17 Kriegs-Junker-Lehrgang Prag Graduate List Dec 11, 1944

[smangs]

My grandfather's POW papers do state "Narbe am linken Oberarm", so he definitely did have a scar but I don't know about the details of how he got away with it. I will post a picture of his release papers soon. I still have to scan them.

[smangs]

Here are the pictures as promised:

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Here are the POW discharge papers:

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[smangs]

I don't want to take over this thread, so these are the last couple of pictures I'm going to post for those of you who are interested.

The first picture shows my grandfather just after he joined:

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The final picture is taken with his brother, Helmut (I think) who went missing somewhere in Russia. Don't have a lot of details on him but I am planning on doing more research after I am done with my work on my grandfather.

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That's all for now.

[haen2]

Nice work, Smangs.
Opa would be happy to see his grandson interested in his military career.
I did not see the remark about the scar on the discharge papers you showed, but his pictures as a Führeranwerter and Standarten Oberjunker definitely paced him with us "bad guys"
Indeed in two years (from surrender until discharge) a scar would be just a scar. My remark about it pertained to , that allied troops were very keen on finding "bad guys"(sic) amongst the good guys. And a fresh wound or fresh scar in the known place of a Blutgruppe tattoo could have sent red flags to the interogator. As far as that goes he sure was lucky.
Keep up your research, and be proud of your Opa. People of the present time may not be able to understand motivations and circumstances. But the more you dig up, the more you will understand.
Keep us posted on you uncle also !
Cheers
H.N.

[smangs]

H.N.,

if you scroll down on the first scanned discharge paper, you will see the section called: Medical Certificate, just below that are two handwritten notes next to DISTINGUISING MARKS:

NARBE UNTERLIPPE (LINKS)
" " LINKER OBERARM <-- scar on left upper arm

Hope this helps!!! I really wish I would have had the chance to get more details on how he managed to escape being placed into a "Narbencamp" as it happened to so many other Waffen-SS soldiers. Sadly, I will never get the answer to that question. At the time of my interview, my grandfather did not really want to talk about it and I did not want to push too much and possibly cause him to stop the interview. Like I said, he really tried to forget about that past. Also, he only got his job with the Bundesbahn because he kept his Waffen-SS membership a secret. He told me that no Waffen-SS members were hired by the Bundesbahn or at least not at the Inspektor grade level (not sure if that is true but makes sense). My Opa was actually surprised that I knew about his past and told me that none of his children ever asked him about his time in the war, which really surprised me. I asked my father about that and he said that he never really cared about that, which is just incredible to me. Well, at least I was able to get a decent timeline and some original documents from his service and I have to say that I am quite proud of him. He was a really good person and had no bad streak in him at all and I only have fond memories of my time with my grandparents. I actually lived with them for about a year when I was around 5 or 6 years old.

Oh, by the way, if anyone has a copy of the "Unser Wikingruf, 12/2007", I would really like to get a scan of the article. I only have a copy/paste and not the original and also not the entire article.

[John P. Moore]

SMangs - Thank you for telling the interesting story of your grandfather and for posting the photos and documents.

Now some more listings of graduates.

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