First Wehrpass
hi folks, i wanted one of these for the collection picked it up for £11, pretty standard i think, enlisted but no call up, interesting to see the party badge on his suit, i dont speak a word of German but looking at this can i see his date of birth as 1888??? he doesnt look bad on it to say this looks like it was issued in 1944, could be a fake i dont know, any help would be great
Steve
That is an interesting photo. Worth the price just for that.
I agree. The entries do appear to be genuine and while it might not have any entries to get people too excited, the photo showing the NSDAP Badge in wear makes this a nice item. I wonder if his job as a Postmaster kept him out of the Volksturm?
Here's what the Wehrpass tells us:
The man's name was Franz Roth, born 26th November 1888 in Issel in the Trier county.
His parents were the eponymous farmer Mr. Franz Roth and Mrs. Anna Maria Roth, née Drückemüller. Franz Roth was a postmaster by occupation and a member of the Nazi party. A natural born German citizen, he was widowed and no church member.
Roth had completed primary and secondary school education, held a class III driver's licence [i.e. for motorcars], had school knowledge of English and French and also knew Morse code (the latter probably due to his career as a postal official).
Falling under the extended conscription conditions in wartime, Roth was examined by the Wehrbezirkskommando [defense district command] Düren on 18th May 1944. The WBK Düren was also the issuing agency for this Wehrpass, which is signed by Oberst [Colonel] Wilhelm Keibel, the CO of WBK Düren.
Roth was given the Wehrnummer [military registration no.] 88/2086/2. [The first two digits are the holder's year of birth, the next group of digits identifies the registration precinct and the last one his consecutive number on the registration roster.]
He was put into the Landsturm II, meaning the tertiary reserve pool consisting of men over the age of 45 with no previous military training (Men over 45 with military training made up the Landsturm I).
In terms of physical fitness, he was classified as arbeitsverwendungsfähig [roughly "fit for labor duty"], which was the lowest category still found fit for military duty at all, meaning that one was only capable of light duty in the homeland (anything below was completely unfit for duty).
I see nothing that would imply it is fake.
Wow thank you so much for taking the time to look at this and give such great detail, its great to know a little about it, hats off to the fella even at that age he wanted to help out, hope the rest of his life was peaceful.
looks fine.
You're welcome. (But, you know, whether he actually wanted to or not, we don't know. After all, he was examined as a Wehrpflichtiger [conscript], not as a volunteer.)by greatwhite
Nice to see somebody take the time to say thank you for another member's efforts. One of the facets that makes THIS forum the best, in my opinion. Well done!
Regards,
Carl
p.s. A nice example too by the way - and in very fine condition.
HPL2008.. Amazing !! Thank you...Gwar
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