Description
This is a personal pass from the “Reichsminister”, (actually Reichskommissar für die besetzten Niederlande) Arthur-Seyss-Inquart, for the Reichssportabzeichen für Versehrten. It contains the four centrepages from the Urkundenheft. Including his famous passphoto.
The condition is heavy used, it are also just the four centrepages, old repairs of tape are present.
What makes it an amazing collectable, besides being a high ranking persons document of course, is that there are no less than SIX personal ink signed signatures present by Arthur Seyss-Inquart. There is also an original and very rare signature of Reichssportführer Hans von Tsjammer und Osten.
The passphoto and page it is on are original and official stamped by the “Geheime Feldpolizei – Gruppe GFP Reichssicherheitsdienst“. The offcial citation part on the lower left page which is signed by Hans von Tsjammer und Osten contains a stamp by the Reichssportamt in Berlin. It is dated and located Berlin, 30 November 1942. It’s number is V.3. This stands for Versehrten number 3. The Reichssportabzeichen für Versehrten [Reichs Sports badge for Disabled Persons] was a very rare sportsbadge and in the Netherlands only very few were ever awarded. For example, in 1942 there were only 17 silver DRL sportsbadges awarded. Which gives some insight into the awarded numbers of the even more rare Versehrten sportsbadge. As we can thus read Seyss-Inquart got number “V.3”. Finding any paperwork or citation to such a badge awarded in the Netherlands is rare, finding one from such a high ranking and leading German person can easily be called unique.
The page with passphoto is dated and located to den Haag [The Hague], more precisly the estate of Clingendael, where Seyss-Inquart had his commandpost and famous bunkercomplex. As such this is an even more interesting piece of dutch wartime history.
Further we can read that Seyss-Inquart had passed the qualification tests for the groups 1 – 5, these were:
1 300 meter swimming in 10 min and 12 seconds
2 “Kopfsprung vom 3 Meter Brett” [Head jump from 3 meter diving board]
3 1000 meter running/walking in 7 minutes and 28 seconds
4 Shot put 3,94 meters to t he right, 3,51 meters to the left
5 Long run/walk 10 kilometeres in 1 hour and 34 minutens and 58 seconds
He did all the tests for the groups 1-3 in the Hague in the Netherlands on 10 October 1942, the test for group 4 on 26 november 1942 and the test for group 5 on 29 november 1942.
All these were officially proofed and controlled by two witnesses and after that officially control stamped/approved by Der Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD für die Besetzten Niederländischen Gebiete in den Haag.
This is an important and unique historical document from one of the most important figures in the Second World War and occupation in the Netherlands. It would look amazing in a double sided glass frame in a passe-partout.
Of note: Seyss-Inquart was disabled from a fall in the Tirolean mountains in 1928 that had shattered his knee. As a result he could not walk normal anymore and got during the war in the Netherlands mockingly the nickname “Hinkepink”. This ofcourse also explains as such his quite abnormal – with regards to normal qualification tests results – test results and being elligible for the sportsbadge for disabled persons.
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More background on Arthur Seyss-Inquart: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Seyss-Inquart
