Falke Division A.A 29 Group

[stewy]

Hi folks, this was my favourite buy of 2015. Erich Lin©k? Served in the early days in Poland, France, Baltic states & Italy. Soldbuch pic sees him in his tropical uniform. He was a driver with an armoured recon unit. The KBA doc is a nice unit variant, signed by Major Peter Ziegler (DKiG Sept '44) & 3 Kompanie Pz Abw. Abt 29 paper's signed by Hauptmann Feustel. Lin©k? Was also awarded the Ost medal & KVK2 w/s. Stewy

[stewy]

I also have a DKiG group to the same unit. I'll post it over the weekend. Stewy

[Fritz]

A very interesting group of papers indeed. Even the certificate of the Reichsbahndirektion Erfurt is included. Many prisoners of war landed in the Russian Zone after their release. Of course, in those days, many did not have a choice, or they chose to go back to their original homes, in the hope of returning to their families. Life was very hard in the Russian occupation zone and later GDR (or DDR), especially with the Stasi having full records of everyone's past. Also Many able-bodied persons were aducted and deported to the Soviet Union as slave labour and kept in harsh conditions for many years (at least 1955), at the same time being accused of being "Faschisten".

Strangely enough, the title "Reichsbahn" was retained only in the East from 1945 until the reunification in 1990, although the "Reich" had ceased to exist and officially abolished. In West Germany it was called "Bundesbahn". Today it is now known as "Deutsche Bahn", the "Reich" has been ultimately "dropped" - and Railway tickets are so expensive, that hardly anyone nowadays can afford them - it is cheaper to fly!