Ritterkreuz urkunde of Sergeant Helmut Harth

[Jarnacman]

Hello all and thank you for letting me join your forum.

I have the Ritterkreuz urkunde of Sergeant Helmut Harth, a tank-man who apparently had a real skill for disabling Russian tanks.

The bad news about the certificate is three-fold: It is unsigned, it comes without the red presentation case and (entirely my fault) it is now water damaged. It was in a box of WWII souvenirs I inherited from my grandfather that was soaked in the basement after a house move and during a flood. Sadly, by the time I noticed, my insurance would not cover repairing the vellum.

The good news is that the damage is limited on the page that has the lettering (gold-leaf & otherwise).

It appears that people get a bit concerned about the provenance of KC-related items, but it is certainly an original. My grandfather was the US military governor of a region in Germany and was given this as a souvenir. His note that was attached to the certificate explains the circumstances pursuant to which it was gifted to him and his belief that a local was involved in some aspect of its lettering. I understand that as the war progressed, these items increasingly went unsigned and that they were often not married up with the red leather presentation case and/or actually delivered to the recipient. Sergeant Harth won this in January 1943 and my Grandfather would not have been gifted this until the Spring of 1945. The fact that it is unsigned, undelivered and turned up in an area of Germany from which Sergeant Harth did not originate suggests that it got stuck somewhere along the production line. But just a guess.

Sergeant Harth was featured in a baseball card-type set which focused on KC winners from the non-officer ranks see http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedi...h-harth-panzer

His history is also available in German in a volume about KC winners from his region of Germany called DIE RITTERKREUZTRÄGER DES KREISES
SIEGEN-WITTGENSTEIN 1939-1945 http://www.google.fr/url?sa=t&rct=j&...7kq9qtW04kgzzg

Perhaps some members have access to this book.

I have attached a few photos; you will be unsurprised to hear that I am interested in getting a sense of its value, whether it is worth having an expert repair the vellum, etc. before a sale. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Please excuse any shortcomings in site decorum/protocol, etc. Also, I have not been able to upload any photos, I'm being dense about something, but the insert image button is asking for a url which I don't quite understand. Any help here would be appreciated.

All the best. Nick

[Hank C.]

Welcome to the forum. You either have to pay Memebership fee, or post them to an image-hosting site and link them.

Best
Hank

[Simon O.]

Welcome to the forum Nick, here are the images you sent me.

Interestingly there's a picture of his preliminary award document in biblio's Die Ritterkreuzträger der Deutschen Wehrmacht teil VIIIa: panzertruppe, band 2: F-H

[Jarnacman]

More on Helmut Harth's Ritterkreuz Certificate

Dear Simon,

Thank you for your help. Finding your forum has been a real treat for myself and my three sons (my wife...well, not quite so enthused). My research into the KC certificate has been fascinating and many-faceted. My grandfather quit university to volunteer for WWI and served as a gunner in an early tank (his eyesight precluding him from other services but apparently no problem for the early tank corps). In 1943, in his 40's he begged for a chance to rejoin the tanks (or as the head of a NY ad agency with the thought that psyops would fit the skills of an adman, the new OSS) , but was turned downed politely by old college and tank colleagues/friends Macarthur & "Wild" Bill Donovan (my own father has very nice letters of rejection from each). Eventually they let him into the Military Govt program and he landed at Utah (3 days on) and then went on to Paris before his post in Germany was otherwise made available by the 100th Infantry Division.

The fact that the KC was for a tank man must have interested my grand-dad who even in his bespectacled 40's managed to earn France & Russia's highest military honors for his finding and saving of looted art that had been stored in local salt mines, before it could otherwise be looted and spread to the four winds. He also organized the adoption by members of his unit of several Jewish refugees. He and his detachment built (and maintained through decades) an incredible bond.

Anyway, the KC certificate has been a visit into family and military history.
I have actually now put the item up for sale on e-bay. My apologies if this somehow appears sacrosanct or vulgar, but in the end I felt that any restoration efforts should be left to the new owner and e-bay seemed the simplest route. That said, I would not be surprised if they somehow find fault with the German aspects of the certificate (although, I would read it as falling within their "paper" as opposed to "uniform" rule). I would argue that history and art are simply that, and that the courage of a young man in war (like that of my grandfather) has nothing (necessarily) to do with racial hatred. e-bay, however, may disagree. Thanks again.

[nick-j]

That is a great award document -- I would be very surprised if ebay let you leave that on as they dont allow anything with a swastika and normally will take it off in a few days once they notice, good luck with selling it.

[Jarnacman]

Sergeant Harth's Ritterkreuz Certificate removed from e-bay

As several forum members politely predicted in private messages, my ebay listing for the ritterkreuz certificate was quickly taken down. Interestingly, they initially told me it was a violation of their weapons policy (MC999 Listing policy violation alert: Firearms, Weapons, and Knives ), but my protests that this was an error did not get me much further. They were very polite on the phone (and frankly understood my view that their rules are absurdly overbroad), but ultimately un-moved by my protestations and a willingness to crop a single, remaining photo to remove two swastikas.

