Wehrmacht Wehrmacht Prison Guard

[dante]

Johannes Robert Banaschik was born 1995 in Dresden.

By May 13th 1915 he joined "1. Königlich Sächsisches Jäger-Bataillon Nr. 12" and fought on both, East and West Front. Later in WWI he fought with "Infanterie Ersatz Bataillon 102".
In WWI he was awarded with EKI, EKII and Frontkreuz.

With the beginning of WWII Baschanik - now 45 years old (!) - joined "Landesschützen-Bataillon 353" in December 1939 and in May 1940 he changed to "Landesschützen-Bataillon 364". Both were part of "Division z.b.V. 404" which didn't see any action at this time.

• In August 1940 (promoted to Unteroffizier) he became a prison guard at "Wehrmachtsgefängnis Torgau" where he stayed until March 1941.
• In March 1941 he left Torgau to "Wehrmachtsgefängnis Lager Marie über Bitterfeld" where he stayed until July 1942.
• Now with the rank of a Feldwebel he had a short stay from July 1942 until March 1943 in "Feldstraflager 1" in Northern Finland.
• From March 1943 until September 1943 he was a guard at "Wehrmachtsgefängnis Torgau Fort Zinna" again.
• Being promoted Oberfeldwebel he had a one-week-stay at "Wehrmachts Gefangenen Abteilung Milowitz" before getting back to Torgau Zinna for another week until September 20th 1943.
• From September 1943 until April 1944 he was a guard at "Feldstraf Gefangenenabteilung 20" in Russia.

On April 25th 1944 at 07:00 in the morning he was KIA nearby the town of Mokrowo (there was a camp for Russian Jews who had to work for Organization Todt).

Being an almost 50 yo prison guard at Wehrmachts-Prisons and Feldstraflager for such a long time I tend to assume that Banaschik liked what he was doing.
Finally he met his fate on the battle field.

Any further comments as always welcome

Edited May 17, 2013 by dante

[hucks216]

Nice example. I am surprised that it stayed on M321 for as long as it did. For some reason, while such WP's etc to staff members of punishment units are fairly scarce they don't seem to attract collectors in any great numbers.

[dante]

Cheers H, yes I got it to compliment a Torgau prisoners wehrpass

[Chris Boonzaier]

Can you show anything from his WW1 Service entries?

[dante]

Here we are

[Chris Boonzaier]

nice! what rank did he have WW1?

[dante]

No note but obergefreiter in 1940, here is his weapons page

[Paul R]

It looks like he used WW1 weapons during WW2?

[Odulf]

Interesting to note where the captured Dutch rifles went