German soldiers passbook.

Going through my grandfathers items from the war, have found what we believe to be an SS soldiers passbook. Where would I post this to discuss?

 

Photo attached

 

1

 

Can anyone translate?

From what I’ve done myself, looks like it belonged to a Flak Gunner/Operative.

 

2

 

3

 

4

 

I've dropped a note to the forums resident collector of these so hopefully he will be along at some point

 

Out of interest what makes you think its SS? I'm not an expert on these but from examples I have seen online the SS Runes tend to jump out when your looking at unit stamps etc

 

It isn't a paybook as such but a Wehrpass. These were issued when someone registered for military service but had yet to be called up. When they were called up they would swap this for a Soldbuch (Pay Book) and while they carried the Soldbuch, the Wehrpass would be held at the Company HQ.

Can you show page 12 as that will show his unit details but from what I can see from page 5 he wasn't passed for service, receiving the category Landwehr II which was 'Untrained men between 35 & 45 years old'. That may well of changed in the last months of the war when they were desperate for manpower and any service carried out will be shown on page 12.

 

Landwehr units were auxilliary troops and most often served as security for objects or PoW camps. They consisted of former WWI veterans
and the like.
Seems somewhere between late 1943 and early 1945 he was back in civilian life. Then in April 1945 he became part of the last resort of the total war (read: cannon-fodder)
The pink pamphlet in picture 3 is just the well known pathetic Endsieg-Propaganda bullshit
"Your people and the empire, which you have so far served with all your devotion at your work place, now need you to act as a weapon-carrying fighter in the hour of the greatest threat"..."ready to sacrifice everything for freedom and honor"... "until the last breath" bla bla bla
As he was in Berlin I would suspect he was needed for the final carnage in the city "to drown the bolshewik beast in it´s own blood by the most fanatical resistance the world ever witnessed" according to a common phrase of that time

 

Now I am not looking at it on my phone, you can see on the slip that he is to report to Grenadier-Ersatz-und-Ausbildung-Regiment 523 at 1400 on 7th April 1945. As he was (at least until 1943) an untrained older male but fit for active duty (page 5 - Fitness category A.D (Aktiver Dienst) and service category Landwehr II, as opposed to Landwehr I which was trained male between 35 & 45) he would of received very basic military training with this unit.
You can see some basic information on the unit here: Infanterie-Ersatz-Regiment 523 - Lexikon der Wehrmacht

 

Grenadier Ersatz- und Ausbildungs Regiment 523 was part of Division Nr. 463. This was a so called „Schatten-Division“ who provided replacements for attached front line Divisions

The Regiment was deployed to Beeskow in March 1945. The Division then either deployed to Korps Moser in April 1945 under 4th Panzer Army, Army Group Middle somewhere between Glogau ( Głogów/PL) - Dresden, contrarily it´s listed for 9th Army, V. Army Corps in 30/4/1945
4th Panzer Army conducted a fighting retreat towards the Erzgebirge, 9th Army was encircled and smashed at Halbe whereas the Soviets reached the outskirts of Berlin already in 20 April
As his Wehrpass reveals Hänsler had to enlist 19. April at Spandau (Picture 3) I would assume he never reached the Division regardless of it´s actual whereabouts

 

I will translate next week.
Today, on this lovely sunny day, we are out with the Cabrio.

Stefan.

 

page 12 as requested.

 

The story was passed down to my father from my Grandfather that he was SS. Obviously not the case. When he took it off the individual he did also sieze a firearm which my father has (now decommissioned of course). I will find it out to see if it matches.

 

Another little piece from inside

 

Inside