Reichsautozug Deutschland-SS?

[TP Alexander]

Long story.
A long time ago, on a planet far, far away, lived a guy named Ron Fink. He ran a Collectibles/coin/sports card/militaria shop in Calumet City, Illinois. Ask Bob Hritz;he remembers him. Ron was collecting and buying when we were still dirtying our diapers. He had Himmler's steamer trunk with the name plate on it, one of those sterling silver portraits of Goering that Goering gifted people with, so that they could gaze at the Fat One's visage in their home or office, he had the ribbon bar for von Leeb or von Reichenau & it was legit and attributed.
He had a Japanese skull in a case from one of the island battles in the Pacific.
One of the things that he had was a 3 piece set for the Reichsautozug Deutschland. After a long time, he sold them & eventually that person sold them to me. After doing some research, I wrote and had published a short article in Der Gauleiter, published by Bob Treend. Bob saved everything and put some of the articles into a website on the web. Here is the link to the article.
http://www.google.de/imgres?imgurl=h...26tbs%3Disch:1
Scroll down about a eighth of the way on the page and you'll find it.
Ulric of England saw the article & sent me a very nice note and mentioned that he also had the same overseas hat and it's internal SS serial number was only about 40 numbers off.
Take a look at the pictures and tell me if you think it is SS related or not.
After I upload the pictures, I'll finish the story by retyping a letter that I got from Wilhelm P.B. R. Saris of Helmond, the Netherlands...a very knowledgeable person.
Thanx,
Tim


First, some pictures of the armband. Notice the distinct SS type eagle. The armband must be wool; it has some mothing.

[TP Alexander]

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[TP Alexander]

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The overseas hat. The one thing that I can't see is the back of the button. It is still sewn tightly to the hat and I can't get a good enough look at the back of it to tell if it has SS RZM marks on it or not.

[TP Alexander]

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[TP Alexander]

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[TP Alexander]

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Last, the cufftitle, full length.

[TP Alexander]

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[TP Alexander]

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[TP Alexander]

Helmond, September 27, 1993

Dear Mr. Alexander,
Through the courtesy of my friend Ulric of England I have received a copy from an article you have published in Der Gauleiter, concerning the Reichsautozug Deutschland.
In your last paragraph you say: I am neither criticizing or disputing etc. Why not? If people do not know what they are talking about, you MUST do this. The RAZ had nothing to do with the SS at all, neither. An often made mistake is that the RAZ was thought to be a unit that was involved with motor-car racing or automoblile competition. This is an explanantion by those who do not know what this unit did. I am quite busy at this moment and I can give you only a short explanationon what the RAZ was and did and who in fact lead this unit.
In 1922 Sturmfuhrer Hermann Schafer from the Gruppe Niedersachsen raised a unit during the elections at Lippe, which assisted by giving the orators a better radius of action by so called loud speaker transmitting. Schafer was after the elections invvited by Hitler who asked him to take over "loud speaker transmitting" for the entire Reich and so the Reichsautozug saw action. This unit was assigned to Hugo Fischer, a Stabsleiter from the Reichspropagandaleitung (Fischer lead since January 1933 the sub department "Rednervermittlung" within the Hauptabteilung! Redner means orator---vermittlung is a sort of agency). So, in fact, this unit was commanded by Fischer and lead by Schafer. It's full title became Reichsautozug Deutschland der Reichspropagandaleitung der NSDAP.
With the date December 1, 1934, in Bavaria existed the Hilfszug Bayern. It was also assigned to the Reichspropagandaleitung and became a part (xection) of the RAZ. It's full title became Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei-Reichsleitung-Reichspropagandaleitung Hilfszug Bayern. This was agreed to by Reichschatzmeister Scwarz.
On May 1, 1936, the RAZ (and also the HB) came under the command of Oberfuhrer Hermann Schafer (who later became a Brigadefuhrer).

I'll have to finish this letter tomorrow. It'c very long and very full of more info.
I will mention that Ron Fink sent all of the info that he had in his day to John Angolia. Mr. Angolia sent a note back to Ron stating that the RAZ was nothing but a motor sport racing club in the 30's.
I believe that Jill Halcomb mentions the RAZ also, in a light similar to the vein that Mr. Angolia followed.
More tomorrow.
Thanx,
Tim

[PMan]

Ron Fink

Interesting! Ron Fink showed me these items shortly after he acquired them. He picked up many cool items. We did a lot of dealing. He really prized the items you now own. To this day, I have no idea what the SS association with Autozug is.
Peter

[Dr. Strangelove]

Cool

Cool things, very nice! I am in search of the SS Honor Title "Bernd Rosemeyer".

Please see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3h89rc7HJ0

[billbert]

I have also seen another cap like this..resided in the collection of Mike Horetsky.. he had his collection on display at a Max show about 20 years ago..also was SS rzm tagged..Skiing ,fast cars and women..This life of the young Aryan SS gods... Billbert

[Richard P]

Tim,

Wonderful rare stuff and even better to now have the information you have put forth, which I'm sure will lead to even more info turning up. Items are all well made and obviously period, thanks very much for sharing.

[wewelsburg]

This is discussed NUMEROUS times in the Political section,with much about the RAZ and the relation to SS.
Some believe the hats were old stock SS caps {earth brown/also grey} both correct for early SS} which went out of use when the SS got new style Overseas caps,so the RAZ used them,hence the SS tag. http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=228094

[PMan]

Cap

This is discussed NUMEROUS times in the Political section,with much about the RAZ and the relation to SS.
Some believe the hats were old stock SS caps {earth brown/also grey} both correct for early SS} which went out of use when the SS got new style Overseas caps,so the RAZ used them,hence the SS tag. http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=228094

Makes sense.