WWII WSS Uniform found in Attic

[NickG]

I found out it was the mans Father....and no he was not a collector he was a US WWII vet that brought the stuff home from the war and put it in a box in the attic and there it sat until the other day when I found it while putting the furnace in the house. I had a long talk with him and he found his fathers uniform in a different box which he wants to keep. His father was in Second Infantry Div. and I have his name and other info on him.

Devin

Okay my friends after speaking with the sister of the vet who brought this grouping home from WWII....What she told me today blew me away! She said her father told her that he found the uniform left at a place called Leipzig - Schonefeild which I think was a concentration camp. She said they found them in lockers at the site because the SS who worked there would change into civilian clothing to flee as the US troops got close. She wrote these things down in a memory book of her father before he died! I just wanted to keep the thread updated with my new findings.

Devin

It all adds up perfectly! Great provenance!
From the web:

In April 1945, the 2nd Infantry Division overran Leipzig-Schönefeld, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp, where the camp staff forced the prisoners to work for the Hugo Schneider AG (Hasag) firm. The SS had permitted the Hasag's Leipzig field office to establish an ammunition factory for the German military in 1944. On March 28, 1945, Schönefeld housed some 4,765 female prisoners; however, at the beginning of April, the SS evacuated many of the inmates to prevent them from falling into Allied hands. When the 2nd Infantry Division arrived on April 14, 1945, only some 250 prisoners remained in the camp. According to the 2nd's report, the SS killed between 400 and 600 prisoners from December 1944 to April 1945. After occupying the camp, the members of the 2nd Infantry Division arranged for proper burial of the dead and collected evidence to be used in the prosecution of the SS personnel.

[Thorsten B.]

Yes - the HASAG produced the Panzerfaust!

My Gahr brooch for example is from the Direktor and ZAL camp commander of HASAG in the General-Gouvernement.

I thought this could not get any better - but it did!!!!!

[Bryant U.]

A nice update Devin. I'm glad the history of this find is coming together.

Bryant

[billbert]

DING DING DING !!! Billbert

[HowardC]

SS uniform from attic

I wanted to let the forum know that the uniform and accompanying items, history to date and US Vet items now reside in my collection. My deepest appreciation to Devin for all his former and future research as we will be working together to further keep these items unified and preserved. I also wanted to thank my fellow WAF members in advance if you can continue to assist in our efforts to find all the history possible. Once this tunic was in hand I did notice something interesting, it is number stamped inside. By this I mean it is stamped with the same series of numbers 3 times rear inner skirt, and both arm sleeve interiors. I wanted to also note that this uniform appears to be hardly, if at all, worn very much. It is in remarkable condition as are the pants and 43 cap. If anyone knows possibly what these stamped numbers may indicate, please post it so we can learn further.
I may be repeating what's already been stated but we now know the vet took this set from a locker at Leipzig-Schonefeld camp. Thank you for your furthered input.

[HowardC]

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[HowardC]

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[billbert]

CONGRATULATIONS...Billbert

[Glenn McInnes]

Once this tunic was in hand I did notice something interesting, it is number stamped inside. By this I mean it is stamped with the same series of numbers 3 times rear inner skirt, and both arm sleeve interiors. I wanted to also note that this uniform appears to be hardly, if at all, worn very much. It is in remarkable condition as are the pants and 43 cap. If anyone knows possibly what these stamped numbers may indicate, please post it so we can learn further.
I may be repeating what's already been stated but we now know the vet took this set from a locker at Leipzig-Schonefeld camp. Thank you for your furthered input.

Cloth bolt numbers or parts numbers by the sounds of it.Have seen them several times.







Glenn

[tgn]

I agree with some of the others who urged you to keep it. Several years ago one of the old vets where I used to work brought me a whole box of MINT SS insignia, about 144 pieces to be exact, including a rare officers ELBE cufftitle. I sold most all of it off and kick myself for not keeping it.

