Death/Memorial Cards

arnhem44

Maybe a morbid topic but there are countless Death and memorial cards for sale these days,not everyones cup of tea, however for anyone looking up a particular time frame or history of wars or battles these small cards provide an insight and more often than not a face to the people who fought and lost there lives there.Hopefully more people can add to this thread,I'm posting up the only one I have of an Austrian soldier who died during WW1 in Italy,more to follow.

ollaetta

I've just two death cards both of which I picked up as part of collections of personal items. While both of these add great interest to the other items I have no great inclination to buy others. I can't really explain why but I find having someone's death card a bit spooky. Much more so than that person's medals or other personal items. I agree that they are an excellent representation of a time and place in history but I'll stick to the other stuff.

arnhem44

I know what you mean,as I said not everyones cup of tea but theres a market for everything these days.Are the cards you have WW2 ?

ollaetta

Yes, both WW2 German. I've attached a pic of one of them. Not sure where I have the other at the moment.

arnhem44

Cheers for posting that,thats an nice interesting looking group and nice to see all these items together,its sad when you see groups like this being broken up for sale from time to time

arnhem44

Two more to German soldiers,a little worn and one has a slight bit of damage,cellotaped at the back

BlackEdelweiss

I bought these a few years ago, I think they might have been my first ww2 purchases, they are fairly cheap and accessible for people who cant afford bigger more impressive items. I seem to have a bit of an interest in dead soilders, I have also purchased a few photos of "Helden Grab" or hero's graves. I find the stories of the people who died even more fascinating than those who lived.
I love doing a bit of research into how they died, this is what I found for these guys.

Peter Kappelmeier was killed in March 1945 in a "terror raid" by the US 392nd Bomb Group who were on a mission to destroy a rail marshalling yard in Ingolstadt.


Josef Feichtner, killed in North West Kursk, "aged 28, died a hero's death". He seems to have been awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class with swords but I cant translate it exactly.


Josef Gigl, lost his life in Kaiserslautern aged 31 in March 1945 in a straffing attack from a low flying aircraft as the US Army advanced on the town.


Karl Kinzl, I couldent find much about this man apart from he died at 25 in Tunisia. It can be hard to translate German written in the old fashioned script.


Joseph Mayer, an employee of the Burglengenfeld health insurance company, died in mid December 1942 in Stalingrad aged 19 years.

Morlar

BlackEdelweiss wrote: »

Josef Feichtner, killed in North West Kursk, "aged 28, died a hero's death". He seems to have been awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class with swords but I cant translate it exactly.

Those are very interesting, thanks for posting them. The medal in the Josef Feichtner is I believe the 'Kriegsverdienstkreuz II Klasse mit Schwertern - war merit cross' 2nd class with swords' - not sure why they left the Kriegs part off. It's also known as the KVK medal. It is interesting to note the Kursk salient or Stalingrad connection to those.

I don't collect them but have a few since I started in this hobby. I don't have photos of any of them unfortunately.

These were also used in the same format but without the picture as obituaries - here is one from a publication Magazine- 'W.S.-Kameradschaft' Nachtrichtenblat fur die kameratschaftliche vereinigung der waffenmeisterschulen der wehrmacht. Newspaper of the of the weapon master schools of the Wehrmacht.



Few more

Morlar

A couple more Sept 1939 ones

BlackEdelweiss

Thanks for that, I tried loads of different translation sites but couldent get even a hint of what it might have been. I suppose the "with swords" should have rung a bell as I have one upstairs. I think it is interesting in the Stalingrad card that the exact date of death is not known and is only given as mid December showing some of the chaos that probably surrounded his death.
Your newspaper obituaries are very interesting aswell, I am fascinated by people who died in both the early and later stages of the war. The guys who died in the first month knew nothing of the horrors that awaited their comrades and the guys who died in the final weeks actually lived through all the horrors and nearly made it only to be caught at the very end. You can imagine the difference in the morale of the men who died at these two contrasting times.

Fuinseog

arnhem44 wrote: »

Maybe a morbid topic but there are countless Death and memorial cards for sale these days,not everyones cup of tea, however for anyone looking up a particular time frame or history of wars or battles these small cards provide an insight and more often than not a face to the people who fought and lost there lives there.Hopefully more people can add to this thread,I'm posting up the only one I have of an Austrian soldier who died during WW1 in Italy,more to follow.

a visit to any German or Austrian church looking at the memorial plaques is also insightful.

citizen_p

BlackEdelweiss wrote: »

It can be hard to translate German written in the old fashioned script.

you should see german handwriting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%BCtterlin
and thats a prime example, in practice it was much more unclear

Fuinseog

BlackEdelweiss wrote: »

Thanks for that, I tried loads of different translation sites but couldent get even a hint of what it might have been. I suppose the "with swords" should have rung a bell as I have one upstairs. I think it is interesting in the Stalingrad card that the exact date of death is not known and is only given as mid December showing some of the chaos that probably surrounded his death.
Your newspaper obituaries are very interesting aswell, I am fascinated by people who died in both the early and later stages of the war. The guys who died in the first month knew nothing of the horrors that awaited their comrades and the guys who died in the final weeks actually lived through all the horrors and nearly made it only to be caught at the very end. You can imagine the difference in the morale of the men who died at these two contrasting times.

I read German if you want help translating anything. pre 1960s handwriting (sütterlin)can be difficult to make out though, but not impossible.

BlackEdelweiss

Mousey- wrote: »

you should see german handwriting
]

I have seen a bit, I bought a few ww2 postcards in a car boot sale a few months ago. I had to get my neighbour to send them off to a German friend to try to translate them, I couldent even make out a single word.

BlackEdelweiss

BlackEdelweiss wrote: »

I have seen a bit, I bought a few ww2 postcards in a car boot sale a few months ago. I had to get my neighbour to send them off to a German friend to try to translate them, I couldent even make out a single word.

WW2 ignorance rears its ugly head again! I just got my postcards back from my neighbour, her husband handed them back to my wife and said his wife could not post them and I should use a translation website. I presume it is because they have a swastika on the stamp but I am still quite surprised about it, I have known them a few years and have shown them various medals etc and they know I am not a nazi sympathizer. I wonder if they were postcards from a Russian soldier in Berlin in 1945 would he have had any moral objections!

Fuinseog

BlackEdelweiss wrote: »

WW2 ignorance rears its ugly head again! I just got my postcards back from my neighbour, her husband handed them back to my wife and said his wife could not post them and I should use a translation website. I presume it is because they have a swastika on the stamp but I am still quite surprised about it, I have known them a few years and have shown them various medals etc and they know I am not a nazi sympathizer. I wonder if they were postcards from a Russian soldier in Berlin in 1945 would he have had any moral objections!

the swastika is an illegal symbol in Germany
scan them in and i might be able to read a little.

BlackEdelweiss

Well I dont think that is his reason, the lady lives in Amsterdam anyway. Is it illegal there too? Does that not just apply to showing it in public, I bought some things from a German militaria dealer and they all had swastikas on them.