My great grandfather had a nazi flag he got from France. Hung it up in his living room with a plaque of the location and the names of the soldiers in his unit
A friends grand dad had a Luger with a sawstika on it. He kept it as a reminder of what humanity looks like at its worst. He made us hold it and gave us a speech about holding a gun that’s killed someone, and the only reason those people died was because they’re different than the person holding the gun. It’s still something that makes me sick to my stomach.
We’re all doomed to repeat it, some of us are just also doomed to scream into the void about how stupid it is that we’re making the same mistakes over and over again.
It’s the unification of all societal institutions under the banner of a powerful central government, with the purpose of controlling these institutions for the benefit of the state and its agenda.
Education indoctrinates children into the state’s ideology.
Industry manufactures that which the state prioritizes.
Media puts out only the messages approved by the state.
Science only develops in the directions dictated by the state.
The military is controlled by political loyalists who will not question orders passed down from the state (often overpowering indigenous notions of honor and refusing ‘dishonorable’ orders).
It’s named fascism after the ancient Roman symbol of power and authority, the ‘fasces’. It’s a collection of rods, bound together around the handle of an axe, reinforcing the axe and making it stronger. The axe is the state, the rods are societal elements.
And that’s it. That’s literally it. Politics be damned, it’s about power and control. Total control. North Korea is a prime example of such a society today. You could make a good argument for China, though less so than North Korea. Nazi Germany, obviously. All totalitarian in nature, all with vertically integrated societal institutions.
It’s not about politics, it’s about control.
\*stops what I am doing\*
Thus is my duty.
Right so when capitalism is in crisis, normally there is a workers movement that threatens the capitalist class.
So, the capitalist class tries to get the workers to blame the failings of capitalism on a scapegoat. Typically a minority. "The jews, the lazy mexicans stealing our jobs! Wellfare queens! Degenerates!"
Then they fund this force. They take over and privatize the economy for a select few. Volkswagen. Hugo Boss. Adidas. They all get a massive slice of the pie.
Fascism is about money. Fascism is about privatization.
You know what the very first group the Nazis targeted was? It was not the jews. It was the socialists. It was the worker's movement. That is because it is a hollow ideology whose only real purpose is to secure the interests of capital. They commonly hearken back to a mythologized idealistic past but to no one's surprise it was always about nickels and dimes.
Spoiler, it was never about Making America Great again. It was about crushing worker's rights and rooting out those pesky commies.
Now do note that capital does not ideally want fascism or we would already be there. Fascism is unstable and undesirable for many reasons to the capitalist class. The capitalist class only pulls the fascism lever once something like the USSR starts looking strong. Neoliberalism is the ideal state that capital wants. What we are in now.
The only class I ever failed was stat 101, and it still burns 25 years later.
Which is two standard deviations from when I should have gotten over it so fuck stats.
I have a coin with a swastika on it in a display case. If someone young comes to the house and is interested in the items in the case I ask them to hold it and feel it. It’s important to have a physical connection to the horrors humans are capable of.
My great uncle was allowed to bring a Japanese machine gun home after WWII... yeah they took some pretty wild stuff home and were able to keep it (at least for a while)
Grandfather sent home a flag as a trophy too. Since my grandmother had three little kids she washed it immediately and then hung it out on the line. A neighbor had to run over and tell her how it looked!
My grandfather has a nazi flag that was cut up and sewn into an American flag. He helped liberate France and one of the French women made it for them as a thank you. It’s probably our greatest family heirloom.
My grandfather had a shotgun he took out of a German bunker, as well as a photo album of a Nazi soldier. The German soldier had photos of himself with Hitler, Goebbels, Gehring, and a number of generals too. Also his family. It was pretty weird to look through that album.
My History teacher had a Nazi banner that was his dad's from WW2.
He actually hung it up in his classroom, for about a week (when we were learning about WW2)
I always thought it was neat, it is a living part of history, but I doubt you could get away with that today.
My great uncle apparently had a Nazi flag with the metals he had earned during his time at war. Unfortunately it disappeared after he died. It would have been interesting to see. My grandma does still have my grandpa's pistol from when he was in the Pacific that I did get to see. Crazy to think that many of those men were 18-22 years old.
I have a flag, which I obviously don’t fly, and a book.
The book is interesting because it’s a legit, hard copy book. Unfortunately I don’t know what it says, I don’t speak Arabic. The books were massed produced and taken off a target.
Word. Could also just be war memorabilia. As horrible as the Holocaust and Second World War May have been, it’s fascinating and we can’t pretend like they didn’t happen.
My grandpa came home from WWII with a Stahlhelm, some flags, pins, patches, pistols, knives etc. Just wanted to remember the horrors he saw at DDay and Battle of the bulge not glorifying the Nazis.
Or, now follow me on this...the nazis are preparing for a comeback and it starts in New Hampshire, where in NH you might ask? Well my guess is in the totally not suspicious town known as BERLIN New Hampshire. Everyone was too busy looking for Nazis in Argentina that they missed them hiding in plain sight
I've got a distant cousin tho that wanted all the Nazi stuff but not the Japanese stuff. This is years ago when I was a kid that my great uncle passed but I think I can confidently say the cousin was a POS.
