Need more info on my ggd, SS officer Josef Kasinger, 21st Skanderbeg division

[tud jones]

How did you get such detailed information about his demise?

[WillC]

Dunno, my grandma was 5 when this happened. Probably when his ss and sa daggers were sent home they sent that info.

[AZPhil]

How did you get such detailed information about his demise?

I was wondering that also???
Willie,
You mentioned that he was buried in a mass grave. Did some one exhume the body to find that he was shot in the neck and they stole his gold teeth?
I'm also curious about the Dagger's. Were these taken into battle by the members of the SS?
Just wondering???
Semper Fi
Phil

[StefanM]

IMO some of this sounds like the kind family myths that are often created over time surrounding unknown circumstances of wartime deaths, especially in this case given the nature of the units war record.

The death certificate you posted in an earlier thread does not mention death at the hands of partisans. From which source did you find information that partisans killled, mutilated and buried Josef Kasinger in the way you describe?

[NineLives]

I'm also curious about the Dagger's. Were these taken into battle by the members of the SS?
Just wondering???
Semper Fi
Phil

Interesting point. I wonder how they fell back in the hands of the Germans. I can't imagine the partisans would take the time to send the daggers home?

[Jerry B]

The daggers would not have been worn in the frontline and would have been stored in the barracks in his locker or similar, so sent home from there I would assume.

[Larry C]

He joined the Nazi party when he was 17,18 or 19. He joined the SA and became an Oberscharfuhrer. After the night of the long knives he was moved the to the SS and stayed a Oberscharfuhrer.

Since June of 1934..he carried his SA dagger along with his SS dagger until he was killed? Just trying to make sense of this story

[StefanM]

The text below states that 18 men of the division were killed in action on 11 September 1944 and by 17 September 1944 the division was disbanded. I could find no mention of mass graves of Germans and executions in the neck?

"Waffen-Gebirgs-Division der SS Skanderbeg (Albanische Nr. 1). Zu diesem Zeitpunkt hatte die Division eine Stärke von 4.944 Mann, davon 3.504 Albaner. Am 11. September 1944 überfielen Partisanen den Divisionsstab, wobei 18 Divisionsangehörige fielen. Am 17. September 1944 wurde das Waffen-Grenadier-Regiment der SS 50 aufgelöst, nachdem es bis zu diesem Tag 1.176 Fahnenflüchtlinge gab. Nachdem am 3. "

Literature and sources:

Holm Sundhausen: The History of the Waffen-SS in Croatia from 1941 to 1945. In: Southeast Research Volume 30 (1971), pp. 176-196
Rolf Michaelis: The mountain divisions of the Waffen-SS. 2 Edition. Michaelis-Verlag, Berlin 1998
Schematic outlines war 1939 - 1945 BA / MA RH 2/348 to RH 2/355; 2/356K RH and R 2/769
Georg Tessin: Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS during the Second World War 1939-1945. Volume 4 The Land Forces 15 - 30 2 Edition. Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1976

[HPL2008]

His name was Josef Paul Kasinger, he was from Bavaria. He joined the Nazi party when he was 17,18 or 19. He joined the SA and became an Oberscharfuhrer. After the night of the long knives he was moved the to the SS and stayed a Oberscharfuhrer.

Just allow me to point out that he was not from Bavaria: The above certificate shows that he was Austrian.

He had held Austrian citizenship, was born at Salzburg and later a resident of Innsbruck, where he was also employed as a labor office official. He did get married at Kolbermoor in Upper Bavaria, though. (It could be that he was among the numerous Austrian Nazis who had fled to Germany and later returned to Austria after its 1938 annexation.)

Also, he was not an SS officer, but an SNCO.

[WillC]

Sorry got that mixed up my ggm is bavarian, he was austrian. Sorry.