Document grouping - decorated Heer and RAD officer, KIA 1945

Large document grouping for Hermann Eckel, a Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD) officer and a Pionier (Combat engineer) officer. Born in 1912, Eckel joined the RAD in 1933 and the Wehrmacht in 1938. The document grouping consists of 8 loose documents and a folder containing 36 documents. These documents includes:

• 1950 dated Red Cross report written by a Pionier soldier who served with Eckel during the war. In the report Eckel is described as an Oberleutnant and Kompanieführer 1. Kompanie Pionnier Battalion 291 (1st Lieutenant and commander of a combat engineer company). He had been awarded the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd Class, the Assault Badge and 2 tank destruction badges. He was severely wounded by “close shots to the stomach” in the fighting around the town of Sagan, which was captured by the Soviets on February 18th 1945. 

• Various post-WW2 correspondence that confirms that Oberleutnant Eckel died on February 11th 1945. His final RAD rank was Oberstfeldmeister (Captain). His widow was awarded compensation after the war.

• Several report cards and certifications of having completed his high school education and having studied philosophy at Johann Wolfgang Göthe Universität in philosophy in 1932-33. 

• Third Reich period documents: financial compensation for damage in a bombing attack (1943), RAD payment forms (1936 - 1938), birth certificate for his daughter (1938), documents pertaining to his serving with a Pionier unit in the Wehrmacht (1938) and RAD documentation / correspondence.

• RAD documentation that states that in 1938 Eckel held the rank of Oberfeldmeister (1st Lieutenant) and that he was assigned the position of  “political instructor” at an RAD squad leader school.