WW2 German Death Card for 2 brothers

[Heartfeltzero]

Jakob Thomas was born in Münchweiler, Germany on May 25th 1921. During the war, he held the rank of Gefreiter. Jakob was fighting in Ukraine when he was killed in action on July 12th 1942. He was 21.

Jakobs older brother, Valentin Thomas, was born in Stein, Germany in February 28th 1915. During the war, he was a NCO. Valentin was killed in Ukraine on August 23rd 1943 and is buried in Izyum, Ukrainian. He was 28. The two brothers were killed a little over a year apart.

[MAP]

Very sad. Two sons.

[Willmore]

Hi there.

Thank you for sharing a very poignant death card with us.

I found two casualty cards for Jakob, but could not find one for Valentin unfortunately. I will post both casualty cards for Jakob because it is a good example to see different styles of script.

Interestingly (but not unusually) the dates of birth and death on the death card are wrong. His birthday is noted as the 5th of May, when it should be the 25th of May and his death month is noted as Juli (July), instead of Juni (June).

Name: Jakob Thomas
Date of birth: 25.05.1921
Place of birth: Münchweiler
Death/missing date: 12.06.1942
Death/missing place: Kapellenberg,ostw.Sewastopol
Service rank: Gefreiter
Jakob Thomas has probably been transferred as an unknown soldier to the military cemetery Sewastopol - Gontscharnoje.

His cause of death is noted as -

Gefallen: Artillerie Geschuß. Kopf, Brust. (Killed in action: Artillery shot/schrapnel. Head, Chest).

Jakob was a member of 3./Kompanie pionier bataillon 72 of the 72. Infanterie Division.

Pionier-Bataillon 72
72.Infanterie-Division - Feldgrau

Kind regards,

Will.

[Heartfeltzero]

Thank you for the information. Really interesting that the dates are wrong on the card. The date of death not too surprising. But the date of birth being wrong is pretty interesting considering the family would have these death cards made.

[Willmore]

No worries. Surprisingly you see quite a lot of mistakes on death cards. I have a few death cards where names and dates are wrong too and I do not understand how it happened, because as you say the family of the soldier would have provided the information to the printers.