SS Soldbuch with a Scottish connection - can you help

Discussion in 'Axis Units' started by Steve Gardner, Jan 4, 2022.

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  1. Steve Gardner

    Steve Gardner New Member

    Hello,

    My wife knew her grandfather was a German POW who was held a Denny, Scotland POW camp and stayed in Scotland after the war. She didn't know anything of his wartime activities other than he had been in the German Army. Going through some old family documents recently we were shocked to discover that he had been in the SS as she came across his SS Soldbuch. Looks like he served in Dachau which compounded the shock.

    Have tried to do a bit of research but hoping that the expertise on this forum can help further - in making sense of the detail within the book, how/where to try and find out more and any pointers. Have included a few pictures of the book. Would captured SS have been sent to Denny POW camp? My wife's mother remembers seeing a photo of him in uniform and is sure that it was not SS .
     

    Attached Files:

  2. AB64

    AB64 Senior Member

    hucks216 should be able to give some help with the book itself
     
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  3. Steve Gardner

    Steve Gardner New Member

    Thanks!
     
  4. hucks216

    hucks216 Member

    It looks like he was a late war call up to the Waffen-SS, maybe transferred across from another unit, possibly Heer, Luftwaffe or Kriegsmarine or called up when they started recruiting older males (without further details it is not possible to know - can you show page 2, 3, 5 and 22 please). He was assigned to training units, mainly SS-Gebirgsjäger-Ausbildungs-Bataillon 7 'Prinz Eugen' which was eventually stationed in northern Italy and was used to provide replacements to 7.SS-Gebirgs-Division 'Prinz Eugen' which fought in the Balkans - Gebirgsjäger being mountain troops. It looks like he may have ended up in SS-Ersatz-Abteilung für Verwaltungsdienste which was a training and replacement unit for SS administration units which as you have said, was based in the Dachau area. He wouldn't have been a guard at the concentration camp but would have known about it.

    As your wife is a relative to the soldier she can apply to obtain a copy of his service record, if it still exists, by contacting the Bundesarchiv. They might not reply to acknowledge your request until they find something but the webpage is here:
    Bundesarchiv Internet - Personal Documents of Military Provenance until 1945
     
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  5. Steve Gardner

    Steve Gardner New Member

    Thanks hucks - that is really useful, amazing to make progress after banging my head against the wall for so long!. My wife was told by her mother that he was captured by the British in Italy. He was from Pancevo in former Yugoslavia and was of German origin.

    I thought I had copied all pages of the book but didn't but have got pages 3 & 22 which I have attached (will get copies of the missing pages when I next visit my mother in law).

    My wife did try and find out more via the Bundesarchiv as you suggest back in 2017 when we found the book but they were not able to provide any information
     

    Attached Files:

  6. Gary Tankard

    Gary Tankard Well-Known Member

    Hi Steve,

    Back in 2017 the personnel records were with WaST not the Bundesarchiv - did your wife go through them? I think WaST functionality moved under the Bundesarchiv umbrella relatively recently.
     
  7. Steve Gardner

    Steve Gardner New Member

    Thanks Gary - will check and try again
     

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