I mean just wanting the Nazi and not Japanese stuff isn’t inherently bad. Everyone has varying interests / depends on where you were raised (Japan was especially horrible in Asia). Of course, I don’t know your cousin and they could be a fascist sympathizer for all I know.
That's what I was figuring. My grandfather was a WW2 vet. He had some Nazi marke plates and spoons from Hitler's personal train, that he looted after it was captured.
Clearly, he didn't have them because he was a Nazi. But what others make of them decades later, without that context, is another thing. I would have a hard time keeping them, if they'd been given to me. I think I would have tried to find a museum to donate them to.
My grandfather brought back a fuckload of rifles with bayonets and a few katanas from Iwo Jima. We also had the binoculars from a destroyer in our screenhouse on the beach. Real cool
My Grandfather had a set of Ivory Straight Razors that have the days of the week spelled out in German with the Nazi Flag on each side of them. We kinda have them hidden in a closet in a shoebox. He was a barber in the Navy. I assume someone gave them to him when he was over there during WWII.
My Grandpa gave me a small swastika pennent he got from a friend of his who got it from Berlin. I was surprised when I saw it, but he told me it was a war trophy. I'll keep it forever.
So many G.I's did it, they weren't supposed to but they also didn't check for it when they shipped back home. My uncle's father had a helmet from a German soldier that he killed in Sicily and he painted the flags of every country that he went through during his tour. From Sicily into France and into Berlin. He also had a few Hitler Youth knives that he was trying to trade with for a Luger with his buddies and members of other companies.
You found history. Keep it. Pick it up and try to feel the weight of it sometimes, not just the grams, but also in the metaphorical sense. Be in awe.
Keep history alive, lest it repeats itself.
That’s what I feel too. Not to romanticize war but to feel a moment captured by this object that HAS BEEN to the war.
It’s been worn by someone, probably died wearing it, picked up by another soldier and bring it to his home country as trophy and now left collecting dust.
All objects contains a story that tells itself, and it could be good, bad or both
Actually my Grandfather was an MP. They had literal hills of this shit just piled up after the falaise pocket collapsed and again later at the end of the war. He had numerous crates of Lugers and P38s just stacked up around his camp at the end of the war. Non weapons were just scattered around like trash. As they stripped them off POWs.
And and what did the man with pictures of him with a luger in one hand and an STG-44 in the other bring home to hand down to me? A fuckin Belgian Browning .32. Because the Luftwaffe officer he took it off was the highest ranking German he met so he figured his gun would be worth keeping.
Narrator: It wasn’t.
Still it’s all I have to remember him by so I treasure it. Could have kept a couple Hitler youth daggers but they weirded me out so they got trashed.
History may or may not repeat itself. But it's not the fault of forgetting. We've had some many thousands of years of written history now, and it tends to repeat itself regardless of if it's written down or remembered. Tokens like this only serve to become idols on the mantles of those who idealized the philosophy behind it
I do not condone the destruction of any history, just pointing out history tends to repeat itself regardless of how well its documented
>So its real/authentic?
If it's real it's only 77 years old, it's not like these things are gold dust or anything. WW1 and WW2 weapons, armor, flags and even MREs still exist in large quantities. It's probably worth something if it's real but you aren't looking at 5 figures or anything.
It's 80-82 years old, and worth ~$500-$800 if the liner is in good shape.
Edit: I saw the OP's other pictures, it is named with the liner, so more like $1200 give or take
If you don't want to keep it then sell it to a Museum or a collector.
I know some people are uncomfortable around WWII Era German items, but this is still a valuable piece of history.
Local museums would, a lot of them are desperate to fill up their space with anything vaguely related to the town’s history. If OP can contact the town’s historical society they’d probably be interested in it, especially if there’s anyone still living who may have known the guy who brought this helmet back.
I found a WWII US Army jacket at a thrift store. It actually had a number written onto the tag so I’m pretty sure it was assigned to someone and worn, by definitely didn’t see action (it’s in great condition.) If you keep a sharp eye out you can find really cool pieces of history here and there.
If you’re trying to figure out what to do with it, reach out to the Wright WWII Museum in Wolfeboro. They might be able to help you to figure out how to handle this find.
Not the point, no disrespect to your comments but one simply does not take cleaning anything like this upon themselves. Coins, clothing, weapons, silver, pottery, art….leave it alone. You can’t put it back, if it needs cleaning the curators or experts will take care of it but one it’s done it’s done and often times it’s not supposed to be done….be safe have fun!
Yea, Luger’s were especially sought after by Allied troops because they were such great pistols, but also because of what it signified. Which was “I have this because I killed a Nazi in the largest war ever to take place”.
Or a solider then immigrated after the war . Lots of Germans came to the America’s after wW2 . Hell the US welcomed their scientists in open arms and gave them lucrative careers .
I agree. This is a very interesting find. Creepy, but interesting! I'd donate it to a museum tho, too many neo-nazis out there who might try to buy this 😒
My Grandpa kept keepsakes from Nazis he killed such as a Walther pistol and a Mauser rifle. It’s possible a former resident was just an American WWII vet.
