Potential Waffen SS

[ransomhades]

Hello all,

A Canadian friend of mine has a sole page from his great uncles Soldbuch and he was told as a boy his great uncle was in the Waffen SS.

The page we have is very hard to read and we are looking for any help to decipher it. Any help would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks in advance

[history1]

I don´t see a hint that this guy was an SS-man. At least not at this page.

[history1]

Rudolf Ochmann, born in Rybnik, Upper Silesia was a soldier of the staff company, Grenadier Regiment/Infantry regiment 174. Serious injured on April 10th 1943 and died on April 21st 1943.
Hence he was a simple Wehrmacht soldier.

[ransomhades]

Thanks for the reply, where did you find that information? I did see a record for a Rudolf Ochmann who was killed around the same date but his DOB was 1914 but this ones wehrnummer suggests his DOB in 1919.

[ransomhades]

I can't seem to locate any info pertaining to a 174th Infantry regiment belonging to the Germans

[GregSingh]

Infanterie-Regiment 174

[ransomhades]

Thank you Greg

[history1]

Thanks for the reply, where did you find that information? I did see a record for a Rudolf Ochmann who was killed around the same date but his DOB was 1914 but this ones wehrnummer suggests his DOB in 1919.

Source:

Thanks for the information regarding the year of birth as part of the Wehrnummer, didn`t know that.
I found only one file on ancestry.com for a R. Ochmann in the USA in the ""New York State passenger and staff lists from 1917-1967", arrival date on this file is July 9th 1961. But that guy is allegedly born in 1920 in Gmunden (Austria) what is misspelled in the file as "Gemunden, Germany". And surely this city wasn´t part of Germany either in 1920 when this man was born.

Anyway, I stick to my above statement, there´s nohting in this page (the photo you got from your Canadian friend) what makes me think that he was an SS-member. The stamp below the signature reads even "Oberstleutn." what is the acronym for "Oberstleutnant" what is sure not an SS-rank.
Can you explain maybe why the number "7" in the Arbeitsbuch/work book number is written in English style but the numbers 1 in the page not? And, AFAIK, the man should be on the photo on the backside, let´s take a look!

[ransomhades]

Thank you so much for all that info and the pictures. I am sure this mystery will be solved soon and some closure can be brought to the family. I can't thank you enough. I will reach out and see of he has anything in the backside of the page he showed me.

[ransomhades]

Does anyone know how to translate that brown card ?

[ransomhades]

Anything that points to where he was injured and killed and also the blue cross in the top right hand corner I want to assume that is an indicator that he died?

[ransomhades]

Finally got an image of the backside of the Soldbuch page

[history1]

Does anyone know how to translate that brown card ?

Last - and first name: Ochmann Rudolf
born on: April 17th 1914 - in: Rybnik, Upper Silesia - county:
unit: Staff, Grenadier Regiment/infantry regiment 174
replacement unit: infantry [Grenadier] reserve battalion 375 Wohlau [now Wołów in Lower Silesia]
[same line as the above] Identification tag: 1526- 2./ infantry reserve battalion 49
rank: Gefreiter/private
Day, hour, place and kind of loss: April 10th 1943, nordeast of Larinoff-Ostroff
Seriously wounded: grenade fragment sticks in chest; handed over to: Hauptverbandplatz/main casualty station
Died: April 21st 43, 4.30 am., Sanitätskompanie/medic [al] company 1/181 - Dratschewo

And yes, this form of the cross is used also nowadays do note (mark a hospital document) that a person died.

[ransomhades]

Thank you so much for that! I have tried to find records of what sort of combat actions were taking place at that time but everything comes up inclusive. I understand it may have involvement with what was taking place at Leningrad but still can't seem to find any action reports or anything

[ransomhades]

Also I see the 49th RB was formed in 1944 so in regards to the Ersatz Truppenteil is that just stating the reserve unit that fed the 174th which he was in?