Dead SS-Scharführer

[Steinar]

I think he's dead. The left arm is very heavy on the wire, that would probably cut up his arm a lot. His head is resting on the right arm, he probably fell and the head just landed there. He is not holding it up, its simply resting on his arm.
The small amounts of snow on his legs indicates 2 things:
A: he probably died a short time ago, or
B: Its freezing cold and the snow won't melt.

The strange thing is, wheres the blood... there should be some blood, and since theres no blood, he probably froze to death because he was drunk..

Just my 2 cents...
by the way... Would soldiers on leave wear knifes like this during the leave/a party?

[milcollector]

if he froze to death, would his face not have turned blue by now ?
or does that only happen after a day or so ?

[PerMilitaria]

I think this photo has been taken like a "funny photo".
Maybe he was so drunk he fell on the barbed wire and his friends took a photo of it or someone who tought it was very amusing to see him lie there.

[Killerbee]

I say the soldier is goofing off. Even as kids, crazy as this sounds, when we were bored, we use to have races over barbwire... the game, who could get over barb wire the fastest (remember this is not razerwire and can be easily climbed if you know what you are doing.... actually I still have a scar on my arm from a fall once...crazy kids we were... I still show it occasionally... women like scars ... hey we even played war with BB guns... obviously with the right protection on... you know, with googles, heavy clothes and all those camos helmets we painted of which many are probably on your collecting shelves ).

So, this guy was trying to get over the wire and fell, making an ass out of himself and in joking way because he was embarrassed played dead for his buddy's camera... take pic, put in photo album to remember a funny moment... end of story.

Well my 2 cents on the subject.

Regards,

Jim

[Tommaso]

Not easy to play with your throat placed on barbed wire, innit? Am I dreaming or I can see the SD patch but not the eagle?

[Blockaderunner]

Hm...

Everything about this photo is puzzling. Well at least a great deal of things.

My humble oppinion is that his "body-language" is too alive to be dead. I do not think that human head (or other body parts) tends to ballance so confortably and so perfectly on itself. If this guy was dead his head would be in a strange angle towards the rest of his body. We have all seen "movie-dead". I am sure a lot of us on this forum had our share of seeing pictures of really dead people.

Other theory, him being shot while escaping or in a training mishap - I don't think so. Again everything is so calm arround him. This is not CSI, people back then would have approached the body beforehand to check if he is dead or whatever. This being before the war gives me that impression even more.

If he is dead I feel really sorry for him to have met his end in this way, but it (his death) probably happened a lot later since he faked this time.

[SiPo]

Personally, I still think the 'parrot' is deceased. However, we will probably never know. As for 'goofing' around, I don't think so. If he is not dead, then I think Besslein is closest with the 'pissed' theory. Maybe the guy had too many 'Becks', fell flat on his face trying to navigate the barbed wire and is lying in a drunken heap whilst his barrack buddies took some pics of their drunken friend.

G

[cruff]

I noticed two questions as to why this guy is wearing his "knive".
He is wearing his bayonet because it is part of the walking out uniform. The bayonet is as much a part of the uniform as is the cap or trousers. I personally dont think he's dead either. He doesn't look uncomfortable or dishevled enough to be dead. Chris

[RD Rygaard]

This is a doctored photo. Scharführer tab is added to the tunic. Face is airbrushed. Blood on fingers & under legs is drawn on....just look closely.....Id bet its soviet propaganda or a postwar soviet print.....seriously look closely at it..... OR if Im wrong maybe partisan attack at the boarder? Pre war? maybe its a German photo from Poland....a propaganda photo showing atrocities committed against the ethnic Germans?

[SiPo]

Not so sure that it is blood under his leg. I think it actually is his leg but due to the way it is lying in the snow, it is giving off the appearance that it is blood seapage.

[jmh8300]

Dead drunk?