A Very Interesting Item

[Nick_since_1985]

This is going to be hard cause no one will ever know for sure this came from Bergen Belzen...

[Lucky Duck]

What about those Knobelbecher boots sitting in the corner? What's the story there?

Ray

[CWP]

You would need a noitarized statement with photos from the (British?) veteran in the photos to even begin to convince anyone that the item came from that camp. Also a copy of the veteran's service history would help confirm that he was in the British unit that liberated the camp. Without those two things, it is just a chess set with a story. The standard of proof required with these sorts of relics is very high. You say the vet used the item back home in the states, if he is an American I find it hard to grasp how he could have gotten this at a camp liberated and administrated by the British Army.

[EKman]

You would need a noitarized statement with photos from the (British?) veteran in the photos to even begin to convince anyone that the item came from that camp. Also a copy of the veteran's service history would help confirm that he was in the British unit that liberated the camp. Without those two things, it is just a chess set with a story. The standard of proof required with these sorts of relics is very high. You say the vet used the item back home in the states, if he is an American I find it hard to grasp how he could have gotten this at a camp liberated and administrated by the British Army.

I will see what I can get of his official service history. However, this gent is a US veteran. He served as an artillery battery commander and stated that his battery was attached to or subordinated to the British at the time of the liberation. His mind is still sharp as a tack--he holds a Phd in Education among other doctorates--so the next time I am there, I will ask for the specific unit in which he served, that should very much support his claim, though he has no reason to fib about it, I didn't pay him for the item and he had told me of his service history long before he came across the item so it wasn't as though he found it, showed it to me, and then quickly fabricated a tale to impress his visitor or enhance his item. Besides which, this man is among other notable things a decorated U.S. Army Colonel (O-6) retired of course, and so I am inclinded to take his story at face value whether or not others are.