My Father’s Award Documents

[Gerst]

The last time we had a tornado warning here in Texas I put a lot of valuable and historical items into my ”safe room” I had framed many of my dad’s WWII and Reichswehr documents so these were all taken down. Today I had them copied and framed the copies. The originals will be in a big binder
with other family documents. Next time the siren sounds, they stay up. The shadow boxes will still be taken down!

 

[byf41]

Very nice, do you have any of his medals?

 

[Welder1]

very nice! I’ve tried very hard to track down my grandfather’s but I havent had much luck.

 

[KSH67]

Replace Veterans' Medals, Awards, and Decorations

Snippet [get-content name="replace-military-awards" include-tag="false" /]

www.archives.gov

 

[Gerst]

Very nice, do you have any of his medals?

Yes, all of them. The breast eagle is a replica.

 

[Gerst]

very nice! I’ve tried very hard to track down my grandfather’s but I havent had much luck.

There is a German website, a government site, that furnishes information to relatives for a small charge .

 

[byf41]

It's awesome you have your fathers awards and medals. I noticed he participated in the Crimea campaign, was he a member of the 11th army?

 

[Gerst]

It's awesome you have your fathers awards and medals. I noticed he participated in the Crimea campaign, was he a member of the 11th army?

XXX Armeekorps Staff

 

[Gerst]

I have my late wife’s father’s medals, a good friend and neighbor who passed away, and my paternal grandfather’s medals and documents also. They are on a wall. The helmets are replicas I had made up. One for each grandfather and one for my great uncle, Garde Pionier. Others Prussian Reserve and Saxon.

 

[Peter U]

Gerst, would it be possible to see so close ups of the award documents?

 

[Gerst]

Gerst, would it be possible to see so close ups of the award documents?

I’ll try to post them tomorrow. I’ve been busy sorting dozens of old family documents and putting them in a 12 X 12 scrap book with acid-free inserts. I’ve been doing the genealogy thing so I could print out the information for parents and grandparents and their ancestors. It’s a lot of work but I’m a widower so I have time to do it. Also, I can read the documents. if I don’t do all that the old stuff would end up in a box and eventually, the dump. I did the same thing for hundreds of old family photos so the people in them are identified. I scanned my dad’s Reichswehr and Wehrmacht photos already. The originals are in a big album.

Ive also put everything in the house on excel spreadsheets with identification, history and value. That took about a week!

 

[Gerst]

My father was very organized. He kept everything. His father did too. My wife’s parents, Americans, weren’t so organized. I don’t even have the most rudimentary documents for them, just discharge papers and death certificates.

 

[byf41]

I'll bet he had some interesting stories to tell you.

 

[Gerst]

very nice! I’ve tried very hard to track down my grandfather’s but I havent had much luck.

If your grandfather was German look up Deutsche Dienststelle and fill out a request. I did this for my father and one of his brothers who fell in Russia. It took very little time.

 

[Gerst]

I'll bet he had some interesting stories to tell you.

Dad didn’t say much about WWII but he had some great stories about the Reichswehr. He really enjoyed those years.

 

[Gerst]

I found this in my grandfather’s stuff.

 

[BerlinerLuebecker]

Thanks for sharing! Rare to see such a nice set survive intact in family papers. You may already know to do this, but be sure that any sleeves you use for the original documents are archival-safe. The wrong kind of sleeve will destroy the documents over time.

 

[Muncher 1953]

Dad didn’t say much about WWII but he had some great stories about the Reichswehr. He really enjoyed those years.

I believe that’s common, war really is ‘hell’ for ordinary decent folks. My Dad (US Army, infantry, 66th Div) only told a few ‘war stories’; one about how good captured chickens taste (French ones in the particular case) and about a near miss he had after standing up in the for open for a smoke, a German mg gunner let him know that that was a bad idea. A couple stories about holiday meals on troop ships, he was a Wyoming-raised boy that didn’t suffer from sea sickness. He was glad to have survived, when so many others he trained with hadn’t. After the war, as both Korea & Viet Nam conflicts developed, he became more & more skeptical about the way US politicians spent the lives of our troops.

 

[Gerst]

I believe that’s common, war really is ‘hell’ for ordinary decent folks. My Dad (US Army, infantry, 66th Div) only told a few ‘war stories’; one about how good captured chickens taste (French ones in the particular case) and about a near miss he had after standing up in the for open for a smoke, a German mg gunner let him know that that was a bad idea. A couple stories about holiday meals on troop ships, he was a Wyoming-raised boy that didn’t suffer from sea sickness. He was glad to have survived, when so many others he trained with hadn’t. After the war, as both Korea & Viet Nam conflicts developed, he became more & more skeptical about the way US politicians spent the lives of our troops.

Once when I was in high school a buddy if his who had been in the Crimea came over. They joked a lot and I took them to Ft. Meyer to look at some m-48 parade tanks. They had fun.