J Malan Heslop
Encyclopedia
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
combat photographer
Embedded journalist
Embedded journalism refers to news reporters being attached to military units involved in armed conflicts. While the term could be applied to many historical interactions between journalists and military personnel, it first came to be used in the media coverage of the 2003 invasion of Iraq...
with Arnold E. Samuelson
Arnold E. Samuelson
Arnold E. Samuelson was a combat photographer during World War II who was among the first Allied photographers to document Nazi war crimes....
's Combat Assignment Unit #123 of the 167th Signal Photographic Company who documented evidence of Nazi war crimes. He later served as editor of the LDS Church News and managing editor of the Deseret News.
Heslop served as a freelance photographer in his native Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
and was employed at the Ogden Standard Examiner before setting off to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, where he studied the craft at Los Angeles City College
Los Angeles City College
Los Angeles City College, known as LACC, is a public community college in the East Hollywood section of Los Angeles, California. A part of the Los Angeles Community College District, it is located on Vermont Avenue south of Santa Monica Boulevard...
.
Early Life
Following America's entry into World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he joined the National Guard with hopes of being recruited for the U.S. Army Signal Corps. In October 1942, Heslop was assigned to the 167th Signal Photographic Company and sent for training to Paramount Studios in Hollywood. Three months after D-Day
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
(June 6, 1944), he landed on the Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
beaches and served in France. During the German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
counteroffensive into the Ardennes
Ardennes
The Ardennes is a region of extensive forests, rolling hills and ridges formed within the Givetian Ardennes mountain range, primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, but stretching into France , and geologically into the Eifel...
, he covered the Battle of the Bulge
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive , launched toward the end of World War II through the densely forested Ardennes mountain region of Wallonia in Belgium, hence its French name , and France and...
(December 1944).
Arnold E. Samuelson
Arnold E. Samuelson was a combat photographer during World War II who was among the first Allied photographers to document Nazi war crimes....
's Combat Assignment Unit #123 (One of fourteen Combat Assignment Units in the 167th Signal Photographic Company). As part of 167th, Heslop covered the activities of the 9th Armored Division, the 80th Infantry Division as well as many other U.S. Army units serving within the 12th Army Group area of operation. In May 1945, Heslop was among the first American photographers to document evidence of Nazi crimes and the plight of surviving inmates
Forced labor in Germany during World War II
The use of forced labour in Nazi Germany and throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II took place on an unprecedented scale. It was a vital part of the German economic exploitation of conquered territories. It also contributed to the mass extermination of populations in German-occupied...
at Ebensee
Ebensee
Ebensee is a market town in the Traunviertel region of the Austrian state of Upper Austria, located within the Salzkammergut Mountains at the southern end of the Traunsee. The regional capital Linz lies approximately to the north, nearest towns are Gmunden and Bad Ischl...
, a subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp
Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp
Mauthausen Concentration Camp grew to become a large group of Nazi concentration camps that was built around the villages of Mauthausen and Gusen in Upper Austria, roughly east of the city of Linz.Initially a single camp at Mauthausen, it expanded over time and by the summer of 1940, the...
in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
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Deseret News
After the war, he was graduated from Utah State Agricultural CollegeUtah State University
Utah State University is a public university located in Logan, Utah. It is a land-grant and space-grant institution and is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities....
in Logan, Utah
Logan, Utah
-Layout of the City:Logan's city grid originates from its Main and Center Street block, with Main Street running north and south, and Center east and west. Each block north, east, south, or west of the origin accumulates in additions of 100 , though some streets have non-numeric names...
(June, 1948). He joined the Deseret News newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
in Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...
. Shortly after joining the Deseret News staff he was made chief photographer, a position he held for the next 20 years. From 1968-1976 he served as editor of the Church News
Church News
The Church News is a weekly tabloid-sized supplement to the Deseret News and the MormonTimes , a Salt Lake City, Utah newspaper owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...
, which is distributed both as an insert in the Deseret News and through mail distribution to areas outside of the Deseret News's base readership area. In 1976 Heslop became the managing editor of the Church News, a positon he held from then until 1981 and again from 1983 until 1988. He was a member of Kiwanis
Kiwanis
Kiwanis International is an international, coeducational service club founded in 1915. It is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Current membership is 240,000 members in 7,700 clubs in 80 nations...
.
LDS Church
Heslop was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Among the positions he held in the church were bishop of the Salt Lake 26th Ward, counselor in the stake presidency of the Salt Lake Pioneer Stake, stake president of the Salt Lake Stake, a member of the YMMIA General Board, regional representative, mission president of the Chicago North Mission and stake patriarch.Heslop also wrote several books and plays with Dell Van Orden. He was involved in the formation of the group that eventually became the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation
Mormon Historic Sites Foundation
The Mormon Historic Sites Foundation is an independent organization that seeks to contribute to the memorialization of sites important to the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...
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Family
Heslop married Fae Stokes on 1 May 1944 in the Salt Lake TempleSalt Lake Temple
The Salt Lake Temple is the largest and best-known of more than 130 temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is the sixth temple built by the church, requiring 40 years to complete, and the fourth operating temple built since the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo,...
just before he went to Europe during World War II. They later became the parents of four children. The Heslops also wrote an autobiography Doubletree Adventure: Autobiography of J Malan and Eleanor Fae Stokes Heslop.
Legacy
Brigham Young UniversityBrigham Young University
Brigham Young University is a private university located in Provo, Utah. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and is the United States' largest religious university and third-largest private university.Approximately 98% of the university's 34,000 students...
through its Saints at War Project headered by Robert C. Freeman
Robert C. Freeman
Robert C. Freeman is a professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University . Along with Dennis A. Wright he is the compiler of Saints at War, a series largely about Latter-day Saints in the United States military during 20th Century wars. Freeman also coauthored German Saints at...
has digitized and made available on-line more than 1,000 of Heslop's war photos from World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The United States National Archives and the National Holocaust Museum (United States) also have collections of Heslop's World War II era photos.
Publications
- From the Shadow of Death: Stories of POWs (with Dell R. Van Orden) Deseret Book, 1973.
- Joseph Fielding SmithJoseph Fielding SmithJoseph Fielding Smith, Jr. was the tenth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1970 until his death. He was the son of Joseph F. Smith, who was the sixth president of the LDS Church...
: A Prophet Among the People. Deseret Book, 1971. ISBN=0877474540 - How to Compile Your Family History. Bookcraft, 1978. ISBN=0884943445
Sources
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - J Malan Heslop
- WWII Photographs by J Malan Heslop » Harold B. Lee Library at BYU
- J Malan Heslop and Eleanor Fae Stokes Heslop, Doubletree Adventure: Autobiography of J Malan and Eleanor Fae Stokes Heslop (Salt Lake City: Lincoln Press, 2004), 1:J-2.
- Dell R. Van Orden, "J M. Heslop Editor’s Retirement Marks End of an Era at the Deseret News", 29 June 1988, C-1.
External links
- 167th Signal Photographic Company - A WWII Reenacting group in the USA
- WWII Photographs by J Malan Heslop, collection displayed at Brigham Young UniversityBrigham Young UniversityBrigham Young University is a private university located in Provo, Utah. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and is the United States' largest religious university and third-largest private university.Approximately 98% of the university's 34,000 students...
's Harold B. Lee LibraryHarold B. Lee LibraryThe Harold B. Lee Library , located in Provo, Utah, is the main academic library of Brigham Young University, the largest religious and second-largest private university in the United States. The library has approximately of shelving for the more than 6 million items in its various collections, as...