World's Most Valuable SS Helmet Found?

[Music] if I say SS one of the images that normally pops into people's minds the infamous black uniforms and red swastika armbands of the pre-war organization [Music] one aspect of that uniform was the black steel helmet The Familiar German coal scuttle shape we're all familiar with from countless films however these particular SS helmets were reserved for pre-war parade use only and were not of the same type of helmet that was used in World War II by the vermar and the vafan SS the World War II combat helmets consisted of three types the M35 the standard World War II German Helmet the M40 a slightly simplified version of the M35 and finally the m42 which was much less refined than the previous two not having rolled helmet edges in order to save both time and money the black SS helmet looks different from the World War II versions and it is classed as a transitional helmet an update on the World War I German stalh Helm in the postwar period the viar Republic's small army the reiches hair was equipped with leftover World War I M16 and M18 helmets the due to restrictions imposed by the Allies had barely enough with which to equip the 100,000 strong Army the SS formed in 1923 as a bodyguard unit to protect Hitler dur Rowdy early party meetings had by 1932 become a completely independent part of the Nazi party apparatus under its leader reiches furer SS Heinrich himler the SS stood at some 50,000 highly trained and very carefully selected men and on himmler's initiative had adopted the color black for its uniforms and the old Imperial Cavalry symbol of the death's head the tolten cop for its cap badge combined with the distinctive SS version of the Nazi Eagle black was also a color already associated with fascist movements in Europe notably Italy himler chose black to make his men stand out to make them look intimidating to project power and Menace and the clothing company Hugo Boss working to a design provided to them by SS officers produced thousands of such uniforms however as the SS continued to grow Hugo Boss Of course couldn't make steel helmets and himler needed thousands upon thousands to equip his SS Legions the Army had none to spare so himler was forced to look elsewhere for a supply initially helmets were sourced from old frore units the frore being right-wing paramilitary groups of World War I veterans these units having been stood down in the early 1920s and most of the membership ending up in the sa with some of course in the SS these were of course World War I helmets but following Hitler's accession to power in January 1933 himler was able to Source helmets but not from within Germany instead the SS purchased Surplus World War I era m17 steel helmets from Austria and Czechoslovakia the SS stripped the m17s painting them black on the outside and had their liners and chin straps repaired or replaced as required some newly manufactured helmets of the exact same design were made in Germany as well following these purchases of a version known as the M18 rzm or the himler helmet named after the Reich furer who wore one himself on the right side of all of these types of helmet was the SS Zig runes Insignia in the early days drawn on by hand or using stencils and later using decal transfers on the left side was a Nazi party decal these helmets equipped particularly the premier bodyguard unit of the SS the lianda Adolf Hitler who very visibly guarded the Reich chancell in berin and also appeared at special parades all over Germany the very last time that black himler helmets were used on mass was at the 1940 victory over France parade in Berlin in 1941 ceremonial guards of the Reich chancell changed into fi gray uniforms as most of the SS had already done so at the beginning of the war and their older design himler helmets were replaced by more modern m35s the himler helmets ended up placed in storage depos till the end of the war some were reconditioned and repainted and used by various civil defense organizations notably the Lotz air raid Protection Service and I'm sure many ended up in the fomm Home Guard however it remained a fact that black himler helmets became Choice fines for souvenir hungry Allied soldiers at War's end and one GI managed to get his hands on what must be the most valuable of all the himler helmets perhaps the most valuable German steel helmet of all time an example that actually belonged to and was even used by Hinrich himler himler himself had more than one black helmet of different designs from the available photographic evidence is clear that himler used several types of Black Parade helmet due to his position he probably received an M16 World War one Surplus helmet from perhaps Nazi party stores or from a fry cor unit the major distinguishing feature between the M16 and the M18 are the visible chin strap bolts on the M16 as you can see here on this example from my own collection which are fixed low onto the helmet's skirt these are not present on the German M18 or indeed on the Nazis interwar updated rzm version of the M18 helmet used by the SS there was no uniformity in parade use the helmets are similar enough not to Warrant Comet the ostra Hungarian m17 is very similar to the German M16 again using visible skirt bolts for the chin strap though smaller and positioned slightly higher than the German Helmet it goes without saying that either type of helmet would be extremely valuable if it had belonged to himler personally so let's fast forward to May 1945 and Bavaria in southern Germany himler maintained two palacial houses in Bavaria south of Munich on the tan a picturesque Lake himler had purchased this fine Villa in the small village of Gund in 1934 it had been expensively redecorated and a guard house and air raid shelter added and here himler resided with his wife and daughter before the war in close proximity to Munich the