SS-Division "Prinz Eugen" photos

[John Schlechter]

[Schwarz Edelweiss]

My respects to your grandfather, what happened to him at the end of the war, i know many members of the division perished right after surrender to the British forces in Bleiburg, hope he got away because my grandfather didn't make it , was handed over to Tito's partisans and murdered as an Ustasha prisoner of war but back then it didn't really count , did it ?!

[John Schlechter]

Sorry, no one really knows what happened. He just went missing and no one got any information about what happened so I can not say.

[Jan-Hendrik]

I've figured out a couple of IDs. In the photo on page 11, where Kumm and Phleps are together with many other officers, and there's the chassis of a T-34 in the foreground, that shot is from their visit to the Panzergrenadier Schule at Kienschlag (aka Prosetschnitz), and the tall man whose head shows at upperleft is school commander Hans Kempin.

In the photo of a Hstuf. shown on page 15, and credited to the GD Archive, the photo also appears in volume 6 of the Soldat series of booklets for reenactors and collectors. The man is identified as Gentsch, and it states that he served with LSSAH and Nibelungen, in addition to Prinz Eugen. I'll look up more details now that I have his name, and share what I find later.

Gentsch did never read V. SS-Frw.AK oder the 38. Division...he stayed at Berlin in the final days, see his letter in Venghaus' Berlin 1945 Volume

Jan-Hendrik

[Schwarz Edelweiss]

Can someone post original (in German) text of this song (not a translation from English):
Prinz Eugen, the noble troop,
it must scuffle with Serbs,
our trash division!
And many Serbian skulls
and many Serbian maids
will I soon see fallen...
I believe original text can be found in "Vorwärts, Prinz Eugen!"...(?)

This song can be found today on various websites as "song of 'Prinz Eugen' Division".
This is in fact song written by just a couple of young and disappointed Reichsdeutscher officers
in SS-Junkerschule Tölz (in 1942) when they found out where they will be transfered...
(Krombholz's memories, "History of PE" by O.Kumm)

I believe melody of this song was the same as old one's:
Prinz Eugenius, the noble knight...

Thanks in advance,
Ivan

I know i'm a bit late but here it is ( source " Vorwarts Prinz Eugen " by Otto Kumm )

Prinz Eugen , der edle Haufen ,
mit den Serben muss er raufen ,
unsre Muli-Division !
Und gar manchen Serbenschädel
und gar manches Serbenmädel
sehe ich gefallen schon ...

[AlifRafikKhan]

They said this pic was found on the body of a dead partisan. Is that true?

Source: Jože Kukec collection

[AlifRafikKhan]

Another pic of Sepp Niedermayer, identified by Phil Nix in viewtopic.php?f=13&t=181521

[Ivan Ž.]

They said this pic was found on the body of a dead partisan. Is that true?

Source: Jože Kukec collection

Not true.

This Jože Kukec copied the file from the page 2 of this very topic. See the description and the original source there.

Cheers,
Ivan

[Ivan Ž.]

Another pic of Sepp Niedermayer, identified by Phil Nix in viewtopic.php?f=13&t=181521

Phil is correct. Photo was taken around Feb./March 1943. Below is a photo of M. Konradt taken at the same spot (and there are more from this occasion), it's possible that Sepp N. is the person on the far right in the Konradt pic.

PE1943.jpg

[AlifRafikKhan]

Thank you, Ivan...

[M J C]

Some nice photos of a BA-20 armored car with Prinz Eugen soldiers (from the German eBay)

[heimwehr danzig]

Nice photos MJC.

I am curious...I notice that the men with SS insignia visible are wearing sig rune collar tabs, while the man with the steel helmet is wearing the Odal rune in a sleeve diamond. I understood this sleeve patch to signify membership of the SS Race & Settlement Office, rather than the Prinz Eugen division.

That said, I know that SS-TV personnel above the rank of SS-Oberfuhrer (when rank was displayed on both collar tabs) wore a death's head sleeve diamond, perhaps a similar thing has happened here?

Hypothetically, this might be a German national (hence sig rune collar tabs) who has picked up the Odal rune sleeve diamond as a kind of semi-official unit identifier?
After all, would RUSHA men really need an armoured car?

Whatever the case may be, I still enjoyed the photos

[wotan3]

nice shirt. whos the knights cross holder

[gorran_w]

Some nice words about PE by gen. Schmidt-Richberg:

Der Verband »Prinz Eugen« war eine Kriegsaufstellung. Er rekrutierte sich fast ausschließlich aus den in Rumänien, Ungarn und Jugoslawien ansässigen deutschen Volksgruppen. Diese Deutschen, meist Bauern und Handwerker, waren ohne ihr Zutun in den Kampf ihrer alten Stammheimat hineingezogen. Man hatte sie auch nicht gefragt, bei welchem Teil der Wehrmacht und gegen welchen Feind sie Kriegsdienste leisten wollten. Oft standen Vater und Sohn in derselben Formation. Was diesen Männern an gediegener Friedensausbildung fehlte, ersetzten sie durch Unerschrockenheit und Manneshärte. In der Kenntnis des Wesens und der Kampfesweise des Feindes waren sie allen übrigen Deutschen überlegen. Sie waren deshalb bei ihren Gegnern gefürchtet. Der Verband war als Gebirgsdivision gegliedert, modernst bewaffnet und teilweise beweglich. Was er in den vergangenen Kämpfen an Ausrüstung verloren hatte, konnte ihm aus der reichen Bevorratung an Ort und Stelle wiedergegeben werden. Wie hier bei der Behauptung der Ostflanke von Kraljevo, erwies sich auch in Zukunft die Division als eine zuverlässige Stütze der Führung in den nun sich ständig wiederholenden Krisen.

Erich Schmidt-Richberg: DER ENDKAMPF AUF DEM BALKAN, page 52

[Charles Trang]

The Ritterkreuzträger is Bernhard Dietsche.