My Holy Grail

[RichardC]

Today I received the Holy Grail....my Opa's Wehrpas, basically his service record book when he served in the German Army in WW2.... He hid it in the attic of his mothers house when he was discharged and it was presumed to be lost when the house was demolished....someone in his family apparently found it (not sure when)...and gave it to my mom when she and my dad went to Poland(to visit relatives who gave her the wehrpas) and Germany three weeks ago for vacation..my mom gave it to me today...it was better than winning a million dollars in the lottery....this booklet was missing in action for over 70 years, now it's in my collection along with many other documents from my grandparents living in Germany during WW2....My Opa was also big into sports in the 20's and 30's and there is a school in his hometown of Grossdammer that has a few rooms dedicated to a museum, and it houses his certficates and awards he won in various sporting events.The school made an announcement to the students when my mom and dad arrived to view his items and all the student and teachers came down to see the "visitors from America, my mom took pictures of all his awards and stuff and I will be posting those soon...


http://s178.photobucket.com/user/Ric...pg.html?src=pb

[Gene]

Pretty goldang cool!

[Hofstetter]

As Gene already said, that's cool

[RichardC]

Thanks guys..this was the only item that I was looking forward to getting, but lost hope when my Opa thought it was lost..he even tried to get a replacement after the war as proof of service so he could draw a pension..he was never able to prove his service...he died in 1995, never knowing that his wehrpas was still around somewhere..like I said I'm not sure who had it and why it was never given to him after the war if it was in a relatives possession.Along with his wehrpas, his older brothers was also recovered but his family has possession of that one.At least I am able to see what units he served with and what awards he received

[nonameno]

Hi Richard,
Wow! What a fantastic story! It would certainly be a lot of fun if you could post some pictures of your Opa's wehrpass.
Congratulations on finding this wonderful prize of family history.
Thank you for sharing,
Curtiss

[RichardC]

Hi Richard,
Wow! What a fantastic story! It would certainly be a lot of fun if you could post some pictures of your Opa's wehrpass.
Congratulations on finding this wonderful prize of family history.
Thank you for sharing,
Curtiss

Hey, if you click the link under my first post it will (hopefully) take you to my photobucket album and the pictures are there

Thanks!!

[John C]

Absolutely wonderful outcome, I am very happy for you. This is one Wehrpas that is beyond reproach.

[HERMSDORF]

Congratulations

Andy

[RichardC]

I can read some of the stuff in there like his awards and a few other words, but if anyone can decipher any of the other writing in there and post it here I would be greatful

Thanks

[RichardC]

Today I received the Holy Grail....my Opa's Wehrpas, basically his service record book when he served in the German Army in WW2.... He hid it in the attic of his mothers house when he was discharged and it was presumed to be lost when the house was demolished....someone in his family apparently found it (not sure when)...and gave it to my mom when she and my dad went to Poland(to visit relatives who gave her the wehrpas) and Germany three weeks ago for vacation..my mom gave it to me today...it was better than winning a million dollars in the lottery....this booklet was missing in action for over 70 years, now it's in my collection along with many other documents from my grandparents living in Germany during WW2....My Opa was also big into sports in the 20's and 30's and there is a school in his hometown of Grossdammer that has a few rooms dedicated to a museum, and it houses his certficates and awards he won in various sporting events.The school made an announcement to the students when my mom and dad arrived to view his items and all the student and teachers came down to see the "visitors from America, my mom took pictures of all his awards and stuff and I will be posting those soon...

http://s178.photobucket.com/user/Ric...38930729137705

[Admiraal]

Great to have his Wehrpass!
I like the Volkssturm paper.
Is there anything from the Volkssturm written in de Wehrpass?
Any connections to the Volkssturm?

[RichardC]

Great to have his Wehrpass!
I like the Volkssturm paper.
Is there anything from the Volkssturm written in de Wehrpass?
Any connections to the Volkssturm?

I didn't see anything about Volkssturm service in the Wehrpas...he was discharged in 1943...i have another piece of paper in my collection about him reporting to Volkssturm service..but I think ,knowing my Opa, he probably ignored the order to report.I also posted pictures of his discharge paper that was in the Wehrpas along with the Volkssturm paper.In the Wehrpas on one page there is a long explanation for his discharge from service but I can't read the script to good to understand what it says

[PeterPaul]

I can sure see why you would rate this Wehrpass absolute no.1 in your personal collection...

He recived the medal Ostfront and black wound badge,anything ells ??

Could you perhaps dig into what unit he served,was it inf. or Nachschub or something ells ??

[RichardC]

I can sure see why you would rate this Wehrpass absolute no.1 in your personal collection...

He recived the medal Ostfront and black wound badge,anything ells ??

Could you perhaps dig into what unit he served,was it inf. or Nachschub or something ells ??

He was big into sports pre-war, I think he won a sports badge...I know he was in Inf Regt 768 as a infantry support gun soldier, and he told me he fought at Kursk and Voronezh with that unit, I did a little research in a German Order of Battle book and he was in the 377th Division and they saw action at the above mentioned sites, I don't think they had a large battle history because they didn't have a lot mentioned about them in the OoB book.The units he was assigned to are in his Wehrpas but I can't read the others listed very well because of the script they are written in.He was released in 1943 so he didn't have much more history with the Wehrmacht after that date other than being ordered to serve in the Volkssturm in January of 1945.

I found this doing a bit of research online

http://www.feldgrau.com/InfDiv.php?ID=263

I believe this is where he served most of his time

[RichardC]

http://s178.photobucket.com/user/Ric...k/Army%20Times



Some pictures