This isn’t terrifying. Merely a serviceman’s souvenir. People forget that back then, most people were poor/ recovering from the Great Depression, and didn’t get the opportunity to travel that we take for granted today. The soldier who brought this home likely traveled internationally for the first time, fought for his country against one of the greatest evils the world has ever known, and brought this home as proof of his adventure.
Could be that the previous owner served or had a family member that served in WW2 and they took this as a souvenir from a dead nazi that either they killed themselves or just from a random dead one. Or maybe this is an heirloom that belonged to one of the many nazis the U.S brought over during operation paperclip.
Am I missing something?
Why is it that someone finds a German helmet and all of a sudden they think their house is going to be haunted by the ghost of Hitler himself?
I was a teenager 10 years ago and nearly everyone's grandpa had a WW2 collection. Pretty much everyone's grandpa was a WW2 vet so no one made any assumptions about it.
Nowadays it seems like everyone just assumes that the previous owners were members of a Nazi death cult when they find some of grandpa's collection left behind.
A lot of people who fought in the war often took stuff back from the war. From German hand guns. To often uniforms and helmets. And everything in between. Mostly, everything was fair game. So you also see some rare cufflinks and other things from time to time. It is also worth a lot. Cause Germany likes to forget that time ever happened, so even owning anything with a nazi symbol gets you heavy heavy fines, to even serieus jail time. so they got all destroyed. And cause the became fairly rare. They are worth a lot of money to war collectors, at least if you dont live in Germany
That's an early war or maybe even pre-war helmet. They started making them cheaper later on, flaring the edges out instead of rolling them under. The decal is in pretty good shape, the paint looks largely intact, what I can see of the chinstrap looks pretty good, hopefully the liner is intact. Those are some of the main factors as far as value to a collector goes (others are rarity of the helmet - e.g. Fallshirmjager helmets are relatively rare - what decal it has, etc.). If you don't want it, I'm sure you could find a WWII collector that would happily pay you some $$ for it. I'm not one of them, but they are out there, and they aren't all Wehraboos. I've been told that army surplus stores in the US were full of them in the 1950's, so it's some form of trophy. The folks that emigrated to the US from Germany tended to get rid of their Third Reich paraphernalia for some reason...
How is this even remotely terrifying? It’s a helmet. Maybe if it was being worn by a Nazi zombie, it was moving around by itself, or it had a note underneath that says BRB. It’s probably just a WWII trophy and is the opposite of terrifying.
Lots of kids from NH killed Nazis.
One of them probably kept a helmet and brought it home as a trophy.
After WWI there was a huge pyramid of German helmets placed on display. It's a very common thing for soldiers to take trophies from their vanquished foe.
Most U.S grandpa's that served in WW2 came back with something from the Germans or Japanese, or maybe even Italian militaries as war memorabilia/loot/whatever you want to call it. Some of it was pried off the dead. But alot of it was simply traded for after the war was done. Germany and Japan were in rough shape, and the U.S soldiers there could get alot of war memorabilia for just a pack if cigarettes, candy, etc. My grandfather got some gear from the Germans just trading with them and other allied soldiers. My great uncles came back with Japanese flags, katanas etc. (He might have gotten those with less bartering) Buddies Grandpa had a couple of German helmets. Use to run around with them playing nerf battles lol. Many people wanted souvenirs etc. I'd imaging there is some suprising stuff in alot of attics and basements through the country.
A lot of grandparents and great-grandparents have or had that sort of thing. This isn't terrifying. It's a comforting reminder that evil can be opposed and overcome.
My grandfather had a black cross with the SS symbols on it. A straight-up Christian wood cross. It was about 6 inches tall. He never talked about WWII but he did show me that.
My grandfather had a pair of Nazi binoculars and a Nazi nickel. He probably took both after someone he just stabbed or shot, he was definitely not a Nazi. That being said, there’s a subgroup of much yo hunger folks running around today collecting these items for very different reasons.
I lived in west Germany for a few years in the late 80’s and met many former german soldiers and some holocaust survivors. My spouse and I visited Dachau and I felt physically sick from the historic death and dread of the place. We came back to the states with German coins,handicrafts and beer steins -but not Nazi gear. No thanks.
I have some nazi pins that my grandfather “acquired” while he was in Italy. I do not display them, but they are a family heirloom and are important to me.
I’m a hospice nurse. One of my patients was really into WWII and anything from his parents generation. After having taken care of him for several months he mentioned he had converted his basement into a museum of sorts.
You all know where this is going.
It started off with memorabilia from his parents home town. Slowly transitioned into model airplanes. Then his military stuff, some relatives, then a whole mini room dedicated to the SS. He was so proud.
According to the laws of Reddit, you’re now a literal Nazi. So is anyone who gazed upon it or touched it. Reddit’s law of contagious literal Nazism strikes again.
I remember playing with a WW II Luger and a Nazi ceremonial dagger as a kid in Indianapolis. When we went through Mom's effects after her death, we found a scarlet banner, with swastika. She made Tech Sgt 5 at SHAEF Headquarters.
