"September Connections" Polish Items Brought Back to Germany as Souvenirs by Wehrmacht Soldiers Thread

[AlexKG200]

Dear All,

I would like to add new thread, "September Connection" Polish items (September Campaign 1939), Brought back to Germany as a souvenir by the Wehrmacht soldiers.
Please feel free to post items, add provenance and any other relevant information, if possible. Thank you.

Kind Regards
Alex

[AlexKG200]

Here's my pre-WW2 Eagle badge wz.19(posted before), It was brought back to Germany as a souvenir by the Wehrmacht soldier after the September Campaign 1939, item found in Germany (veteran family)

Regards
Alex

[KRISSE]

Very interesting accually. Offcourse lot of the German militaria that is known are items that were brought back by Allied soldiers.
But what about stuff that was brought home by German soldiers? Like Polish, Dutch, Belgian, French helmets and insignia... etc?
I cannot imagine that there were no German soldiers aswell that started their own collections of concurred army's militaria...

[AlexKG200]

Krisse, Thank you kindly for your comment. Good question, In my humble opinion, many of items that was brought back as a souvenir by German soldiers, were kept within the veteran family, as long as possible, without showing off, for well know reasons...I know, that it's very difficult to obtain "September Connection"Polish items from Germany. Please follow this thread, and I am sure more items will show up. Enjoy! Thank you.

Kind Regards
Alex

[A.J. Zawadzki]

Good thread Alex!

It’s always interesting seeing “September Souvenirs” shortly after acquisition.

M15 helmet, rifle and gas masks adorning the front of a transport vehicle:



The top brass viewing what appears to be a trumpet banner:



Personalizing a wz.31 helmet:



More headwear being displayed by the swaggering victors. Their time will come:









I have more that I’ll try to dig out and post later.

Regards,
Tony

[AlexKG200]

Tony, Thank you kindly for your contribution, Heartbreaking images of "September Souvenirs"

Kind Regards
Alex

[A.J. Zawadzki]

Here's a Znak Żandarmerii (Military Police Badge) that has some circumstantial provenance as to being a September Souvenir. And typically we can’t really expect much better evidence than this. Anyway this has been posted elsewhere here, so apologies for the repeat, although I have found new information since.

This badge was purchased on German ebay. It was one of six of the same apparently unissued badges the seller had found after clearing out his father-in-laws home following his death. I
typically ask sellers for any and all information about the items they sell, especially if they are not militaria dealers. He could only offer the following:
reply to my questions:

(Click on pictures to magnify)



I've since found out that this and one other badge in the lot (the others I unfortunately did not record) were numbered in the lot issued to the 10th Police Division serving the Corps District No. 10, with headquarters located in the city of Przemyśl. Perhaps this soldier acquired these as souvenirs while rummaging through the overrun MP offices in September 1939 ??





The bonus with this find is the maker marked glassine envelope which solved the question of exactly who manufactured the Znak Żandarmerii badges. This was previously unknown to me and other collectors in my network as it is not stated in any literature that I'm aware of. The Sawicki / Wielechowski 1918-47 badge book, which is the best general reference on the topic, identifies badge makers but is silent as to producer of this one. So likely the authors also did not know.

Also interesting to note are the small rings supplied with the badge, presumably for stitching onto the uniform to allow for fastening of the badge.



Regards,
Tony

[Robek]

One more picture of a "very old collector " J

[A.J. Zawadzki]

Robek, a very familiar photo!

Thanks for the post,
Tony

[Robek]

Antos !


He is my biggest competition, but he started his collection earlier than I did.