Franz Fahrentholz was born in 1900 in the small town of Altrüdnitz (Today: Stara Rudnica) on the banks of the Oder River. He served in the First World War during the end phases of 1918 and was lucky to have missed the horrible bloodshed seen by the men only a few years older than him. From early 1932 Franz was an employee at the AEG Cable Works in Berlin Schöneweide. Franz continued to work there throughout the war, leading teams that produced items directly linked to the war industry and used slave labour.  Franz was not immune to the war effort in another form, defence. These large structures of the AEG were prime targets for Allied bombing raids. The large buildings on the banks of the river Spree would have been an easy target from above.  By July 1941, Franz was sent an order to report to a large gym hall in Berlin-Neukölln to be considered for military duty, he was found fit for duty in the Landwehr, also known as a home army. Although he was not sent to a home army unit he could have been called up anytime. By early 1943, Franz was ordered to take his Wehrpass and report for a further inspection, by June he was enlisted into a home guard Anti-Aircraft unit known, Heimatflakbatterie 28/III. Franz was trained on a captured French light machine gun, the FM 24/29 and received instruction on an anti-aircraft searchlight (Flak-Sw 36 – 60cm). The 60cm searchlight was operated by one person and was built on a small turntable equipped with a seat and trailer, it allowed for a 360-degree reach and was deployed very fast. If an allied aircraft was spotted and followed with such a search light it would mean the spotters firing had a clear target to aim at.  Franz was given the rank of Flakwehrmann, which was a civilian rank given to those that completed a standard course designed in 1943. The objective of which was to train civilians on anti-aircraft related equipment for the purpose of defending the home front.  On successful completion of the course the rank of Flakwehrmann was reached and the soldier was awarded a civilian badge. The badge was worn on the left side of the lapel, the eagle of the Luftwaffe holding the swastika inside the cog symbol the symbol for German workers.  He fought with: 1st Flak Division, Leichte Flak Abteilung 979 (o) Stationed at the Berlin Tempelhof Airport.  By April 1945 during the advance of the Soviet army, Franz was found on the banks of the Landwehr Canal on the Maybachufer in Berlin Neukölln. The Maybachufer a 1.47 kilometre long street with one side running parallel to Canal. Comments: an extremely rare set for central Berlin, the wounding tag completing the picture on what happened to him.

Truppenausweiss for Oberst Max Röhrs, born on the 26.01.1893 in Brake, Germany. Röhrs served as a Judge in the Reichskriegsgericht (German War Court). Super rare to find anything for the Reichskriegsgericht in Berlin-Charlottenburg. Röhrs was a Judge that sent Paul Winzer to death, the leader of the Winzengruppe. As well as that, Röhrs was a judge in other high profile cases such as the case against Werner Engel another German Resistance member. This Identification paper was used right up to 1944. He is wearing the WW1 Marine Wounds Badge as well as the Iron Cross First Class with WW2 Clasp. Paul Winzen * November 24, 1911 in Dortmund Paul was born as the youngest child of the Winzen family. It is no longer possible to determine when he left his parents’ house. In the Dortmund address book from 1941 he is still listed under this address, his profession is given as a stationer. Paul Winzen was a member and leading figure of a resistance group that had emerged from free-thinking/free-religious organizations. People met to go to the theater, visited exhibitions and discussed a wide variety of topics. Politically, they rejected both Soviet communism and social democracy. They advocated a humanistic social order. After 1933, the Dortmund group, which was also called the Winzen Group after its founder Paul Winzen, met in various places and organized the resistance: leaflets against the Nazi regime were printed and foreign radio stations were listened to. When an informer finally crept into the group in 1940 and betrayed the members, they were arrested as members of the Winzen group. The trial of Paul Winzen took place in February 1942 in Berlin before the People’s Court. He and another head of the group, Josef Kasel (see Stolperstein Gneisenaustr. 89) were sentenced to death for “undermining the military force” and “preparing for high treason”. Winzen was also convicted of “broadcasting crimes”. The judgment was carried out on June 12, 1942 in Berlin-Plötzensee.    

