Two SS Officer Visor Hats for your consideration

[redfaced]

I don't know anything about such items, but it looks like you've a pair of diamonds. Well done that man!

[Robert H]

Emil is to find here in the Berlin Document Center Series 6400 Microfilm Publication A3343, Series SSO. For sure also more to find in the us.
SS# 253754 born 13.10.1901 NSDAP 396302

[NickG]

Best find in 2013 so far (and the year is still young!) Wow!

[Robert H]

He shows up on the 1938 Dienstaltersliste as SS # 5225. Outstanding find

not sure as I find the same name under a different number

has to get more deeper looked into it I assume

[Robert H]

Best find in 2013 so far (and the year is still young!) Wow!

Nick, Ka-Ching with Dollar notes? come on

[NickG]

Nick, Ka-Ching with Dollar notes? come on

well lots and lots of dollar notes! Big score!

[CWP]

Wow. Congratulations.

[mametz]

Magnificent I wonder if they are one and the same man, and he brought
them with him from Germany. Would have faced some awkward questions
if some official looked in his bag
Mametz

[Thorsten B.]

If he worked together with some US authorities interested in his knowledge - which could be one explanation why he moved - nobody would have looked into anything.

[SgtB]

Paper tag from someone with an ss typewriter...made up , but would not stick out like that... that tag would be cut to fit the slot, and likely be hand written with just a name.

In this world awash with Latvian fakes you are, of course, correct.
But with these 2 caps, to be honest, it didn't even raise my eyebrow.
Just one of those pleasant little anomalies to titillate the psyche.

Market value aside, a very important find.

It's still out there!

[COLLECT36]

I've been a member here and lurker for years but always get nervous putting my stuff up. I know you all to be brutally honest which is why I come here in the first place.

I received a call from a man about my age (44) about a month ago. Seems he had not one, but two, SS Officer visor hats for sale. The story was that when he was about 13 his father, who owned an antique store, purchased the contents of a local eldery ladies home after her WWII veteran husband died- she didn't need all that stuff and wanted out from under it so she could go live with family.

This young man remembered being in a closet on a stepladder on the second floor when he found these two hats and an M-35 Polizei double decal helmet way up on the top shelf in the back. His father told him that if he liked them he could keep them, which he did for the next 30 years.

I believe both hats belonged to the same individual named in the one hat because they were both brought home by the same soldier, are both the same size, and more importantly, both have the same white piping. Over time the stitching to the dress hat came undone and the young man kept the visor for later restoration which he never got around to. Could I please get a referrence for whom to see regarding getting this one restored?

I have not monkeyed with or touched these in any way other than to photograph them. I was thrilled to purchase them but still want the seal of approval (or harsh light of reality) from the experts here before I have the one restored or get too proud of what I bought.

The one hat is named to one SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Emil Bihler, SS Abschnitt XXVIII. It was not known that the back side of the paper label found in the same hat had his last name printed in ink on it till I took these photos. I don't know the word written under that- any help with that? From what limited research I have been able to carry out, Emil Bihler was in fact an SS Haupsturmfuhrer with SS Abschnitt 28, and, the proper way that Abschnitts were designated was always with Roman numerals, such as XXVIII. His SS membership number is 253754 and his NSDAP number is 3968302. According to this web page he was born October 13, 1901. Funny thing is there is an Emil Bihler shown on the 1940 US census as being born around 1901 in Germany and living in Madison, IL. Perhaps THIS is the WWII vet that died and left not what he captured in WWII, but what was HIS in WWII before he emigrated to the US?

Any and all questions are welcome and I will do my best to answer them or take further photographs if requested and necessary. I know what I paid for these two (ouch!) but I would like to know what they are worth as they are, and what the dress visor hat would be worth after restoration (and what restoration would cost)?







































Regards,
Eric

Great find as that white visor is rarer than a SS generals visor.Only a visor that would be atributed to Himmler and that is highly unlikely would be worth more(IMO) A fine tailor can afix the visor back on Aand that would really make it even greater,up to you!

[Robert H]

Great find as that white visor is rarer than a SS generals visor.Only a visor that would be atributed to Himmler and that is highly unlikely would be worth more(IMO) A fine tailor can afix the visor back on Aand that would really make it even greater,up to you!

but not as a white Gen. visor

[Historyisme]

Absolutely outstanding finds. Well done, you have two irreplaceable gems there. I would get the visor reatached and would recommend BenVK.

Cheers, Pat

[merdock]

Please stop resting them on there peaks won't do them any good.
Mark

[Totenschmiss]

Agreed

Agreed, please put something under that cap and take the stress off the peak. I can hear the threads groaning from here.