Anyone up for research?

[telophase]

I'm at Mom's new house, digging through boxes from the attic of the old place that contain my stuff and family stuff and whatnot, when I come across a box that contains a selection of memorabilia from my maternal grandfather's stint in the army during WWII, when he typed his way across Europe as a clerk. It's got the envelope that held the train tickets for the trip home when he finally came back to the States and my grandmother met him in San Antonio (100% Federal tax on the tickets!), scrip and other coins and bills, his insignia including his only medal - one for Good Conduct.*

Anyway, there's also three small German medals, with swastikas on them, and I was wondering what they were. Under the cut, I've got a photo of one medal and a transcription of the German that accompanies it. It's also stamped "Feb 1945". Mom claims they liberated a warehouse, perhaps of the German souvenir trade. :)




Fuzzy photo of the interior of the box and the slip of paper with German printed on it.



It reads (forgive any typos that I manage not to correct):

Die Herstellung von Orden und Ehrenzeichen unterliegt der Kontrolle der Prasidialkanzlei. Der Hersteller ist verplichtet, mangelhaft gelieferte Stucke gegen einwandfreien Ersatz umzutausche. (stamp: Feb. 1945)

The backs of the medals all say "16 Dezember 1938" and some sort of script that I can't read.

I know that "Ersatz" is German for replacement or substitute - is it a souvenir medal? is it a cheapo commemorative medal? or a replacement for a lost medal? Huh. Inquiring minds want to know but are too exhausted from hauling bookboxes all afternoon to look it up themselves.

Any info any of you can find out is welcome!





* My family has a distinguished military career. My other grandfather was in the military for one day and was promptly discharged, because he was a certified pilot instructor and they needed those more than they needed pilots, so he stayed over here and trained pilots.

Comments

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

I think that says that they'll replace poorly made ones. What does the face of the medal say?

Possibly this guy can help? http://www.medalnet.net/index_english.htm

Aha! http://www.snyderstreasures.com/pages/motherscross.htm

[chomiji]

Yes, and if one can believe Google's translation program (which seems to have surpassed Babelfish), the first part says "The production of orders and decorations is under the control of Prasidialkanzlei" (the last seems to be a bureau name).

[bitpig.livejournal.com]

The medal is a Nazi civil decoration, the Ehrenkreuz der deutschen Mutter ("Cross of Honor of the German Mother", aka Mutterkreuz). i was awarded to women of "pure Aryan" stock depending on the number of children she had produced for the Reich (8 = gold cross, 6 = silver, 4 = bronze). According to Wikipedia, "the crosses were awarded annually on August 12 (Hitler's mother's birthday), and the second Sunday in May (Mothering Sunday)... Mothers who received a cross were to be saluted in the streets by the Hitler Youth upon parades, for service to Germany."

The notice says that the manufacturer is subject to government inspection and is required by law to replace any defective item.

[chomiji]

(Oh swell. Hitler's mum and I have the same birthday ... .)

[estara.livejournal.com]

There's nothing I can add to that, except to wonder why the "Präsidialkanzlei" wasn't called "Führerkanzlei" since the position of Reichspräsident (President of the empire: the last one would have been Hindenburg who had to make Hitler Chancellor of the Empire) died with Hindenburg and then it was all Führer all the way to destruction.

Interesting...

[chomiji]

Ummm .... I think I found your medal.

Check here, about a third of the way down the page.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Creepy! I wonder what happened to all those poor kids who were wards of the state.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

There were probably plenty of orphans around anyway after the war, with the bombings and land invasion and death camps and all. I think this is more evidence why The Marshall Plan Was a Really, Really Good Idea.