spiritual heart of the Nazi party and where Hitler also m maintained a fine apartment when Hitler was in Berlin himler lived in a house that he had purchased in the city however when Hitler was at his own home the berhoff at aalburg a village above beus Garden in southern Bavaria himler was at an inconvenience Martin Borman Hitler's powerful secretary connived to keep himler from having a house with the other leaders on the mountain the other leaders being himself Herman guring and Albert spar himler was forced to stay at plush Nazi guest houses in aalburg when visiting Hitler due to a change in him's domestic affairs when he separated from his wife in the early part of the war and set up with his mistress hedvig poast in a fine Villa close to Bea's Garden at Shau M kernig where she lived with him's two illegitimate children the re furer continued to visit Gund throughout the war to see his daughter goodrun himler used his girlfriend's house at chernau as his residence when he visited Hitler at the berhoff and it was remodeled to include a staff and guard wing and an air raid shelter himler was nowhere near Bavaria at War's end having left Berlin and moved North into sches holin to be near Grand Admiral K duritz's Nazi government that would succeed Hitler on the 30th of April 1945 he would remain in Northern Germany until captured under very strange circumstances by British forces on the 21st of May 1945 dying under even more strange circumstances on the 23rd of May at a house in lunburg in the meantime both of his Bavarian properties had been captured by US troops on the 4th of May 1945 a small eight-man Patrol from the first Battalion 141st Infantry Regiment 36th Texas Infantry division had captured the Villa at Gund along with the Holiday Homes of several other senior Nazi leaders nearby him's wife Margaretta and her daughter were not home they had in fact fled several days earlier in a car with several of his wife's female relatives to Northern Italy then still in German hands abandoning the property at gunt the house was of course a treasure Trove of himler related items and artifacts and the place would be thoroughly looted for souvenirs many of these items have begun turning up at auctions particularly in the United States in recent years that same day the US 7th Infantry Regiment of the third infantry division captured beus Garden the exclusive Nazi Alpine town and him's second Villa was of course discovered also abandoned by its human occupants but stuff full of him's uniforms and his personal items this car now on permanent display in a German Museum was found in one of the garages by US troops a special armored limousine that himler used to be fed from the house up to Hitler's bof or to and from the airport used by Nazi leaders if he flew in in his private folf 200 Condor again the house was thoroughly looted by US troops looking for souvenirs then we have a GI named Corporal Raymond w daar of the US fourth infantry division who returned to New York City in 1945 with a very interesting and valuable souvenir in his kit bag this black SS helmet daar had landed in Normandy 6 days after D-Day as a medical laboratory technician and transferred to the fourth infantry division in November 1944 as a rifle platoon aidman he saw combat in the htan forest and was with the fourth infantry division as it Advanced into Southern Germany in 1945 by the 2nd of May 1945 the fourth infantry division had Advanced to misbach on the River isar where it stopped and then took up a period of occupation Duty returning stat side on the 10th of July 1945 daar returned home a Corporal with a bronze star and a purple heart with Oak Leaf cluster a Good Conduct Medal and five stars on his European campaign medal he would subsequently train as an officer postwar after daar passed away his son Don ated the helmet to the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York where it has been displayed it is marked inside with him's name and I suspect it came out of the himla Villa at gun at War's end the fourth infantry division was based at misbach which is only 10 colmet from him's Villa at Gund on the tan it would have made sense that him's old black World War I converted helmet that he had stopped using in about 1940 be stored at the house that he had been sharing with with his wife pre-war and not taken with him to his mistress's house at Shau am kernig how Corporal daar obtained it is unknown soldiers on occupation Duty constantly traded souvenirs among themselves and perhaps it was originally looted from the house by a GI from the 36th Infantry Division and then Dart somehow obtained it daar was located very close to him's house soon after its capture when its contents were being traded in the area by souvenir Hungary occupation troops the museum today lists the helmet as having personally belonged to himler so it's provenance is not in doubt so how much is this item worth if it were ever to come onto the market which I doubt it ever will a similar helmet that was documented as belonging to Fritz zul a gaigher an early Nazi which came from a US general estate sold at auction in the US in April 2022 for $6,500 very few people have heard of zul but we all know who himla was I think you could safely add another zero to the price tag as it is daar's son did a very honorable thing giving the helmet to a museum so they can help educate subsequent Generations about the evils committed by the man who once wore it many thanks for watching please subscribe and share also visit my audiobook Channel War store St with Mark Felton you can also help to support both of my channels at PayPal and patreon details in the description box below [Music]

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 808,481

Keywords: Mark Felton

Id: erLaAwCZT6I

Length: 14min 13sec (853 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 27 2024