Original German WWII Soldbuch Soldier Identity & Payment Book of Obergrenadier Lorenz - USGI Captured in Italy
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Original Item: One-of-a-kind. This is a fantastic genuine WWII German Soldbuch, issued to Grenadier and later Obergrenadier Eduard Lorenz, a soldier in the Motorized infantry. A H had decided in 1942 to change the lower ranks of infantry from Schütze (Rifleman) to Grenadier in memory of the legendary 19th century units. We are not entirely clear on the first name, as it looks to be written in Kurrentschrift, which can be somewhat hard to read.
This is also why the all the "u" letters are written as "ŭ". In this script the lowercase "n" and "u" are identical, so the latter gets the arc shaped mark over it. This is not indicative of an umlaut or other diacritical marking.
Lorenz was born 17. 8. 1925, and the book indicates he was issued the soldbuch 17. April 1943 in Kassel, Germany, when he was made part of Stammkp. / Gren. Ers. Btl. 15 (mot.), or the Staff Company of Grenadier Ersatz (Replacement) Battalion 15 (motorized). He was initially the lowest enlisted rank of Grenadier, but on 1.4.44 promoted to Obergrenadier. Later in the book there is a stamp that indicates he was made part of 2. / F. E. B. 29. Pz. Gr. Div., which looks to be a replacement unit of a Panzergrenadier Division, and then part of Gren. Reg. 71 (mot.). The pages of the book have all the proper stamps and signatures.
The inside of the front cover gives information on how the soldbuch was acquired, though it unfortunately does not give any information regarding the soldier that found it. It reads:
Found
June 28, 1944.
On a hill north of
Abbadia about 5 miles.
This German was dead
Must of have been dead for
about 5 days. He was found
with another German Near
a Machine gun
Burnbed by gasoline & covered
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!
- This product is available for international shipping. Shipping not available to: Australia, France, or Germany
- Not eligible for payment with Paypal or Amazon
- Due to legal restrictions this item cannot be shipped to Australia, France or Germany. This is not a comprehensive list and other countries may be added in the future.
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