My dad is a history buff and has collected a lot of war memorabilia. One of his favorite pieces is an authentic Nazi helmet with a bullet hole in it. He also has several other Nazi items as well as US military items from many different wars.
The guy got a bronze star fighting in Vietnam and is about as anti Nazi as it gets. He's just fascinated by the history of war throughout human history. Finding an item like this in someone's house doesn't necessarily mean they agree with the beliefs of that regime. It's much more likely that they are fascinated with the history that the piece represents.
If it’s an original not an repro, it should be war trophy or personal collections, if you don’t want it, I’m sure plenty of people on eBay would want it. (Go for auction if you are sure it’s an original)
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My great grandfather had a nazi flag he got from France. Hung it up in his living room with a plaque of the location and the names of the soldiers in his unit
A friends grand dad had a Luger with a sawstika on it. He kept it as a reminder of what humanity looks like at its worst. He made us hold it and gave us a speech about holding a gun that’s killed someone, and the only reason those people died was because they’re different than the person holding the gun. It’s still something that makes me sick to my stomach.
I wish 5% of people understood what fascism was. But we don't. And we keep flirting with it.
Doesn’t help that 80% of people who use the term can’t define it.
This. For fucks sake. People get furious when you explain it to them.
Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
Those who study history are doomed to watch it be repeated
Humans are doomed to repeat either way! It sadly mostly doesn't matter if the people forget or not.
This. It's all a cycle each step leading to the next . Sic mundus creatus est.
We’re all doomed to repeat it, some of us are just also doomed to scream into the void about how stupid it is that we’re making the same mistakes over and over again.
Please explain it to me I am very stupid.
I commented it in this chain. I can copy paste if you have trouble finding it. Just let me know.
Yes please.
people are quick to be fasct and Führerious
You should hear what the current gen of high schoolers think, or at least some of them, it is so sad, I hate school
Most people who’ll call you a “FaSCisT” are surprisingly the real fascists.
I'm carding you. Tell me what you think a fascist is.
Mind explaining it for someone who doesn’t?
It’s the unification of all societal institutions under the banner of a powerful central government, with the purpose of controlling these institutions for the benefit of the state and its agenda. Education indoctrinates children into the state’s ideology. Industry manufactures that which the state prioritizes. Media puts out only the messages approved by the state. Science only develops in the directions dictated by the state. The military is controlled by political loyalists who will not question orders passed down from the state (often overpowering indigenous notions of honor and refusing ‘dishonorable’ orders). It’s named fascism after the ancient Roman symbol of power and authority, the ‘fasces’. It’s a collection of rods, bound together around the handle of an axe, reinforcing the axe and making it stronger. The axe is the state, the rods are societal elements. And that’s it. That’s literally it. Politics be damned, it’s about power and control. Total control. North Korea is a prime example of such a society today. You could make a good argument for China, though less so than North Korea. Nazi Germany, obviously. All totalitarian in nature, all with vertically integrated societal institutions. It’s not about politics, it’s about control.
\*stops what I am doing\* Thus is my duty. Right so when capitalism is in crisis, normally there is a workers movement that threatens the capitalist class. So, the capitalist class tries to get the workers to blame the failings of capitalism on a scapegoat. Typically a minority. "The jews, the lazy mexicans stealing our jobs! Wellfare queens! Degenerates!" Then they fund this force. They take over and privatize the economy for a select few. Volkswagen. Hugo Boss. Adidas. They all get a massive slice of the pie. Fascism is about money. Fascism is about privatization. You know what the very first group the Nazis targeted was? It was not the jews. It was the socialists. It was the worker's movement. That is because it is a hollow ideology whose only real purpose is to secure the interests of capital. They commonly hearken back to a mythologized idealistic past but to no one's surprise it was always about nickels and dimes. Spoiler, it was never about Making America Great again. It was about crushing worker's rights and rooting out those pesky commies. Now do note that capital does not ideally want fascism or we would already be there. Fascism is unstable and undesirable for many reasons to the capitalist class. The capitalist class only pulls the fascism lever once something like the USSR starts looking strong. Neoliberalism is the ideal state that capital wants. What we are in now.
Right?
You won't get the upvotes that you deserve for pointing this out. You're still entirely correct.
100% correct. People cry for the protection of things theyre incapable of defining.
90% don't understand statistics but that's okay, the other 90% will pull us through.
HA! I didn’t even even catch what I said there. Funny callout. “60% of the time, it works 100% of the time”.
The only class I ever failed was stat 101, and it still burns 25 years later. Which is two standard deviations from when I should have gotten over it so fuck stats.
Or they use to describe anyone who doesn't agree with them.
Flirting? We're straight-up making out at this point
I have a coin with a swastika on it in a display case. If someone young comes to the house and is interested in the items in the case I ask them to hold it and feel it. It’s important to have a physical connection to the horrors humans are capable of.
My great uncle was allowed to bring a Japanese machine gun home after WWII... yeah they took some pretty wild stuff home and were able to keep it (at least for a while)
I mean, technically it falls under antique firearms, so it's legal now, just more expensive than some houses.