I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do with the urkunde (although my intention ws clearly to sell it) and a few other items with swastikas on them (an SS license plate, perhaps the most interesting).

For those that saw the listing during its brief life (or otherwise enquired based on my earlier postings), below is the text of the e-bay listing and a Picassa web album link for the photos.

LISTING TEXT (picassa link, hopefully works, https://picasaweb.google.com/1170387...Kbfts_nt_zexQE)

"Most viewers of this listing will know much more about the historically significant Knight's Cross than I do, but it was the highest award made by Germany to recognize battlefield bravery or outstanding military leadership during WW2. As with similar awards like the U.S. Medal of Honor and Britain's Victoria's Cross, there is a great interest in the winners of this medal and an understandable protocol as to how the honors were won and presented (wikipedia is a good starting point for background). Although a greater number of KC's were awarded than their US/British counterparts, they are also distinguishable in that they were only issued for valor. This listing is for the official Award Document (Ritterkreuzurkunde) for a Knight's Cross awarded to Helmut Harth in January 1943 (age 26 and a resident of Bad Berleburg in the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia). Sergeant Harth was a tank man whose award was issued in respect of his service on the Eastern front. During the war, Sergeant Harth was included in a set of baseball-type cards printed/collected ("Unteroffiziere des Heeres mit dem Ritterkreuz" or "Sergeants of the german army with the Knight Cross").

Sergeant Harth would have first learned of his award via a brief telegram and he would have then received a Vorläufiges Besitzzeugnis (Preliminary Testimonial of Ownership). There is a first-rate website run for/by military historians called wehrmacht-awards.com; a member of the site pointed out that there exists a picture of his preliminary award document in biblio's Die Ritterkreuzträger der Deutschen Wehrmacht teil VIIIa: panzertruppe, band 2: F-H.

It is almost a certainty that Sergeant Harth never received this ultimate gold-leafed certificate relating to his Knight's Cross (KC) medal. The certificate itself was gifted to my grandfather (a US officer who served as the Military Governor of a region of Germany) by a local German post-war official who explained to my grandfather that some part of the lettering process (the production of these awards being a virtual cottage industry of highly respected artisans) for this award had been performed locally (the winning bidder can have a copy of notes on my grandfather's gift which were attached to the certificate when I inherited it). It is also not signed by Hitler (or anybody else) or married up with the red leather presentation case designed by Frieda Thiersch. My grandfather's posting also was not near Bad Berleberg.

Wikipedia points out that basically the production system for these documents (because they were so highly detailed) simply seemed to get swamped by volume by the end of 1942 and that only senior officers were getting the full award set (somewhat ironic in that Hitler personally insisted that this award should be made to all ranks). My guess is that Sergeant Harth's award for heroism in January 1943 left his ornate document unsigned and undelivered in some bureaucratic limbo as the award program wound down for enlisted men. In any event, it appears that there are far fewer of the Ritterkreuzurkunde certificates than there were KC winners (and this before we consider those lost to time).

In addition to being unsigned (many "signatures" on surviving certificates actually being facsimiles) it is also water-damaged. The water damage is not the result of war, but rather the flooding of my basement several years ago. The stains are actually fairly simple & repairable, but vellum is a tricky medium to clean/dry/stretch/flatten and this would have to be done by a professional (costs would not be ridiculous). The good news, sort of, is that water damage really does not hit the text and certainly has not damaged the gold leaf. It is otherwise in great shape, ie no tears, only minor creases,etc). For someone wanting to frame the document, the water damage would be obscured. I have added one photoshop image of what it might look like with a border/frame (obviously that frame is not real). Seen in this frame (used for another KC presentation), it is clear that the visible part of the certificate (again this is not flattened or in a real frame, just photo-shopped) is in quite good shape compared to most others. Also of interest to any winning bidder would be a volume called " DIE RITTERKREUZTRÄGER DES KREISES SIEGEN-WITTGENSTEIN 1939-1945" which gives brief (5 page) biographies of KC winners from Sergeant Harth's region of Germany. I have not seen the book but have seen the table of contents (there is a pdf of the ToC which is readily findable on Google; the book itself also seems to be available although long out of print). Due to my understanding of e-bay restrictions, certain paper items are not available to buyers in France and Germany. This item may fall within those rules and it therefor is not available to bidders in those countries.

Thanks again for your patience.

[limbach]

Hello Nick,
i am very interested in this certificate.
Please send me a message.
In 2002 I wrote the book "Die Ritterkreuzträger des Kreises Siegen-Wittgenstein"

My email adress uwe.schweisfurth@t-online.de
www.ritterkreuztraeger.de

Thank you

Uwe

[Petrus]

Harth signed photo

.