Original Item: One-of-a-kind. This is a fantastic genuine WWII German Soldbuch, issued to Arnim Hirsch. It features his photograph and signature on the inside of the front, and helps trace his progress in the army through the war. We can see that the book was first issued on 3. 12. 41 (Dec. 3rd 1941), and that Hirsch was enlisted as a Schütze (Rifleman). He was subsequently promoted to Oberschütze (Senior Rifleman) 15. 6. 42, Gefreiter (Exempted or Corporal) on 1. 12. 42, and finally to Obergefreiter (Senior Exempted or Lance Corporal) on 1. 11. 44. The first pages of the book have all the proper stamps and signatures.

Along with the book we received a very nice summary of Hirsch's service extracted from the book, translated from the German. It also includes pertinent information from historical records of the units he was in. It reads:

Arnim Hirsch was drafted into the German Army in 1941, serving  with the 468th Training and Replacement Battalion. He remained there until early 1943, when he was posted to his field unit, Reserve Grenadier Regiment 468, then assigned to the 147th Reserve Division located in Ukraine. The 147th acted as a replacement division providing replacements for combat divisions fighting on the southern Eastern Front.

In early November 1943, he received a Führer Packet, shortly before he landed in a hospital in Augsburg as a Psycho-Neurotic Case later that month. This was a timely diagnosis, as the Reserve Grenadier Battalion 468 was destroyed the following January, during the Russian winter offensive in Ukraine.

Following discharge from the hospital in April 1944, Arnim returned to the 468th Training and Replacement Battalion until he was assigned to his last field unit, Battalion D VII in September 1944. This is believed to be one of the many late war ad hoc units cobbled together by the Wehrmacht as the Allies entered Germany itself. By November he was back at the 468th Training and Replacement Battalion when he was promoted to Lance Corporal. In late January 1945 he received another issue of clothing from this unit.

He suffered a gunshot wound sometime in early March 1945, but as he was not in a combat unit on the front line at the time, the wound may well have been the result of strafing by Allied fighters that controlled the skies over Germany in 1945. He was admitted to a military hospital in his home town of Augsburg on March 7. The same day he was given home leave for Ambulatory Hospital Treatment, so he could live at home while receiving treatment. In early April, he received another uniform issue, the last entry in the Soldbuch.

There is not an entry for award of the Wound Badge for the gunshot wound in his Soldbuch, perhaps because he lived at the hospital and was never officially discharged from the hospital before the war ended. It appears he ended the war at home, in Augsburg, which was captured by American troops at the end of April, 1945.

Overall condition is good and many pages have handwriting or ink stamps, meaning this has some excellent further research potential. These are exceptionally rare and difficult to find with this much information!