oh my god !

[martin3]

What a SUPER find, this is the cream on top.
I love the death notice!!!

If you care to give a close up of the picture and the death notice, it would be great.
Those are exactly the same, so it looks the Knight's Cross has been added in the studio???
Which is most interesting, I don't think they used Photoshop those days!

You are a lucky devil!!!

Cheers,
Martin

[Alan Smith]

Just wondering: I assume you have contacted the seller and, without tipping him off as to the RK issue, have inquired whether he might have any other miscellaneous "stuff" that came from the same source as the photos?

My guess is that these are photos and items that the RK holder's parents or family kept and now, the family members have likely passed away and the military items entered the market as a result of a "picker" finding them at an estate liquidation. I would certianly want to ask the seller where he got this grouping and try to feel him out as to any other stuff that came with it. After all, an otherwise mundane Black Wound badge or other common award would take on much more significance, if attributed to the photo grouping.

Good luck and please keep us updated on your finds.

[milcollector]

thanks very much for the info Jason, and to the other guys for the comments.
Just when I was ready to quit collecting, due to good items getting much harder to find, and prices for docs/photos having doubled in the last 3 years, this lot comes along..
Yes, indeed I have sent an email to the seller (antique dealer), however I doubt he will have any more items.
One can only wonder what happened to his medals, soldbuch, citations etc and how they got split up from all these items.
Included in the box of goodies are his complete Russian front war diaries from 1941 right through to the 5th July 1943. Day to day entries. Most of his diaries are in segments I asume the last segment was on him at time of death. That would explain why it is missing.
Also, a scrapbook booklet with newspaper clippings to do with reports of combat at the front he would have been involved with.
He was a keen poet. Included are approx. 100 war poems all written by himself. The themes are all based on combat and life on the Russian front. Real soldierly stuff. This man was a typical hard-core landser, through and through.
Also approximtely 3 or 4 hundred photos in negative form. Some nice shots of knocked out Russian gear, German panzers, stug, aircraft, landsers in the trenches and him with his comrades. Also the original glass plate negatives for his portraits.

This stuff is just begging to be made into a book one day. The poems interspersed with his photos would make for an exceptional read.

[milcollector]

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[milcollector]

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[milcollector]

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[martin3]

I guess I am the only one who thinks this is most interesting, but there fore I am a death notice collector.
Millcollector, I cut and paisted a little to get the picture and the death notice next to each other, and blew up the collar a bit.
Clearly you can see the Knight's Cross has been added to the picture of the death notice.
Never seen this before and I think that's a fantastic detail!

[armorrich]

Congrats....

You're a very lucky man to be entrusted with this mans memories!!! I'm happy it went to somone who will cherish and preserve them in a fitting way. I only have a few rememberence cards for common soldiers but every time I look at them, I think to myself that I might be the only person on the planet who knows that they ever existed.....pretty deep stuff....to me anyhow. Happy collecting and Merry Christmas.....best, rich

[Alan Smith]

Given that the family obviously took care to keep the deceased soldier's photos and diaries together, you know darn good and well that the family likewise had his RK, award documents, and other medals (removed from his body and returned to the family by his unit) together with the photos at some point in time.

You should post in the "Crosses" section and see what you can find about this RK holder. If his medals were split up post-war, it may be that they were sold as an identified group and are now in the hands of a collector. Possibly an inquiry re: this RK holder would "flush out" the owner of the medals and/or award documents.

More likely, IMO, is that some family member kept the medals but either elected to not keep the photos (or - and again more likely - did not know about the photos, thus allowing the photos to "get away" when the estate was disposed of).

[milcollector]

good points Alan.
Martin, over the years, I have seen numerous instances of German WW2 photos were awards have been added to the image in the studio. It was done mainly when soldiers were KIA/MIA and the family wanted the relevant awards displayed.
Sometimes I think the soldiers themselves even did it to their own portraits to "update" them.

[Alan Smith]

Please post more scans of the photos, when you get a chance.

Alan

[martin3]

I know what I'll be doing the next days: looking through my cards if this has been done to someone in my collection.
Never knew they did this, but I can fully understand.
We are not talking about a BWB but the Knight's Cross!

Thanks again for sharing this great find with us!!

Cheers,
Martin

[Richard]

I guess I am the only one who thinks this is most interesting, but there fore I am a death notice collector.
Millcollector, I cut and paisted a little to get the picture and the death notice next to each other, and blew up the collar a bit.
Clearly you can see the Knight's Cross has been added to the picture of the death notice.
Never seen this before and I think that's a fantastic detail!

Actually it was not uncommon for the artists who created the death cards to add awards to which the deceased had been entitled. Some of them turn out quite interesting. I have a death card where an artist had painted in an EK1 on the portrait. Unfortunately he painted in a WW1 EK1 and the deceased would have been about 11 years old at the end of WW1.
Richard V