Papers Please! An OUTSTANDING VERY RARE WWII German Waffen SS Soldier’s WEHRPASS. (Wehrpaß) Certified

SOLD

Papers Please! A WWII German Waffen SS Soldier’s WEHRPASS. (Wehrpaß) Certified. With the reintroduction of conscription in 1935, the OKW Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, (High Command of the Armed Forces), activated the WEDs, Wehrersatzdienststelle, (Military Recruiting Offices), throughout Germany to process and administer the call up procedure. When individuals received their registration notice they were to report to the appropriate recruitment center where they would be issued a Wehrpass, (Military Pass), until they were inducted into active duty. Starting in the autumn of 1939, when an individual was inducted into active military service the Wehrpass was exchanged at the recruitment office for the Soldbuch, (Pay Book), which remained in the recipient’s possession as his official military identification document. The recruitment office would retain the Wehrpass and chronicle the individual’s active service record in it. The Waffen-SS, (Armed-SS), basically followed the same system but had instituted their own Ergänzungsstelle der Waffen-SS, (Replacement Centers of the Armed-SS), under the control of SS-Obergruppenführer Gottlob-Christian Berger of the SS-Hauptamt, (SS-Main Office), and in theory, could only recruit personnel on a voluntary basis although many personnel were “press-ganged” into service. In January 1945 the Ergänzungsstelle der Waffen-SS was combined with the army’s Wehrersatzdienststelle and was renamed Ergänzungsstellen des Heeres und der Waffen-SS, (Replacement Centers of the Army and the Armed-SS). The Wehrpass was issued in three, slightly different, variants with minor modifications with the first pattern being circa 1934-1938, the second pattern circa 1938-1945 and the third pattern circa 1942-1945. Generally, if the individual was killed in battle the Wehrpass would be forwarded to his next-of-kin as a memento of his service time. Of Interest: As the war continued and man-power shortages became severe the standard criteria for acceptance into the Waffen-SS was decreased dramatically and numerous personnel who would have been unacceptable in 1939 were readily accepted into service with the Waffen-SS. By the end of the war more then half of all the personnel serving in the Waffen-SS were non-Germans. Of Note: It appears that the majority of Soldbuch’s and Wehrpass’s were manufactured by the Metten & Co, Nationaler Werbedruck firm of Berlin SW 61, “Metten & Company National Recruiting/Enlistment Printing 61 Southwest Berlin), A War time 1st pattern wehrpass issued to an SS Soldier named Hofmann who was born in 1911. It has many entries. He was qualified on the K-98 rifle and P-08 pistol. It was opened in 1939 and goes through 1944.  With photo of owner. Not all  pages with entries are photographed (just the ones with entries) This example has many entries! . It is not known if the soldier survived the war  An outstanding lot! with lots of   details and the personal information of the bearer.   These are excellent for teachers and researchers. During de-Nazification much of this type of material like so many WWII documents was destroyed.   in good used condition. Some use spots on a few pages, and split at seam otherwise good! Complete museum documentation (COA) Provided. Certified by The Gettysburg Museum of History. The Gettysburg Museum of History does not support or condone Adolf Hitler or the Nazi Party and is only offering this as a historic relic. Please see our other items.    Also note when browsing our web site there are several pages of items, at the bottom of the list look for other page numbers.   An outstanding Third Reich document RARE EARLY WAFFEN SS VERSION! OUTSTANDING EXAMPLE! DO Not Miss This!