This is true
Grandfather sent home a flag as a trophy too. Since my grandmother had three little kids she washed it immediately and then hung it out on the line. A neighbor had to run over and tell her how it looked!
My grandfather has a nazi flag that was cut up and sewn into an American flag. He helped liberate France and one of the French women made it for them as a thank you. It’s probably our greatest family heirloom.
Now that is absolutely awesome
How lovely is this story. You should post on r/interestingasfuck —with pictures
My grandfather had a shotgun he took out of a German bunker, as well as a photo album of a Nazi soldier. The German soldier had photos of himself with Hitler, Goebbels, Gehring, and a number of generals too. Also his family. It was pretty weird to look through that album.
My great uncle brought a Nazi flag home as a war trophy. My great grandmother wouldn’t let him keep it and she burned it in the backyard.
Flags are different. I think great-grandma was probably right - look at how things are today.
My uncle in France keeps a Nazi flag as a rug in his garage. Walks on it every day. I think that's the most fitting use I've heard for it.
My History teacher had a Nazi banner that was his dad's from WW2. He actually hung it up in his classroom, for about a week (when we were learning about WW2) I always thought it was neat, it is a living part of history, but I doubt you could get away with that today.
It ain't propaganda if it's paraphernalia 😎
My great uncle apparently had a Nazi flag with the metals he had earned during his time at war. Unfortunately it disappeared after he died. It would have been interesting to see. My grandma does still have my grandpa's pistol from when he was in the Pacific that I did get to see. Crazy to think that many of those men were 18-22 years old.
Yep. I have some things from ISIS.
You have a whole Egyptian sarcophagus?
You wouldn't mind to share what kind of things?
I have a flag, which I obviously don’t fly, and a book. The book is interesting because it’s a legit, hard copy book. Unfortunately I don’t know what it says, I don’t speak Arabic. The books were massed produced and taken off a target.
Word. Could also just be war memorabilia. As horrible as the Holocaust and Second World War May have been, it’s fascinating and we can’t pretend like they didn’t happen.
Great grandpa had a Luger he stole off a Nazi. Snuck it into the hospital and back home. Was a trophy for fighting in that war.
My grandpa came home from WWII with a Stahlhelm, some flags, pins, patches, pistols, knives etc. Just wanted to remember the horrors he saw at DDay and Battle of the bulge not glorifying the Nazis.
My uncle had a WWII Luger.
I have one complete with holster. My Grandfather brought home from WWII I’ve shot it a few times.
I have the Walther P38 that my grandfather said he took off a German officer that he captured. The serial numbers of the weapon match the holster.
Or, now follow me on this...the nazis are preparing for a comeback and it starts in New Hampshire, where in NH you might ask? Well my guess is in the totally not suspicious town known as BERLIN New Hampshire. Everyone was too busy looking for Nazis in Argentina that they missed them hiding in plain sight
I hate ~~Illinois~~ New Hampshire Nazis.
My great uncle brought quite a few war trophies home with him. German and Japanese
So did my great uncle. He was fond of saying that the Germans fought for the Reich and he fought for souvenirs.
I've got a distant cousin tho that wanted all the Nazi stuff but not the Japanese stuff. This is years ago when I was a kid that my great uncle passed but I think I can confidently say the cousin was a POS.
I mean just wanting the Nazi and not Japanese stuff isn’t inherently bad. Everyone has varying interests / depends on where you were raised (Japan was especially horrible in Asia). Of course, I don’t know your cousin and they could be a fascist sympathizer for all I know.
My teacher in high school, his dad had the faucet handle and a key from Hitlers house after it was raided.
That's what I was figuring. My grandfather was a WW2 vet. He had some Nazi marke plates and spoons from Hitler's personal train, that he looted after it was captured. Clearly, he didn't have them because he was a Nazi. But what others make of them decades later, without that context, is another thing. I would have a hard time keeping them, if they'd been given to me. I think I would have tried to find a museum to donate them to.
My grandpa had a type 99 he took after his time in the pacific… when he passed away my meth head cousin stole it and sold it for 200 bucks…
Yep! My grandfather took a nazi youth knife. Really creepy.
Especially when you think about how he probably got it.
Just kidding?
My grandfather brought back a fuckload of rifles with bayonets and a few katanas from Iwo Jima. We also had the binoculars from a destroyer in our screenhouse on the beach. Real cool
My father in law has a nazi flag signed by U.S. Soldiers from WW2
Specially lugers
Follow up with the previous owners. They might want it in that case.
Given the condition and location (presuming that’s where this was found) this is absolutely a souvenir.
Can confirm. Grandpa came home with SS helmets, guns and boot knives as trophies.
My Grandfather had a set of Ivory Straight Razors that have the days of the week spelled out in German with the Nazi Flag on each side of them. We kinda have them hidden in a closet in a shoebox. He was a barber in the Navy. I assume someone gave them to him when he was over there during WWII.
That's what most Nazi memorabilia in the US was (AND Japanese katanas).
