SS Oath-Taking in Roermond

3x SS Oath-Taking in ROERMOND

3 original NSB press photographs showing the oath-taking ceremony of LANDSTORM NEDERLAND in ROERMOND.
The later the war progressed, the fewer photographers were present at such occasions.

Size: approx. 6 × 8.5 cm

Good condition, with contemporary handwritten descriptions on the reverse.

In the photograph where Rauter is walking in the centre, Karl Maria DEMELHUBER, General of the WAFFEN-SS in the Netherlands, can be seen on the right, recognizable by his white turned-back lapels.

Anecdote

Sometime around 1960, my brother and I were hitchhiking through Germany and Austria. After waiting for a long time, a car suddenly stopped with screeching brakes.

“Jungs, einsteigen, einsteigen!” shouted an energetic man in his mid-fifties.

Soon the conversation turned to the war. Yes, he knew the Netherlands well, because he had served there for some time in the WAFFEN-SS:

“Sympathisches Volk, leckerer Jenever und schöne Mädchen...”

After that, he had gone to Russia, which he clearly liked much less.

He knew Karl Maria DEMELHUBER, General of the WAFFEN-SS in the Netherlands, well. He told us that they called him “General TOSCA”, because he frequently used that particular brand of perfume / eau de cologne.