Wehrpass - medic / POW guard 1939 - 40

1st edition Wehrpass, issued to Rudolf Meyer, in August 1937. Born in 1896, Meyer worked in agriculture (Landwirt), around the town of Uelzen, in Lower Saxony. He served in the Wehrmacht late August 1939 to late January 1940, serving with the 3. Kompanie Land. Schutz Battalion X / XI, an infantry reserve unit that stayed on the homefront. The entries specify that Meyer was trained as a medic / stretcher bearer (Krankenträger). His unit was stationed in the Northern German town of Fallingbostel, in which a large POW camp existed at the time (during this period it would have housed Polish prisoners, though later French, Belgian and other nations soldiers were interned there). Fallingbostel is mentioned in the Wehrpass, but service at the prison camp (Stalag XI - B) doesn’t appear, so it’s uncertain whether he served as a guard there, though it seems somewhat likely. He held the rank of Gefreiter and appears to have received military training in November 1918, but wasn’t sent to the front in WW1. He also had a “third class” drivers license (Führerschein kl. III). 

The Wehrpass comes with a playing card sized calendar for 1942 (serves also as an 8cm ruler, neat), a February 1940 dated Wehrpass Notiz document and a January 1940 dated military service attestation document (Dienstzeitbescheinigung). This last document is nicely filled-in and stamped, confirming Meyer’s military service in Fallingbostel, with the aforementioned reserve unit.