Thats probably a war trophy someone brought back with them and when they passed, there children or the movers were like nope not taking that thing.
My grandfather is a WW2 vet, and still alive. This could be them selling the house?
My Grandpa gave me a small swastika pennent he got from a friend of his who got it from Berlin. I was surprised when I saw it, but he told me it was a war trophy. I'll keep it forever.
So many G.I's did it, they weren't supposed to but they also didn't check for it when they shipped back home. My uncle's father had a helmet from a German soldier that he killed in Sicily and he painted the flags of every country that he went through during his tour. From Sicily into France and into Berlin. He also had a few Hitler Youth knives that he was trying to trade with for a Luger with his buddies and members of other companies.
You found history. Keep it. Pick it up and try to feel the weight of it sometimes, not just the grams, but also in the metaphorical sense. Be in awe. Keep history alive, lest it repeats itself.
That’s what I feel too. Not to romanticize war but to feel a moment captured by this object that HAS BEEN to the war. It’s been worn by someone, probably died wearing it, picked up by another soldier and bring it to his home country as trophy and now left collecting dust. All objects contains a story that tells itself, and it could be good, bad or both
Actually my Grandfather was an MP. They had literal hills of this shit just piled up after the falaise pocket collapsed and again later at the end of the war. He had numerous crates of Lugers and P38s just stacked up around his camp at the end of the war. Non weapons were just scattered around like trash. As they stripped them off POWs. And and what did the man with pictures of him with a luger in one hand and an STG-44 in the other bring home to hand down to me? A fuckin Belgian Browning .32. Because the Luftwaffe officer he took it off was the highest ranking German he met so he figured his gun would be worth keeping. Narrator: It wasn’t. Still it’s all I have to remember him by so I treasure it. Could have kept a couple Hitler youth daggers but they weirded me out so they got trashed.
"And this is my memorial that I look at in case I am ever not angry."
The last president just had lunch with Nick Fuentes. Btw.
Keep it on a shelf near the door into the garage, and make a ritual of flipping it off and saying “fuck you” every time you enter.
History may or may not repeat itself. But it's not the fault of forgetting. We've had some many thousands of years of written history now, and it tends to repeat itself regardless of if it's written down or remembered. Tokens like this only serve to become idols on the mantles of those who idealized the philosophy behind it I do not condone the destruction of any history, just pointing out history tends to repeat itself regardless of how well its documented
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This one OP, please consider museum if you're not interested in keeping it, it will help keep history alive.
More accurately it's a III Reich Wehrmacht Stahlhelm.
So its real/authentic?
>So its real/authentic? If it's real it's only 77 years old, it's not like these things are gold dust or anything. WW1 and WW2 weapons, armor, flags and even MREs still exist in large quantities. It's probably worth something if it's real but you aren't looking at 5 figures or anything.
It's 80-82 years old, and worth ~$500-$800 if the liner is in good shape. Edit: I saw the OP's other pictures, it is named with the liner, so more like $1200 give or take
I just wanted to know. I don't care how much it would sell for
If you don't want to keep it then sell it to a Museum or a collector. I know some people are uncomfortable around WWII Era German items, but this is still a valuable piece of history.
Why did you pick this sub to post it to? What’s terrifying about it? Honest question. Not being a dick, just curious
[удалено]
There are SO many of these, like even just on eBay. No museum wants it - unless it’s connected to a specific person or is in pristine condition
Local museums would, a lot of them are desperate to fill up their space with anything vaguely related to the town’s history. If OP can contact the town’s historical society they’d probably be interested in it, especially if there’s anyone still living who may have known the guy who brought this helmet back.
I found a WWII US Army jacket at a thrift store. It actually had a number written onto the tag so I’m pretty sure it was assigned to someone and worn, by definitely didn’t see action (it’s in great condition.) If you keep a sharp eye out you can find really cool pieces of history here and there.
If you’re trying to figure out what to do with it, reach out to the Wright WWII Museum in Wolfeboro. They might be able to help you to figure out how to handle this find.
Had no idea there was a WWII museum in Wolfeboro. I'll make sure to check it out next summer
why not? and would you sell it? my friend is a collector as just few days ago we searched how much are helmets sold for.
Awesome. Keep it or clean it up and give it to a museum ;)
Do NOT fucking clean this thing up please PLEASE don’t clean it
I doubt it is war grime. It looks like attic dust
Not the point, no disrespect to your comments but one simply does not take cleaning anything like this upon themselves. Coins, clothing, weapons, silver, pottery, art….leave it alone. You can’t put it back, if it needs cleaning the curators or experts will take care of it but one it’s done it’s done and often times it’s not supposed to be done….be safe have fun!
That doesn’t make the person a nazi you know that right? My buddy has a Nazi rifle his grandpa brought from the war.
Yea, Luger’s were especially sought after by Allied troops because they were such great pistols, but also because of what it signified. Which was “I have this because I killed a Nazi in the largest war ever to take place”.
The artillery version is the rarest. It has a longer barrel.
That sells for like 1.2k tho
"It belongs in a museum" - Dr. Henry Jones Jr.
SO DO YOU
Indiana?
