Originally Posted By: Alexander
For everyone who has been waiting with baited breath for many many months. I've finally unraveled the mystery, and I must say, its even more interesting than I could imagine.

First of all. There is a ring. But it is not an honor ring, not even an SS ring, its his plain old wedding band! The tale is actually (from my educated guess) a mixing of two different family member's service histories.

Heinz, after much more digging and direct contact with the volksbund, was never with the SS, but instead it is my more distantly related relative Hartwig-Friedrich Badenhoop. The "double O" spelling is an extremely old spelling of the family name and has its roots with an older version of the German language, only the oldest branches of the family had it and very few still carry it.

Hartwig was born on the 17Th of March 1909 in Kirchlinteln (a historical stomping ground for my family) and fell just 2 days after his 36Th birthday on the 19Th of March 1945. I'm still trying to find out where he fell, as he was moved later to a war cemetery in the Saarland. He was a lowly Sturmmann and would not have qualified for such a high ranking award, for this I'm honestly a little relieved.

Here is his profile with the Volksbund, I'll dig for some photographs of him. If anyone is still interested in Heinz I did manage to find a picture of him.



All the best
Alex

Absolutely, please do! Highly interesting, this!