Ritterkreuztrager der waffen-SS

[Bobwirtz]

Many of these SS general's uniforms that have surfaced in auctions and dealer sites are fakes: Lombard, Fegelein (both the white and gray-green), Steiner, etc. A Heinrich Himmler gray-green uniform surfaced one year with the story of it coming from one of his secretaries, who squirreled it away. It was a Janke with fake insignia.

Martin: You started this thread about SS Knight's Cross winners, but Demelhuber wasn't a Ritterkreuztrager. He was awarded the German Cross in Silver. I understand that you bought the uniform grouping: tunic, gray-green leather overcoat and fleece cap tailor-made in Finland from Gus. My friend Willi owns the insignia grouping, which also has the inventory of everything that was sold to the guy in Michigan and signed by the general. The greatcoat is in a well-known SS collection. The Totenkopf ring and a musical march written for Demelhuber are somewhere unknown. Willi tried to buy the Demelhuber uniform grouping from Walter Hombach, but Walter died in a freak motorcycle accident before the transaction happened.

Also, I believe the Dietrich and Peiper groupings in the Virginia museum are reproductions. I hope the museum didn't pay a lot of money for them. This is only based on photos that I've seen of them, but if you can pick stuff up off a photo, then it must really be bad in hand.

Bob

[N.C. Wyeth]

Also, I believe the Dietrich and Peiper groupings in the Virginia museum are reproductions. I hope the museum didn't pay a lot of money for them. This is only based on photos that I've seen of them, but if you can pick stuff up off a photo, then it must really be bad in hand.

Even so, it's still a great place to spend a few hours in the morning before an afternoon at VA Beach drinking beers and watching bikinis!

Brad

[TonyS]

-Joachim Peiper (panzer wrapper and crusher in collection in Norway)

Being a highly sceptical SOB, I would like to see the photos of those items and the proof those are authentic.

[Bobwirtz]

You can also go to Fortress Monroe to the casemate museum, see the house that Robert E. Lee lived in as a young lieutenant when he was assigned the task of building many of the brick masonry seacoast fortifications, the bastion used as the jail cell for Confederate President Jefferson Davis, the place where McClellan began his famous 1862 Peninsula Campaign, etc. That is also right there in Hampton. Plus there's the battleship USS Wisconsin across the way.

Bob

[Bob Hritz]

Kurt Franke's tunic is in a collection. he was promoted to Untersturmfuhrer, after being awarded the Knight's Cross. He was later awarded the German Cross in Gold, was wounded, as an Obersturmfuhrer, and died from his wounds in February 1945.

The existant tunic is an Untersturmfuhrer rank and does not have provision for the German Cross. It was probably at his home when he was wounded in action.

Bob Hritz

[Martin Stiles]

.

Martin: You started this thread about SS Knight's Cross winners, but Demelhuber wasn't a Ritterkreuztrager. He was awarded the German Cross in Silver. I understand that you bought the uniform grouping: tunic, gray-green leather overcoat and fleece cap tailor-made in Finland from Gus. My friend Willi owns the insignia grouping, which also has the inventory of everything that was sold to the guy in Michigan and signed by the general. The greatcoat is in a well-known SS collection. The Totenkopf ring and a musical march written for Demelhuber are somewhere unknown. Willi tried to buy the Demelhuber uniform grouping from Walter Hombach, but Walter died in a freak motorcycle accident before the transaction happened.

Hello, Bob, Yes I made the mistake of thinking his Finnish cross of freedom
(a neck award also held in high esteem) was a KC.
I also have signed letter from Demelhuber with an inventory of the items he sold to Maclure, and some correspondence between Hombach and Schumacher.
Cheers, Martin

[Bobwirtz]

Those were the days before the Internet so I guess that they had to write back and forth using 'snail mail'.

Bob

[Martin Stiles]

Kurt Franke's tunic is in a collection. he was promoted to Untersturmfuhrer, after being awarded the Knight's Cross. He was later awarded the German Cross in Gold, was wounded, as an Obersturmfuhrer, and died from his wounds in February 1945.

The existant tunic is an Untersturmfuhrer rank and does not have provision for the German Cross. It was probably at his home when he was wounded in action.

Bob Hritz

Your collection Bob?

[jacquesf]

Fellow collector and forum member Andre used to own two attributed knight cross groupings to SS soldiers, one to Staudegger and one to Von Gottburg.

[markus]

Wisch

My Wisch group's most important docs...

Oakleaves prelim.
Knight Cross notification radio message (missing in shot)
German Cross in Gold
EK 1
Eastmedal
Wound Badge Black
Standartenfhr. promo doc


It has taken me 9 years until now to reassamble...

[Mark C. Yerger]

A tunic of Karl-Heinz Ertel is somewhere, he gave it to SS researcher Jost W. Schneider who owned it for years before his death.

[Bob Hritz]

Your collection Bob?

I'm not saying.......

Bob Hritz

[John Pic]

Wow Bob waht a prize !

[Sepp45]

Found this interesting piece of information regarding Peiper's decorations, from the book "Masacre at Malmedy" by Charles Whiting, 1971.

Lt Colonel Ellis, chief prosecutor, was reported to have retained Pieper's medals following the Dachuau trial, and in 1968 contacted Peiper. He apparently had wanted money for them and was going to sell them to the highest bidder; when the family got wind of this, they petitioned help from an American lady historian for there return, and from this pressure, they were returned to Peiper.

[ss3]

The surviving photo archive and a lot of docs from Kurt Sametreiter survived - full details in the "My Brother in Arms' book.

Only uniform item that survived along with the photo archive is an Allgemeine shoulder strap from when Kurt was in SS-Oberbayern. (I also think a good Austrian friend of Kurt's has a collar patch from then?).

Some wartime published books survived, including a personally inscribed 'Jubilee' edition of Mein Kampf, signed to Kurt from Gauleiter Scheel.

There will be a follow-up 'lost archives' book, which will contain around 350 'new' images that were discovered when he was clearing the house. These 'fill in' a lot of them time that was 'missing' from V1. France, Kharkov, Gent pre-Normandy, etc. The books will be shown too, as one of them covers the Polish campaign, but was given as a gift to Kurt.

Besides Kurt Sametreiter, have seen the following people's awards from the war:

Eberhard Heder's complete medal collection
Ernst Barkmann's RK
Heinrich Sonne's RK, shoulder straps, dog tag, gold wound, belt buckle
Fritz Witt's RK and Oakleaves, plus EKI (plus one Brig. shoulder strap and helmet he was wearing when killed)
Karl-Heinz Euling's complete medal collection (and embroidered cap skull)

Hope that helps in this thread?
Peter