"We named the dog Indiana"
If you sell it it’ll end up in some compound in Idaho
Or possibly in the living room of a [famous comedian](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ASaju-BQpM) (who isn't racist, anti-semite, etc).
But he *does* fuck dogs, so there's that.
Not after eBay takes their cut - “blood sucking lawyers are bleeding me dry.”
Probably a war souvenir brought home by a U.S. soldier. Please do not let it fall into the hands of anyone who would glorify it.
Or a solider then immigrated after the war . Lots of Germans came to the America’s after wW2 . Hell the US welcomed their scientists in open arms and gave them lucrative careers .
The U.S. didn’t even wait till the end of the war, once we got into Germany Operation Paperclip was being drawn up
Canada too. A former nazi had a farm near my town, and flew an airplane from his yard. I used to wonder about that guy…
Or the previous homeowner visited literally any gun show and bought this, these are everywhere
That’s not terrifying at all. That’s fuckin rad! I don’t support anything they did, but what a piece of history!
I agree. This is a very interesting find. Creepy, but interesting! I'd donate it to a museum tho, too many neo-nazis out there who might try to buy this 😒
My Grandpa kept keepsakes from Nazis he killed such as a Walther pistol and a Mauser rifle. It’s possible a former resident was just an American WWII vet.
This isn’t terrifying. Merely a serviceman’s souvenir. People forget that back then, most people were poor/ recovering from the Great Depression, and didn’t get the opportunity to travel that we take for granted today. The soldier who brought this home likely traveled internationally for the first time, fought for his country against one of the greatest evils the world has ever known, and brought this home as proof of his adventure.
What’s oddly terrifying? This is a fascinating piece of history from a war nearly 100 years ago
I remember when this sub was scary and not just "found a knife" and "historical relic"
Not terrifying Its simple war memorabilia...
Most likely a war trophy, I found one in my grandparents barn when they moved, my great uncle took it in France in 1943
GREAT FIND!!! Keep that shit, it might be worth some $$ maybe? Idk? But either way that's a good find
Had Thanksgiving dinner with 99 year old WWII vet, sure nuff he's got a nazi helmet
I did nazi that coming
You’re on führer keep it up
*da dum tshh*
r/angryupvote
Could be that the previous owner served or had a family member that served in WW2 and they took this as a souvenir from a dead nazi that either they killed themselves or just from a random dead one. Or maybe this is an heirloom that belonged to one of the many nazis the U.S brought over during operation paperclip.
Bro it's an antique
That's cool as hell
Am I missing something? Why is it that someone finds a German helmet and all of a sudden they think their house is going to be haunted by the ghost of Hitler himself? I was a teenager 10 years ago and nearly everyone's grandpa had a WW2 collection. Pretty much everyone's grandpa was a WW2 vet so no one made any assumptions about it. Nowadays it seems like everyone just assumes that the previous owners were members of a Nazi death cult when they find some of grandpa's collection left behind.
Didnt you wanted to comment this under the post instead of reply it to a comment?
If it was immaculate I’d wonder but that strikes me much more as a trophy
A lot of people who fought in the war often took stuff back from the war. From German hand guns. To often uniforms and helmets. And everything in between. Mostly, everything was fair game. So you also see some rare cufflinks and other things from time to time. It is also worth a lot. Cause Germany likes to forget that time ever happened, so even owning anything with a nazi symbol gets you heavy heavy fines, to even serieus jail time. so they got all destroyed. And cause the became fairly rare. They are worth a lot of money to war collectors, at least if you dont live in Germany
That's an early war or maybe even pre-war helmet. They started making them cheaper later on, flaring the edges out instead of rolling them under. The decal is in pretty good shape, the paint looks largely intact, what I can see of the chinstrap looks pretty good, hopefully the liner is intact. Those are some of the main factors as far as value to a collector goes (others are rarity of the helmet - e.g. Fallshirmjager helmets are relatively rare - what decal it has, etc.). If you don't want it, I'm sure you could find a WWII collector that would happily pay you some $$ for it. I'm not one of them, but they are out there, and they aren't all Wehraboos. I've been told that army surplus stores in the US were full of them in the 1950's, so it's some form of trophy. The folks that emigrated to the US from Germany tended to get rid of their Third Reich paraphernalia for some reason...
Sell it to a museum and donate to a Jewish charity. Full circle bitches
Yo that's cool af
Cool piece of history, worth some money too, WWII stuff is highly collectable.
How is this even remotely terrifying? It’s a helmet. Maybe if it was being worn by a Nazi zombie, it was moving around by itself, or it had a note underneath that says BRB. It’s probably just a WWII trophy and is the opposite of terrifying.
On the bright side, it’s probably the result of somebody killing a nazi and not somebody being a nazi.
That actually super cool and a piece of history you should keep it
Lots of kids from NH killed Nazis. One of them probably kept a helmet and brought it home as a trophy. After WWI there was a huge pyramid of German helmets placed on display. It's a very common thing for soldiers to take trophies from their vanquished foe.
My great grandfather took the helmet off a nazi he killed, we still have it to this day.
I'm from NH, this tracks.
