Tracing the records of dead relatives.

Site Issues 2007 Archive Room
#1

Hi there, I’m new here… card’s behind the bar so help y’self. :smiley:

I wondered if any might help clarify a few things as I’m trying to find details about my grandfather.

My grandfather was a Lt.Col by the end of the war, but his capture papers show him marked as a ‘grenadier’ held in a Belgium POW camp.

He started out as a ship’s radio officer in the early 30s and spoke 7 languages. From mum’s accounts he was Party by the time the War kicked off [who wasn’t at the time]. They lived in Köln & Berlin. I have a wedding photograph of him in full dress uniform [black] showing the rank of Lt.Col [überstumbahnführer (sp???)] with all the official regaliar. On his left cuff he is wearing a band [slim black & silver] with the letters M3 enbroidered on it.

Could anyone identify that band as I’ve seen nothing like it anywhere… mum used to tell us he was with Hitler’s bodyguard! lol

He’d never talk about the war, apparently, and died in 57 in a motorcycle accident. I was told he burried his uniform when the war ended which might tally up with the story about him appearing in Belgium as a grenadier.

I’d like to find out what he actually got up to and which section he was attached to… is there any way I can find this out?

Thanks in advance.

#2

First, was he Wehrmacht or SS? Easiest is to see on his dress uniform (you said you have a picture?). If he wears the “Pleitegeier” (the vulture of bancruptcy), the eagle on his right chest, he was Wehrmacht, if it is on his left upper arm, he was SS.
Then you should try the Volksbund Deutscher Kriegsgräberfürsorge (a public association taking care of war graves) http://www.volksbund.de/. If his grave has been registered, you can find it through an online search (I found the location of my own grandfather’s in the Ukrainethrough it).
Then you can try the Wehrmachtsauskunftsstelle (WASt) in Berlin. This is a branch of the Federal German archives, they keep all existing personnel files of German soldiers. Here is their adress:
Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt)
Eichborndamm 179
D - 13403 Berlin
Telefon: +49 (030) 41904-0
Telefax: +49 (030) 41904-100
In any case you would have to supply a written request, stating your relationship to your grandfather, e.g. by providing a copy of your and your parent’s birth certificates.
An archive search will also cost you some money (usually about Euro 20,-).
Here is their website:
http://www.dd-wast.de/

Another option would be the Berlin Document Center, a collection of files collected by the American Forces in Berlin for the investigation of Nazi war crimes, including the personnel files of appr. 300.000 SS members. These files were handed over to the German government after the reunification and are also being kept by the federal archive.
Their contact adress:
Abteilung Deutsches Reich
Finckensteinallee 63
12205 Berlin

Tel.:

01888/7770-411
Fax.:

01888/7770-111
e-Mail:

berlin@barch.bund.de

I hope this will help.

Rgds,

Jan

#3

He could be in a Panzer Wrap. Does the black tunic button to the neck? Or does it fold slightly?