Hi Guys, this has been a very good couple of weeks for me research wise. I thought that I would tell the story of an SS dagger in my collection to illustrate why it pays never to give up on a research project and that time and luck and with the right help, things can pay off in the long run.
I will start the story back in 1991. The local Nottingham Evening Post newspaper had a small ad from a guy selling a black Allgemine SS tunic. I called him up and arranged to visit him to look at the jacket at his home in the city. I was dissappointed to find that the jacket was stripped of all insignia and had also suffered from post war alterations. Given the price of £230, I quickly passed on it. However, I asked if he had anything else for sale? He produced a 1933 pattern SS dagger. This I was impressed with and a deal was done with me paying £350 for it. One aspect I really liked about the dagger was the fact that it was serial numbered. I had already had some sucess with researching a 1936 pattern dagger in my collection so I hoped that I would find out the history of this new dagger too.
I wrote off to the Berlin Document Centre and in Jan of 1992 I got a reply. They had been very helpful with my previous research. I was dissappointed with their one line reply of:
"Dear Mr Stevenson, we have recieved your recent letter. Unfortunately we are not in a position to be of assistance."
Oh well I though, the guy must have been an NCO or enlisted man and so there must be no records available. Never mind it was worth a try and I still had a nice dagger to show for it.
We now fast forward to December 2000. I thought that I would have another go at finding out about this dagger. With the help of several forum members, Gerard Stezelberger and Bernie Brule and Mike Miller, a name was come up with! SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Hans Eickemeyer. The small amount of info gleaned was taken from the July 1944 SS Officers Dienstalterliste. So he was an Officer after all.... I now had the date of his last promotion, 1.4.42, and his date of birth 23.06.1908 plus his last posting as a Staff Officer in the V SS Volunteer Mountain Korps. Gerard also added he was killed in April or May of 1945. In the meantime I looked into the unit he served with.
I now wrote off to the Bundesarchive, but all I got was a copy of his entry in a 1987 reprinted copy of the 44 list. So sadly no new info there.
I will start the story back in 1991. The local Nottingham Evening Post newspaper had a small ad from a guy selling a black Allgemine SS tunic. I called him up and arranged to visit him to look at the jacket at his home in the city. I was dissappointed to find that the jacket was stripped of all insignia and had also suffered from post war alterations. Given the price of £230, I quickly passed on it. However, I asked if he had anything else for sale? He produced a 1933 pattern SS dagger. This I was impressed with and a deal was done with me paying £350 for it. One aspect I really liked about the dagger was the fact that it was serial numbered. I had already had some sucess with researching a 1936 pattern dagger in my collection so I hoped that I would find out the history of this new dagger too.
I wrote off to the Berlin Document Centre and in Jan of 1992 I got a reply. They had been very helpful with my previous research. I was dissappointed with their one line reply of:
"Dear Mr Stevenson, we have recieved your recent letter. Unfortunately we are not in a position to be of assistance."
Oh well I though, the guy must have been an NCO or enlisted man and so there must be no records available. Never mind it was worth a try and I still had a nice dagger to show for it.
We now fast forward to December 2000. I thought that I would have another go at finding out about this dagger. With the help of several forum members, Gerard Stezelberger and Bernie Brule and Mike Miller, a name was come up with! SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Hans Eickemeyer. The small amount of info gleaned was taken from the July 1944 SS Officers Dienstalterliste. So he was an Officer after all.... I now had the date of his last promotion, 1.4.42, and his date of birth 23.06.1908 plus his last posting as a Staff Officer in the V SS Volunteer Mountain Korps. Gerard also added he was killed in April or May of 1945. In the meantime I looked into the unit he served with.
I now wrote off to the Bundesarchive, but all I got was a copy of his entry in a 1987 reprinted copy of the 44 list. So sadly no new info there.
As Raymond was having a load of research done in the archives he very kindly tagged my research onto his bill 
)
but enough of that ill put a thread up one day 
Comment