Sicherheitsdienst Sturmscharfuehrer

[lbsr]

The question is if Rottenführer is SD member too, or if he is with his car only "zur Disposition" for Eisatzgruppe...
Normal German practice was, if possible, use the same insignia, uniforms etc. for whole unit... From this point of view seems to be almost unearthly wearing of two - SUCH different - shoulder boards styles in one unit - but they were SS, who knows?

[SMV]

Thank you gentlemen, for giving such detailed answers to my questions.

Graham, your observation about the fellow possibly being a plain clothes
Sipo member, throwing his tunic on for the photo, seems to be quite plauseable. From the lighting, the pose and the plain background, I would
bet this photo was taken as a passport photo for an ausweis.

George, I see where you are coming from using Sipo as a rather generic term for SD, Gestapo and Kripo. I am afraid I might be guilty of wanting to
read more into a photo, than what is actually there. To be honest, I wanted to believe that he was one of the intellectuals assigned to intel and counter-intelligence work, rather than a "head-hunter" roaming the "East" for untermenschen. Dr. Schaefer's book sounds very interesting,
was it published in english?

Robin, thanks for posting the photo. Those are some scary looking EK men.
The NCO in the backseat resembles Ralph Fines (Amon Goeth in Schinder's List)

Cheers,

Marcus

[SCHUPO]

Marcus,

The book is a rather obscure private printing in German. Copyright by Irmgard Schäfer in 1977. Printed by Decker & Wilhelm Buch- und Offsetduckerei G.m.b.H., 6056 Heusenstamm. Karl Schäfer was Kriminaldirektor der Frankfurter Kriminalpolizei after the war and these are basically his wartime and pre- post-war memoirs.

[SiPo]

Graham I had a feeling you might like this one.
This fellow looks like he could get really ugly if needed, a hard core SD man for sure. Man, I wish I knew his name, I would love to research this fellow.

Hey Marcus,

Your guy was 5' 7" with blue eyes and size 42 shoes.

Oh, and his wife's name was Emma.

Graham

[JoeW]

Graham, you really know how to torture a guy.

[SMV]

Hey Marcus,

Your guy was 5' 7" with blue eyes and size 42 shoes.

Oh, and his wife's name was Emma.

Graham

Joe, you are so right!

Graham, have you visited a psychic lately... or something more tangible?
A Soldbuch.... an SD Ausweis... his SS-Personal Akte?
Now this is going to drive me crazy!

P L E A S E, tell me more....!!!


Kindest Regards,

Marcus

[SiPo]

Graham, you really know how to torture a guy.

I know Joe...I'm really bad. Been waiting quite some time to do this to Marcus and am savouring the moment.

Marcus,

Your guy was born in January 1908, in Gelsenkirchen.

And here he is!

More later.

[SiPo]

A side by side.

[SMV]

Graham,

Shame on you! Not really, I am very happy and look forward to more.

I passed up purchasing an NSDAP marked flag from the town of
Gelsenkirchen.

I was not sure if it was the same man at first glance, but after studying
his features, I would say 99% yes, same person.

Thank you for sharing this Graham. With his lower rank, I never figured
I'd ever know the man's identity.

Regards,

Marcus

[SiPo]

Graham, your observation about the fellow possibly being a plain clothes
Sipo member, throwing his tunic on for the photo, seems to be quite plauseable.

Marcus,

Looks like my earlier hunch about him being plain clothes was right.

Say hello to Kriminal Oberassistent Otto Krietemeyer of the Dortmund Gestapo.

[SiPo]

2

[SiPo]

3

[SiPo]

4

[SiPo]

And "the smoking gun" regarding his plain clothes duty.

[SMV]

Graham,

Congratulations, what a marvelous find! I've never seen a Gestapo Soldbuch before. At what point did you realize this might be the same fellow. If it is truly him, what an amazing coincidence. Of all the possibilities, membership in the Gestapo was last on my list, with
Kripo being the most likely.

So, does the Soldbuch mean that he served in some wartime capacity
outside of Germany?

What do you think about the Soldbuch being issued in Oct. 1944, with the photo of Krietemeyer as (rank collar tabs) a Hauptscharfuehrer (Kriminal Oberassistent). Yet the portrait with SS visor, also dated 1944, shows older style, B&W piped collar tabs with the rank of Sturmscharfuehrer.
I guess he was promoted in late '44, and then had older style collar tabs upgraded.

Whatever the story, there is no denying that the two photos show the same fellow, at least it looks that way to me.

Thank you very much for sharing this fascinating Soldbuch and the link to my portrait!
I hope this will help lead to further research on Otto Krietemeyer,
it's a great start.

Best Regards,

Marcus