Heer Penal Battalion Wehrpass

[Gordon Williamson]

The more I think about it, the more I am sure you are correct. Normally if a soldiers actual awards were being listed he'd be referred to as "Inhaber". This just states he is wearing them, as opposed to entitled to them.

Explains why they were making suh a big case against a lowly ranked individual. "Stolen valour" and all that.

Hello Gordon.

The wording in the wanted bulletin " traegt" (wearing)the named decorations following make me wonder whether these decorations were actually earned by this person. He already inflated his rank to Unteroffizier and also masquerading as a highly decorated NCO would decrease the risk of detection.

Just my feel of this case.

Bernhard H. Holst

[hucks216]

I wonder if they ever caught him.

Someone did as he is listed in the Volksbund Database - the Date Of Birth matches.

[Paul R]

It is interesting that they list him as an Unteroffizier!

[Gordon Williamson]

In the circumstances one wonders whether he was killed by a Russian bullet or a German one. His wanted picture was published in a Heeresmitteilungsblatt, very, very unsual - these were circulated to every unit in the German army so they must have really wanted to get this guy. The Germans are estimated to have executed around 50,000 of their own troops during WW2. In WW1 they had been very lenient, with only 48 soldiers executed for various military crimes. The UK in comparison executed well over 300 ! So brutal military justice against its own troops was very much something introduced by the Third Reich.

The rank in the Volksbund DB may well be wrong, they often have incorrect info. I had a letter written by one soldier dated several days after they had him listed as KIA.

[Tony]

Tony,

Do you ahve any of his stuff from when he was in the military?

Unfortunately not Paul.

He was released by the Russians in 1945 (so I was told), walking about 450km home and when he arrived every thing was put on the fire. He was riddled with lice apparently and his uniform was in shreds.

Tony

[PKeating]

Very well written and informational. Thank you Prosper.

A pleasure, Paul. Mind you, there's a typo:

They were also fobidden to wear awards and decorations. However, as you say, they were barred from winning them. Such awards were duly noted by unit HQ and when the soldier was deemed to have rehabilitated himself through honourable service on the field of battle - or clearing minefields -

This should of course read: "...they were not barred from winning [awards and decorations]."

PK

[PKeating]

I had a bit of time in hand before dinner so I thought I would nose about. FP Nr 14 777 was used by 50. Infanterie-Division. My reference is a bit ambiguous but it may have been the Divisional HQ FPN. 50. ID participated in Barbarossa, fighting in the southern sector as part of 11. Armee. The division fought in the Crimea in 1941 and 1942 and was present at the fall of Sevastopol before seeing action in the Caucasus and the Kuban. Back in the Crimea in 1943, 50. ID was effectively destroyed at Sevastopol in May 1944. It was reformed and posted to East Prussia, was destroyed for the second time in the Heiligenbeil pocket.

Born in January 1924, Lechler would have been seventeen or eighteen during the qualifying period for the 1941/42 Winter War Medal and the Krim Shield. Being in the southern sector, the Romanian medal is also possible. He is listed as killed or missing in Seerappen, East Prussia, on 4.4.1945. Seerappen, now renamed, was in the Heiligenbeil pocket. There had been a Luftwaffe base there, from which KG 200 operated for a time. This was turned into a concentration camp, as part of the Stutthof complex. However, it was evacuated on 20.1.1945. So it is unlikely that young Lechler met his end before a firing squad there.

It is interesting, on the other hand, that he died in 50. ID's area of operations. It suggests he returned or was returned to his unit. The Red Army captured Seerappen, along with more than sixty villages on the Samland Penninsula, on 14.4.1945. So how did Lechler die? There are many possibilities. The wanted poster describes him as wandering about from east to west searching for his unit. If the EK1 and the Silver Wound Badge – and the other awards - were genuine, perhaps he had received a head wound, which was taken into account, along with his sterling military service and the fact that he had clearly volunteered when very young. Maybe he was deemed temporarily insane. On the other hand, wearing military awards to which one was unentitled was a serious offence in the Wehrmacht. So was desertion. Maybe he was simply arrested and sent back to 50. ID, where they stood him before a firing squad and shot him, ten days before the Soviets arrived. But this seems unlikely. He would have been sent to a military prison and shot there. Or to a penal unit. Or perhaps he was killed by bombing or strafing.

[Odulf]

Very intersting topic!

Enclosed a portrait of a soldier in a penal unit.

[ian jewison]

Interesting thread, I have a few penal units dotted around somewhere but it's a case of finding them at the moment as my filing system is...which box is it in?

Anyway, this one I found particularly interesting although I have very little to the person!

Here is a press pass to a member of the VVN - Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes or the Union of Victims of the Nazi Regime.

His name was Karl Ibach and it is signed by Peter Lütsches.

Karl Ibach was born 3.4.1915 in Elberfeld. By the age of sixteen he was a member of the Communist Youth League (KJVD) and the Communist Party (KPD). For this in the spring of 1933 as the youngest inmate he was deported to the Wuppertal Concentration Camp Kemna and not released until end of 1933. He continued his struggle against the Nazi regime continually and fled to the Netherlands, He was arrested shortly after his return and soon sentenced to eight years’ penitentiary in Hamm for alleged preparation for high treason. He was held in concentration camps and penitentiaries – including Esterwegen, Börgermoor, and Waldheim – until 1943. On his release, he was forced to join one of the „Bewährungseinheit“ 999 (probation unit). He was drilled at Heuberg camp to defend the regime he despised on the front serving with Bataillonen XIX and VII in Greece and Bulgaria. He was taken prisoner of war by the Soviets in 1944, and was not released until 1947.

Post war he was co-founder, CEO and from 1950 to 1971 managing director of the Union of Victims of the Nazi regime.

In 1948 he wrote a book about his time in Wuppertal Concentration Camp, I believe this was used as evidence in convicting some of the guards post war! It was reprinted in 1981 with a forward by Johannes Rau, member of the SPD in Wuppertal and former President of Germany .

His Biography was written in 1990, unfortunately he was ill at the time and died shortly before it's publication. Karl Ibach died 3.5.1990 in Wuppertal.

During the early 1950's "Der Spiegel" ran articles about „Bewährungseinheit“ 999 of which Herr Ibach contributed to. I have copies of these also somewhere!

Regards,

Ian

Edited November 16, 2011 by ian jewison