They would disappear faster than a pizza at a weight watchers convention.by bigmacglenn1966
They would disappear faster than a pizza at a weight watchers convention.
My father's story -- as much as I know it...
First of all, I have to say I'm grateful for the feedback I've found here, and touched by the interest. Shortly I will be uploading a significant amount of pixels to this forum - I do believe that my initial concerns about taking up space seem unfounded!
My Dad was in the Michigan National Guard (was there during the Flint riots) and in the ROTC at Michigan State before being sent off to Ft. Bragg to be trained as an artillery officer. While at Ft. Bragg, he was injured in an explosion (someone was using dynamite to uproot stumps!) that took out his front teeth. He was shipped overseas I think close to or just after D Day. I don't know much about his time in France, but I do know that he was in the Dachau camp not long -- something like 24-36 hours after it was liberated. I don't think he ever saw real combat (he was trained and I believe was involved in the services as an engineer), but I do know that the experience at Dachau was most horrifying. In the very first days, there was an need to put an immediate stop to the prisoner's vengeance on the collaborators within their own ranks, and a dire need to manage the thousands of starving prisoners who had to be fed and most of all, segregated to separate the relatively less ill from the very dire cases.
Though I have done some reading of my own about Dachau and the "final solution", I can tell you that my Dad was not, by any stretch of the imagination, forthcoming about his experiences there. If it were not for a couple incidents, we might have learned nothing at all about them, such was his reluctance to give voice to this horror in his past. He was, in a way typical of men of his generation, a real stoic about shouldering his grief, and culturally inclined to keep his emotions in check. Ironically, when I think of him now, I recognize a man who, by virtue of surpression of his emotions, was by in large dominated by his inability to sort them out. Anyway, I came to be aware of his time at Dachau by dint of a couple things: First, there were these BOXES (I remember two) of things that were stored deep in the bowels of our family home just filled with stuff -- documents of all kinds, and God knows what else, that he brought back from Dachau. My siblings all remember that he one day took most, if not all of it outside and incinerated it. I suspect it was an attempt to purge some demons, but we have all lamented that act. Who knows what was lost. I also remember taking a walk with him one day as an adolescent and encountering a city morgue truck that had come to pick the remains of someone who had died alone in an appartment. There was a smell - decomposition plus some chemical the men used, and these had caused my Dad to have a violent retching reaction. It all happened in an instant, and it was a total surprise. He told me after, in very cryptic terms, that the smell reminded him of horrible experiences he had had in the war. I think now that he was probably afflicted with PTSD, and probably suffered from it for years, but no one knew it, or what to call it. As you all know, the war ended soon after, before which he transfered to a job as an aide to a General Adams before being discharged.
As I matured and he aged, my wife and I helped him move to progressively smaller homes and appartments. DUring one of these episodes, he passed on the duffel bag and its contents to me, acknowleging what was in there, and making it clear that he wanted both for me to have it, and for him to be rid of it. I dutifully tucked it way and had mostly forgotten about it until just recently. All I can say is that while this stuff, and his experiences must have weighed on him like a dark shadow, he nonetheless went on to raise a family, have a successful career, and lead a good honest life. I suppose that too was emblematic of his generation.
great Stuff!!! I agree with Glenn and the others. If you decide to sell any of these, please look into listing them in our classified section.
Just my thoughts,
John
I specialize in M1 carbines and Lugers.
a treasure trove.
Love to see some quality photos of the dagger. By the numbers on the cross guard someone may be able to tell you if it belonged to a specific SS Officer. It will have a lot more value depending on who the original owner was. Please don't clean or polish the dagger.
Cuff Title 1/27
I'm going to start uploading these pics now. This is one of the cuff titles that has a label afffixed to the back. Sorry for the yellow lighting - my DSLR skills are a little rusty. I'm open to pointers...
I want just go to bed, now I`m sleepness!!!
I think the cuff is good, I dream all the items are good......
just a dream for a SS collector.
speachless.......
That's an amazing collection. Did your father happen to bring back any belt buckles (SS or otherwise) from Dachau? I'm not sure whether or not any were kept in the supply warehouses there.
Eagle Band
There are six eagles in total on this strip of cloth. Can someone educate me as to what it is?
They are un-cut and un-issued sleeve eagles for SS enlisted men. When issued, the eagles would be separated and stitched to the sleeve of the tunic.
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