Berlin" in which the author, Hans Fallada is fairly scathing about the WHW suggesting that it was in fact just a front to line the pockets of senior Nazi party officials - well, he lived through those harrowing times and thankfully I did not so I'm inclined towards his opinion.

This figure is about 40mm size in plastic and semi flat, all of the WHW production is about this size or smaller, which perhaps reflects the limited capacity of the injection moulding machines of the time. Today these figures are sought after by a small number of toy soldier collectors but a much larger number of Nazi memorabilia collectors, this double whamy of demand tends to have a disproportionate effect in their price.