A previous owner of this dagger got the history of Erwin Kuther(2 dots over u so Kuether) from Robert McDivitt,I have condensed & picked up some imfo from the areas he was in.BORN 20 June 1905 in Berlin.He was in the Hitler Youth & awarded the Golden Honour Badge.He was awarded a Danzig Cross 2nd class, these were given to Danzig Home Guard platoon commanders.SS Ausweis No.276209,SS-Mann on 12 march 1936 & rose to rank of SS-Obersturmfuhrer (Waffen SS).He took part in the Austrian & Czech. Sudetenland occupations.I think due to his age he was put into Ersatz (replacement) Battalions of various units (including Totenkopf & Horst Wessel) as well as various SS admin departments & not on the front.From March 1942 to June, he was at Lublin in Poland, when the Lublin Ghetto was removed & shipped mainy to Belzec cocentration camp, this was the first ghetto to be cleared.His next role was inspecting the concentration camps.15 july 1942 onwards he was in various Ersatz units at Heidelager training camp in Poland & some SS admin departments.He went back to Lublin for Aktion Erntefest,basicaly the final purge for that area.He then seems to become involved with the Sipo (security police) & the SD (security service).11 April 1944 he was in the 18 SS Volunteer Panzer Grenaidier Division (Horst Wessel) as part of the Ersatz Battalion.Then to an SS Panzerjaeger (assault gun) Ersatz Battalion.He ended up back in Berlin as part of the SS Regiment 75, a supplementary reserve/ general SS unit.No idea what happened after that.During his SS service he was awarded an SS Honour Sword & Totenkopf Ring, hopefuly someone has got one of these.The photo shows part of the Lublin Ghetto, Kuther is not one of the soldiers.
