SMGQ-0312 Walter Pitsch Knights Cross winner signature x2 with letter

Name: SMGQ-0312 Walter Pitsch Knights Cross winner signature x2 with letter
SKU: 67487
Availability: InStock

Original price was: $100.00.Current price is: $70.00.

1 in stock

Description

A post war original signature on glossy 3×4 photo paper as well as a signature on a letter. The letter is on his personal letter head. the letter is dated 1987 and has some damage in the left upper corner. The letter seems to be a generic type, produced in advance to respond to collectors who wrote him. There are two tabs that held the picture originally on the letter but they no longer function. The letter just says in paraphrase: “i received your request, im including a picture, please use it only for your collection”

From Military Wiki:

Walter Pitsch (13 July 1920 – 29 July 2005) was a Hauptscharführer in the Waffen SS who was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross on 6 May 1945, he was the last member of the 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler and the only member of the Division’s Anti Aircraft battalion to be given the award.^{[Note 1]}

At the time of his award Pitsch was the commander of the 4th Battery, 1st SS Anti Aircraft Battalion, LSSAH.

Notes

↑ No evidence of the award can be found in the German National Archives. According to Walther-Peer Fellgiebel the award was presumably awarded by SS-Oberstgruppenführer Sepp Dietrich, which would make it unlawful. Fellgiebel names Hermann Buch, the former IIa (personnel administration) of the 2. SS-Division “Das Reich”, and Wilhelm Kment as sources. Buch stated on 25 June 2006 that he has nothing to do with this presentation. Walter Pitsch is mentioned the first in Ernst-Günther Krätschmer 2nd edition of “Die Ritterkreuzträger der Waffen-SS—The Knight’s Cross Bearers of the Waffen-SS“. The Association of Knight’s Cross Recipients (AKCR) initially did not accept Pitsch as a recipient since he was not listed in Gerhard von Seemen’s 2nd edition of “Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939-1945—The Knight’s Cross Bearers“. The order commission of the AKCR processed the case in 1977 and decided: “Knight’s Cross yes, 3 May 1945”. The presentation date was later changed by Fellgiebel to 6 May 1945. Krätschmer who does not present a source for Pritsch’s listing also states 6 May 1945. Unfortunately Pritsch, a member of the AKCR, did not help clarify the situation. Twice, on 24 July 2004 and 22 July 2004, did he not respond to a request from the president of the AKCR.^[1]