Moved to our eBay Page – if you are keen on buying this contact us.  This exceptional lot of IDs and documentation is phenomenally rare, nothing has been seen like this on the open market related to the topic. Brasic was a key player in the final days, acting as an agent between key players in the last days. Dr Ranko Brasic (Lawyer) (Royal Yugoslavian Army Officer) (Named: Agent) (Named head of Intelligence during WW2) (Political and Legal Adviser to King Peter II 1962 -1967). Chetnicks and Ustaša Colaboration (1945), Mihailovic had been eager to cooperate with the forces of the Croatian puppet state “because the common goal was the annihilation of the Communists” He sent his own emissary, a lawyer named Dr. Ranko Brasic, not only to Dr. Pavelic, the head of the Croatian puppet state, but also to the head of the Catholic Church in Croatia, Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac, and also to Dr. Macek, the head of the Croatian Peasant Party, who had passively opposed the quisling government. Although Mihailovic stated at his trial that Brasic was only empowered to contact representatives of the Croatian Peasant Party, it has been well established that Brasic saw Pavelic and Stepinac as well. (The Trial of Draza Mihailovic, pp. 289-96, 453-56). It should be noted that as early as 1943 representatives of Mihailovic and of the Croatian Peasant Party (to which in time many of the Domobran officers gave their support) had some discussions about the future of Yugoslavia. No agreements were reached, however, because the CPP would not recognize Mihailovic as commander in chief of all Yugoslav forces including the Domobrans, and Mihailovic would not agree to disown the Chetnik groups that had been responsible for mass terror against the Croatian population. Pavelic gave Brasic a supply of medicines for the treatment of typhus, which was widespread among the Chetnik troops in Bosnia. Besides Dr. Brasic:, Chetnik Major Zika Andric seems to have been a sort of steady contact with the Croatian military authorities in Zagreb during the last few months of the war. Finally, in mid-April 1945, Mihailovic sent General Svetomir Djukic supposedly on a mission to establish contact with the advancing Allied armies in northern Italy, but at the same time, while passing through Zagreb, to see Pavelic and discuss with him the possibility of cooperation between the Chetniks and Croatian troops and to obtain from him a series of concessions. To assist Djukic in his efforts in Zagreb, Mihailovic sent with him Vladimir Predavec, who had been for a long time a member of the Chetnik Central National Committee. Djukic, accompanied by Predavec and also Brasic and Andric, had two conferences with Pavelic, on April 17 and 22. In them, he asked for the following: release of a Chetnik hospital and its inmates captured by the Ustashas on Vucjak Mountain; release of 1,200 Serb civilians captured by the Ustashas and held in the town of gamac; medical supplies, ammunition, and food for the Chetniks; and free passage of Chetnik troops through Croatia on their way to Slovenia (but without Mihailovic, who would stay behind in the mountains). More information: Captain Nesko Nedic, the official commander of the Valjevo Chetnik Corps, otherwise Mihailovic’s emissary for negotiations with the Germans, traveled with them to Slavonski Brod. In Slavonski Brod they were accepted by the Ustasha Grand Prefect Sobalic. After completing his work, Nedic returned to Draza Mihailovic’s headquarters, and Djukic and Predavac Sobalic drove him to Zagreb in his official car, where they arrived on April 17. Djukic was welcomed by Ustasha generals Ante Maskov and Jozo Rukavina. Soon, Djukic was joined by lawyer Dr. Ranko Brasic, Mihailovic’s permanent representative to Pavelic, and Major Zika Andric, “a kind of Draza’s military attache to the Ustasha” (Karapandzic, 438). On the same day, a meeting was held in the old Ban Palace in Gornji Grad between representatives of the Chetniks, that is, Djukic and Predavac, and Ustasha officials Pavelic and Andrije Artukovic. The next day, a second meeting was held in Pavelic’s castle in Tuskanec. On that occasion, Predavac, Brasic and Andric were with Djukic, and with Pavelic were Ustasa generals Djordje Gruic and Vjekoslav Maks Luburic, the former commander of the Ustasa camp Jasenovac – the greatest strategist of the Serbs. The third meeting between Djukic and Pavelic was held only on April 22. The break was caused by the fact that Max Luburic traveled to Bosnia, where the Ustase massacred the Chetniks of Pavle Djurisic. The result of the negotiations between Mihailovic’s envoy, divisional general Djukic, and Chief Pavelic was that the greatest executioner of the Serbian people promised the Chetniks and did everything that Djukic asked for. As Djukic writes in his memoirs, Pavelic “according to our request, sent trucks with medicines and ammunition, and in addition issued the necessary orders to the competent authorities to allow Draza’s group to pass through Croatia in the direction of Slovenia”. A series of articles by General Djukic about his mission to Pavelic appeared in the monthly newspaper Srpska zastava (Buenos Aires) between December 1954 and May 1955 under the title “From the Forests into Emigration.” Djukic was answered by Ustasha General Luburic in an “Open Letter to the Serbian General Svetomir Djukic,” in Drina (Madrid) in December 1955. Pavelic also, in 1949 , published his recollections of these conferences. However, the events unfolded in their own way, everyone saved his own head, so Svetomir Djukic, Ranko Brasic and Zika Andric benefited the most from the negotiations with Pavelic. They, helped by the Ustas and together with them, fled abroad without hindrance. Society for the truth about the anti-fascist national liberation struggle in Yugoslavia 1941-1945. The Trial of Mihailović Brasic is mentioned numerous times in the trial, he was explicitly called an agent. Interestingly, the full trial in which Brasic is mentioned explicitly around 20 times can be downloaded online for free. Here are some extracts from the trial mentioning Brasic: THE CONNECTION OF THE ACCUSED MIHAILOVIC WITH PAVELIC AND…