Third Party Press

Change of command at Wewelsburg

John Lawson

John Lawson

Senior Member
I recently acquired this document which informs Hauptsturmfuhrer Karl Lasch that he will be in temporary command at Wewelsburg Castle due to the “illness” of then commandant von Knobelsdorff. Knobelsdorff was known for his eccentric pseudo religious beliefs and was dismissed 1938. Karl Lasch was the schulungsleiter (training manager). The adjutant who signed this document, von Hadeln, was eventually posted to the Russian front and has this distinction of being one of two SS officers killed at the same time by a single sniper shot. For much more information visit the Wewelsburg Wikipedia site or the web site of the castle.
 

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Second document appears to be a 1936 directive to question Lasch as to why he announced his wedding in only the civilian newspapers (ie not in party ones).
 
Not following procedures!

Yes, that is what I got out of the second document. From what I read, a lot of senior SS did not buy into this pseudo religious nonsense that v. Knobelsdorff and others at Wewelsburg were promoting, but Heinrich did!!
Also, Lasch does not yet have the Honor Degen but the other two in the photo do.
 
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It appears to me that only the one in the middle wears an Honor Degen. The other two are wearing daggers. You can really only see the top cross guard of the dagger on the one standing on left side of picture. Interesting documents, thank you for sharing them.
 
No honor degen

Yes, upon closer examination I agree. Dr. Peter des Coudres spent some time in the Waffen SS in 1944 and received the German Cross in Gold. He spent 1945-1948 as a POW with the Americans and British and died in 1977.
There seems to be two SS officers named Karl Lasch, this one pictured seems to be Karlernst Lasch, the other Karl Lasch was arrested and executed under Himmler’s orders for stealing Jewish property!
If anyone has further info on this, let me know.
 
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