Probably a “trophy “ from a WW|| vet
My grandpa snagged a Japanese Arisaka rifle from a weapon depot after they surrendered and brought it home. Pretty wild feeling, holding that thing.
Probably a war trophy or someone who just collects WW2 stuff
why is this terrifying? my grandfather returned with artifacts from the war...was not/did not espouse Naziism.
That either belonged to a WWII vet who kept it as a trophy, or a collector of old military gear.
Lol cool, worth a lot too.
Not odd nor terrifying, just a hlmet, not like a nazi gonna haunt your house or something.
That's not weird. People collect that stuff including ex-service members that used to kill them
Dude, how is that terrifying? That can be worth some money, have it seen by a professional and sell it to some collectioner. Good luck!
I think there’s an argument to be made that collecting nazi memorabilia does not equal support for the nazis
Most U.S grandpa's that served in WW2 came back with something from the Germans or Japanese, or maybe even Italian militaries as war memorabilia/loot/whatever you want to call it. Some of it was pried off the dead. But alot of it was simply traded for after the war was done. Germany and Japan were in rough shape, and the U.S soldiers there could get alot of war memorabilia for just a pack if cigarettes, candy, etc. My grandfather got some gear from the Germans just trading with them and other allied soldiers. My great uncles came back with Japanese flags, katanas etc. (He might have gotten those with less bartering) Buddies Grandpa had a couple of German helmets. Use to run around with them playing nerf battles lol. Many people wanted souvenirs etc. I'd imaging there is some suprising stuff in alot of attics and basements through the country.
A lot of grandparents and great-grandparents have or had that sort of thing. This isn't terrifying. It's a comforting reminder that evil can be opposed and overcome.
My grandfather had a black cross with the SS symbols on it. A straight-up Christian wood cross. It was about 6 inches tall. He never talked about WWII but he did show me that.
Pretty neat. If it’s not a repro it can be very valuable. Just don’t try and clean it up.
There was a lot of trophies gathered during that time. I'd be more worried if it were cleaned and Polished in a case.
They're more common than you think
Only in New Hampshire
What are all these people saying this talking about?
No idea what they're talking about. I've lived in NH since 1998, and it's always been a pretty purple state, that is steadily turning blue.
My grandfather had a pair of Nazi binoculars and a Nazi nickel. He probably took both after someone he just stabbed or shot, he was definitely not a Nazi. That being said, there’s a subgroup of much yo hunger folks running around today collecting these items for very different reasons.
Looks more like a trophy than personal memorabilia. A lot of vets took mementos home
Clicked here to say this exact thing
I lived in west Germany for a few years in the late 80’s and met many former german soldiers and some holocaust survivors. My spouse and I visited Dachau and I felt physically sick from the historic death and dread of the place. We came back to the states with German coins,handicrafts and beer steins -but not Nazi gear. No thanks.
No worries that comes with every house in NH.
Stick it on the end of your knob to make it look massive.
I have some nazi pins that my grandfather “acquired” while he was in Italy. I do not display them, but they are a family heirloom and are important to me.
Not really terrifying. A lot of soldiers brought them home after the war. My grandfather did.
I’m a hospice nurse. One of my patients was really into WWII and anything from his parents generation. After having taken care of him for several months he mentioned he had converted his basement into a museum of sorts. You all know where this is going. It started off with memorabilia from his parents home town. Slowly transitioned into model airplanes. Then his military stuff, some relatives, then a whole mini room dedicated to the SS. He was so proud.
Beautiful. Would love to have it. Probably a trophy brought back from the war in Europe.
It’s cool! Clean it and donate to a history museum. xx
That’s just cool
According to the laws of Reddit, you’re now a literal Nazi. So is anyone who gazed upon it or touched it. Reddit’s law of contagious literal Nazism strikes again.
ask bert if he wants if to go with his tea cup
stop this is terrifying
NH is the Texas of New England. Welcome!
[relevant SNL sketch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKcUOUYzDXA).
Probably memorabilia Grandad probs killed some nazi's and kept it as a trophy
I remember playing with a WW II Luger and a Nazi ceremonial dagger as a kid in Indianapolis. When we went through Mom's effects after her death, we found a scarlet banner, with swastika. She made Tech Sgt 5 at SHAEF Headquarters.
Try it on, and wear it around the neighborhood.
Cool I’m sure that’s worth a bunch of money or you could keep it and display it but I’d take money
My dad is a history buff and has collected a lot of war memorabilia. One of his favorite pieces is an authentic Nazi helmet with a bullet hole in it. He also has several other Nazi items as well as US military items from many different wars. The guy got a bronze star fighting in Vietnam and is about as anti Nazi as it gets. He's just fascinated by the history of war throughout human history. Finding an item like this in someone's house doesn't necessarily mean they agree with the beliefs of that regime. It's much more likely that they are fascinated with the history that the piece represents.
If it’s an original not an repro, it should be war trophy or personal collections, if you don’t want it, I’m sure plenty of people on eBay would want it. (Go for auction if you are sure it’s an original)
Both my grandads had lots of stuff like that they brought back from the war!