I have a Rohm dagger with the signature removed, that i acquired directly from the vet many years ago, but I am certainly no authority on any dagger. I can however, make some comments about dealing in the Czech Republic. I have bought several very nice and rare items there over the past 10 years, primarly Gestapo related, because that is an area in which I have had a lot of experience and trust my judgement.
It is also a place that a lot of Gestapo pieces were abandoned. The Gestapo did not leave Prague until May 8, 1945, in the wake of the Czech insurgency...and juat ahead of the Russian army. They were escorted out of Prague by a Red Cross convoy. Many of them were arrested the following day in the old Sudetenland as thay made their way toward Germany....and the American lines.
Like most places in the world, there are a few fast operators in the Czech Republic, I suppose, but by and large, I have found the persons that I have dealt with there far more honest and reliable, than many I have run into right here at home. It is my opinion that the everage Czech has a much higher ethical standard than what we encounter here on a daily basis.
In addition to that, the Czech Republic is a great storehouse of WWII pieces that were ditched by the retreating German army and police forces. I have interviewed first hand, a few Germans that were in that exodus. There are places in the Sudtenland that have produced a number of SS rings anti-Partisian badges, Gestapo warrant discs, and other rare items. About 8 years ago, I visited a person living there in one of the high-rise communist era apartments, that had one room of his apartment completely filled with metal-detector finds. It looked like a high-quality museum display. Nothing was for sale. We knew each other as fellow collectors and friends. I saw several anti-partisian badges that had been badly eaten way by the acid soil of the agricultural fields along the streams, where many of the Germans had been held for long periods while they were being sorted out by Allied troops. Both the British and Ameriacns were involved in this. Anything like SS rings, insignia, or Gestapo warrant discs were hastily buried or discarded here, so as not to tie its owner to those organizations. Do not associate the acquisition of rare materials here with places like Poland. There is a tremendous difference in the circumstances.
I am not trying to influence anyone's opinion about this. I am only stating what I have learned from first-hand experience. You are making a mistake if you discount this as a place to find authentic, and rare pieces, and are put off by the question of ethics of the people.
Don Bible
