WW2 German SS post Letter

[Frankyg]

Hi everyone,

I'd appreciate any views on this letter from WW2. I've got a friend translating it for me at the moment and it looks legit. I'm interested in the waffen ss stamps and the skull and crossbones motif. I think it was from a tank regiment. Are there any experts here who can positively ID them?

 

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[Frankyg]

That's exactly what I thought Namxat. There was a war on and the letter was adressed to the soldier from a member of his family at home. I think it would be very likely that it would have been processed by the main Divisional mail clerks for the division his unit was attached to or whatever they were and so the SS stamp would have been used. I think it's genuine but I would not sell it as such unless I was 100% sure.

 

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[DCMatt]

the letter is a fake because the letter does not end in a 'Heil Hitler'.

This is a ridiculous assumption. Maybe if the letter is an official military or political document, but a letter from a daughter to her father - no 'Heil' is necessary.

 

[trdking]

It seems to me that Martha is sending a letter to her Mother and father? Was she the one deployed in the field? The letter starts my dearest mother and dearest father

 

[namxat]

Hi TrdKing,

Daughter Martha writes from Dietrichswalde / Eastern Prussia where she is with two siblings to her father in Tilsit who is a private in a Transport Security Battalion in Tilsit / Eastern Prussia via military mail. Wife/mom is w/ dad in Tilsit, as you pointed out.
Why that is so, IdK. Perhaps they send the kids to a little village during war where it is safer. Or she is is actually not the daughter but the daughter in law addressing her inlaws as mom and dad (which was not so unusal in Germany in older times). In this case the siblings might be grandchildren and it would also explain why she is addressed as "Frau" and not "Fräulein". However that would mean that the receiver is a grandpa and 1943 it was not still the time where they took old man and children.

Letter is most trivial, a short description by me is above.

As far as I know (I am not an expert) the rubber stamps seem to match the whole thing (places, dates). Yet in another forum somebody called it a fake since the girl did not sign "Heil Hitler!" which I deem H....s..t.

Second letter is back from Dad to Girl and for me not legible due to old Sütterlin/Kurrentschrift. I can see that he is now a bit further east (Tauroggen, Lithuania). Guesses about what he writes are limited to a few words. "Not any Longer","after a long time", "left Tilsit around 15:00", staying1-2 days" and are only guesses. Yet it would alos make sense for a grunt in a transport security battalion.

Greets Namxat

 

[diggummup]

In regards to correspondence being signed with "HH", it was expected and became common practice to end letters with "Heil Hitler" or with the phrase "mit deutschem Gruß" (with German greetings). All official administrative correspondence used "Heil Hitler" and it was the norm among supporters of the Nazi party. Omitting it could be considered a subtle form of resistance, especially if in response to a document which included the phrase. That doesn't mean that a personal letter to a family member has to have it on it to be legit.
I'm not up to date on SS feldpost stamp marks, but that is what would be faked if anything. Anything Waffen-SS related is highly collectible, so many items are faked. Postal stamps being one of them.

 

[Frankyg]

Thank you all for your comments and interest. These two letters were among a group of Feldpost postcards from the First World War and a book dated 1940 called 'Der Wehermacht' that a family member brought back to England after the Second World War in which he fought in France, Holland and Germany. I have never questioned their authenticity. I wonder if the soldier was an old soldier from WW1 who re-joined in a non front line unit as a driver or guard during WW2. I know that a lot of British soldiers did this.

 

[sagittarius98]

I can post the second letter somewhere where I know people can read the old script and get back to you on it.

 

[sagittarius98]

Envelope says:

"Field letter
Recipient: Miss Martha Kudies
Place: Dietrichswalde near Friedland (East Prussia)"

Dietrichswalde is now Gietrzwałd, Poland. The same person will translate the letter itself later.

 

[sagittarius98]

Translation:

"Tauroggen, the 5th[?] February 1943
My dear Martel, my little Bernhardt!
After a long time I am going on a transport again, that is each commanded has to do one transport. Today I left at 3pm from Tilsit, now I am here in Tauroggen. Here I stay put for 1-2 days then we continue east. Martel, I wanted to ask you herewith if you took action regarding the [Wirtschaft Komitat Schulzenwiese], if not, then write immediately to the district administrator to Heinrichswalde in Elchniederung. I will return in about 10 days if nothing happens, then I will take 1-2 days off and will take a look at the [Wirtschaft]. From [Thurewen] I got a letter these days and they write me that they haven't received any letters from Walter for five weeks, and they are worried about him. How is our little Bernhardt, he certainly is a big boy now. Does he want to visit daddy some time? Greetings to all,
Hermann"
The [Wirtschaft Komitat Schulzenwiese] part sounds like he is talking about a pub (Wirtschaft) called Komitat (literally an armed escort: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comitatus) in Schulzenwiese. Tauroggen is now Taurage, Lithuania. Heinrichswalde is now Slavsk, Russia. Schulzenwiese seems to no longer exist on the map (when you google the Russian name a different place shows up) but it was at the coordinates 54.8605°N 21.6409°E

 

[Frankyg]

Sagittarius, thank you so much for this. It somehow brings history to life to read things like this.

I have one other item in old German that I would love to translate. It is from the same bundle that these later letters were in. It is a Feldpost letter from the First World War showing a Jewish School in Lithuania that later was the scene of mass murder during the Holocaust in the Second World War. I sent photos of it to the Holocaust museum in London and they could not translate it. Can you help?

 

[diggummup]

Thank you all for your comments and interest. These two letters were among a group of Feldpost postcards from the First World War and a book dated 1940 called 'Der Wehermacht' that a family member brought back to England after the Second World War in which he fought in France, Holland and Germany. I have never questioned their authenticity. I wonder if the soldier was an old soldier from WW1 who re-joined in a non front line unit as a driver or guard during WW2. I know that a lot of British soldiers did this.

I purchased a U.S. veteran's WW2 bring back lot once. All German TR items. It also contained postcards from a WW1 German soldier as well as some from WW2. Same soldier. I always wondered why the long spread in years myself.

The book, does it look like this one? If so it is an annual (yearbook) on of the events of the German forces that have taken place over the past year. I have an older 1936 set of 3 yearbooks for each particular branch, Heer, Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe.

 

[Frankyg]

Yes, the book is identical! Mine is dated 1940, just after the fall of France and Britain stood alone against the Axis powers. There are some great anti-Churchill cartoons in it :-)

 

[sagittarius98]

Do you have any other pictures of the postcard with better lighting? The top right has better lighting than bottom left and the uneven lighting makes it harder to read for people.

I did get a translation (or transcription more so) for the address though:

"Herrn Johannes Spannagel
Neuengraben 17
Osnabrück"

 

[Frankyg]

Thank you for your help with this Sagittarius. The writing is faded but I've tried for some better photos.