Oh, quit banging your head. I still have one of the collar tabs that you can visit any time....

Wish you sold the better items to me.

Tom

[HowardC]

SS set found in attic

Thank you Billbert and I greatly appreciate that insight Glenn. I am having great difficulty getting on the forum but as soon as it's more dependable I'll post more on this.

[M Bando]

re: REICHSFUHRUNG SS cuffband

Just wanted to mention that a US Army veteran of the 67th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division who I interviewed about 15 years ago, had 2 SS cuffbands in his effects. He got both of them at the front, from SS POWs. One was a BEVO Der Fuhrer, with quotation marks and the other was a flatwire REICHSFUHRUNG SS. He laid both cuffbands on a B&W Xerox copy machine and mailed the images to me. NO WAY would he sell them and after his passing, his daughter, who is an antique dealer, took custody of them and she also refused to sell them. Anyhow, if I can find that old Xerox, I'll copy and post it here. The fact that the uniform in this thread belonged to a previously-decorated Infantry guy, makes me wonder if many former Infantry guys who landed in administrative jobs, were sent into the fighting in 1945, possibly even as a unit, such as happened when the staffs of the junker schules were formed into the Niebelungen Division at the 11th hour of the war? When putting together Mike Beaver's book on W-SS Insignia, I had to decide where to draw the line between administrative cuffbands, (some of which overlapped into the Allgemeines SS) and bands which were clearly Waffen SS in nature. The fact that some of these admin bands turned-up in combat, influenced me to include them. Another theme of the book was vet bring-backs in general and although there was no boundary to the type of things taken as souvenirs, I also once acquired 2 'SS Hauptamt' cuffbands, from a 506th/101st vet, who cut them off uniforms found hanging in a closet at Berchtesgaden. Both were hand- embroidered bullion and both evidently belonged to the same individual. However, one had the 'SS' in runic form and the other in Gothic/Roman style. I think there is still a lot we collectors don't know, about what was worn by whom, when, and why. All too seldom, we get clues from bonafide vet bring-backs, like this grouping.

[M Bando]

B&W Xerox of 2 combat-acquired SS cuffbands

This is just how the Xerox was sent to me, by a former officer
of the US 2nd Armored Division.

He didn't remember exactly where or how he got the 'REICHSFUHRUNG SS' cuffband, but he had a story for the DF band. In early Jan. 45, during the Bulge, his unit found a German halftrack parked in front of a Belgian house,
with nobody in the vehicle. They were obviously in the house. Turns out they were down in the root cellar. After yelling for them to come out, there was no response so a B.A.R. man fired a burst down into the cellar and shouts of 'Kamerad!' were heard. Half a dozen SS troopers came up the steps and one had been hit in the upper arm by a bullet and blood was running down his arm. The 2nd AD Lt ripped the DF band off his sleeve and it has a lot of blood on it, that trickled down from the wound. You can see
the blood, even on this poor copy. This happened in the hamlet of Odeigne, Belgium, which is NW of Parker's Crossroads, near the villages of Freineux and Lamormenil, which were written about by George Winter. The Das Reich Division was known to be in that area.

[M Bando]

re: DF band in quotes, with story

I so would've loved to include that band, with the story, in the Beaver SS Insignia book, but this vet's daughter is impossible to work with and
I needed a color image of the band, which I was never able to get. There
were several other 2nd AD vets, who had W-SS insignia that I saw pictures of, but was never able to buy the items for my collection. Perhaps some of
you have had similar experiences and you know how highly frustrating it can be, to locate treasures-and then be unable to acquire them.

[pete]

.

I'm no expert here, just i remember alot of posts about these DF cuff titles and how people were saying there were no photos of them in wear and had issues because of that. Lots of them were apparently found somewhere. Either way I dont know the progression of the posts on that, it was years ago, but this is an interesting development for me at least. I have no reason to disbelieve the account that it was in wear.


Pete