My first Soldbuch!

[RodneyO]

Hi All,
Here's a soldbuch that belongs to Kurt Ziesenheim which came with a folded printed letter about the death of his brother Karl (?). There's no picture on the inside front cover, never had one stapled to it. He belong to the 2/Jnf. Ers. Batl. 163. On page 5, there is only his father's name, no mothers, is that common? On page 7 an extra fold out paper was glued on, also after page 8 a folded paper inserted (glued) to make pages 8a, 8b, 8c and 8d. I Googled Kurt's name an came up with his family tree, Karl was his younger brother.
Does anyone have information on the 2/Jnf. Ers. Batl. 163? Can you tell his rank?
Thank you,
Rodney
Soldbuch.jpg
Soldbuch-a.jpg

[RodneyO]

[ATTACH]2212966[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]2212967[/ATTACH]

[RodneyO]

inserted pages 8a-d

Soldbuch-d.jpg
Soldbuch-e.jpg

[RodneyO]

glued fold out page 7
Soldbuch-f.jpg

Family Tree
Soldbuch-family tree.jpg

Thanks for looking, any help will be appreciated.

[Paulus_Gun]

Very nice soldbuch! Your first is always special. In the death notice is mentioned that karl died 6 months after his brother (who also died a long way from home, probably russia as well).

His rank seems to be Oberschützen, that would make him a regular private.

[Jock Auld]

Congrats on your first mate.

Can't be easy for you in Hawai but at least you have good weather!?

Looks pretty standard, your pics are hard to see.

7, is your standard kit issue, a fresh line for each issue usualy when a change in unit or role?

8 speacial clothing.

8a, is weapons or acountable equipments, it give the headings normally then it lists on the left Rifle, Pistol, Bayonette or sword, compass, binos, folding spade etc.

8b, is a continuation of controlled kit, wire cutters, weapon cleaning kit, gasmask, gas mask glasses, first aid kit and there are blank spaces to record perhaps role specific items, but in summery field gear that is accountable centrally rather than on permanent issue, with this statement I am comparing with UK 1157 versus G1098 issue. Simmilar thing?!

8c-d just a blank continuation.

looking at page 4 , he ended up as a loggy driving but it is hard to make out for my eyes? So he didn't remain a grunt as such.

I am sure some one will correct any false interpritation.

Good luck and enjoy!!!

Jock

[RodneyO]

Thank you Paulus and Jock,
Paulus, Yes!, the first is always special…. it’s going to be very hard to part with. I only recently started collecting some erkennungsmarken and now got my first soldbuch (and a wehrpass).
Thanks for translation of the Death Notice. It’s kind of sad that two brothers passed away only 6 months apart, almost like “Saving Private Ryan” and also for his rank, a private.

Jock, we do have some good sunny weather but wish it would snow once in awhile.., but instead we get rain and mud..!! I’ve never seen these come up for sale at our local militaria shows or antique shows so it the first time I ever had one in hand, you can almost feel the soldier that owned it. I’m really gratefully for the translation of pages 7, 8 and 8a-d. Sorry for the bad pictures, if you need better pictures, let me know what pages you'll need.

Aloha from Sunny Hawaii!!

[Jock Auld]

Rodney,

That was just a quick squint, there are more serious collectors on here that will be able to give much more info. I only do this for a bit of fun.

You say hard to part with I would have thought you would keep your first, I still have mine, it's nothing fancy but it got me started, just like yours and good reference if nothing else.

You found it localy, quite unusual I suppose!

My geography (and spelling) was never up to much but I would have though you were closer to Japanese stuff?

Do you find Jap stuff often in between sun bathing?

Jock

[RodneyO]

Aloha Jock,
Don’t sell yourself short, you’ve given me great information on those pages, like a sponge I’m soak up all the info I can. This is all new to me the soldbuch, wehrpass and erkennungsmarke are very personal items that one can link to an individual soldier.

Like so many stuffs I pick up, I never have the heart to sell it anyways, just can’t seem to let it go…… I guess I just don't want to regret it later.

These don’t come up for sale (never seen one) here so got it from a dealer (!) in the mainland. As for Japanese stuff, there’s not a whole bunch either but still can be found if you look hard enough. I've collected Japanese stuff but I still fall back on TR's...... it's what got me started in the first place, oh yeah!, and watching the TV series (reruns) of "Combat", "Rat Patrol" and "Hogan's Heroes"!!

Mahalo,
Rodney

[Floris]

Welcome to the club of document collectors

[Jock Auld]

(reruns) of "Combat", "Rat Patrol" and "Hogan's Heroes"!!

Mahalo,
Rodney

Combat, now theres a blast from the past, I remember it as a kid but I have never seen it since? I guess as it is US you still get it? I remember lots of Germans being machine gunned down with helmets spinning on the cobbles etc.

Thanks for the flash back.

Jock

[RodneyO]

Mahalo Floris for the welcome to the document club!! This is a new challenge for me. Now to learn German…. or at least having to visit Google (German to English) Translate website a whole lot more! The hardest part is trying to read German handwritings on the soldbuch and wehrpass to translate.

Aloha Jock, sorry to get side tracked but you can try Amazon Europe ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/gateway-eu ) I got the first 4 seasons that was in black & white but season 5 they decided to film it in color…. sadly (to me) not as good as in B&W so didn’t pick up season 5 yet. I can watch it over and over!! what good memories....... and playing with Marx German and American plastic toy soldiers !

[Paulus_Gun]

Mahalo Floris for the welcome to the document club!! This is a new challenge for me. Now to learn German…. or at least having to visit Google (German to English) Translate website a whole lot more! The hardest part is trying to read German handwritings on the soldbuch and wehrpass to translate.

Reading most of the German handwriting is not the toughest job in the collecting world, unless it's Sütterlin, in that case you better be prepared for a massive headache.

[RodneyO]

Mahalo Paulus for the head ups, Sütterlin.....!! Wow!

[RodneyO]

Hi All,
Had some time to take a few more pictures.
Soldbuch-g.jpg
Soldbuch-h.jpg