WASt

agricola · Post by **agricola** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 3:38 pm

Hey, I read on their site and I couldn't confirm this, but does Deutsche Dienststelle dig up records of living people? I ask because I want to find my Grandfather's service record and he's still alive. I'd ask him about it, but he dosen't remember much from his service (in fact, I had to research what unit he was in, because he didn't even know that!)

Cheers.

Frank.

Christian · Post by **Christian** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 5:55 pm

Frank,

Absolutely! The fact that your grandfather is still alive does not prevent you from securing a copy of his service record. Just send in your request and arm yourself with some patience as it can easily take 2-3 months. By the way, the information is well worth the wait.

Good luck with your further research.

Cheers,

Christian

agricola · Post by **agricola** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 11:28 pm

Cheers buddy. Just three more questions (I can't find these answers on their site, so if they're there, I apologise).

1 - Do I go through the 'Tracing Request' part of the site to send away for info or can I get it through the email?

2 - "In accordence with the administrative scale of charges replies of all requests which do not have a legal basis are subjekt to a minimum fee of 8,00 € per page commenced; photocopies € 0,50 each. Estimated costs for drawing up the military career come to approximately € 20,00 per searched person." Is that twenty-thousand euros!?

3 - Would they have records on the Waffen-SS, or would the Waffen-SS have burned their records as the the war was being lost?

Once again, Thank you very much.

Frank.

mikerock · Post by **mikerock** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 12:59 am

A lot of European countries use a comma instead of a decimal point, therefore 20,00 Euros would be written as 20.00 Euros in North America.

agricola · Post by **agricola** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 2:44 am

Hmm. I wonder why I read 20,00 as twenty-thousand instead of two-thousand.

With current exchange rates, that means $33 Australian. Ok. I can dig it. What about the other two questions... anyone?

Cheers.

Frank.

Christian · Post by **Christian** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 6:58 am

Frank,

Proceed and send you inquiry via the "Tracing Request". Replies from the WASt are made through a regular mail and you will most likely receive a letter with the available information. Note that the process can take several months, so be patient.

You should also be able to inquire about Waffen SS at the WASt.

Good luck.

Christian

Brian67 · Post by **Brian67** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 8:11 am

agricola wrote: 3 - Would they have records on the Waffen-SS, or would the Waffen-SS have burned their records as the the war was being lost?

Hi Frank
you have to wait not 2-3 month, but 5-6.
The most requests costs about 16 Euro.
It's possible that you need an autugraph of your grandfather, that he allows the WASt to give you the information.

They have information about Waffen-SS, but not really much. The SS burned their records and a lot of the "rest" is in Washington D.C.

Hans · Post by **Hans** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 3:44 pm

Wast can be very fast or very slow. I've had responses within a couple of weeks, others months. Letters seem to get a faster response than email. You can also access your grandfathers army health records from Landesamt der Gesundheit und Soziales, Postfach 310929, 10639 Berlin. These records contain some useful info, that WAST does not have.

- Hans