The Treasure Hunt of an Antique Dealer

The material of the skull ring is not very precious silver, but it is of great significance to the German SS, and the symbolic meaning is not simply represented by loyalty.

Similarly, in the military collections of the Western world today, an original genuine "Himmler Ring" is a coveted collection of many people, and the small number of them in the world is also a very large reason.

The earliest batch of skull rings were given by Himmler as a Christmas gift to senior SS officials in private on Christmas Day in 1933.

A few years later, it became a reward system and was given as a personal gift made by Himmler. All the rings were exclusively made by the Munich-based Ottogar company, and they were all made by hand.

There are regulations on the way of wearing it. It must be worn on the ring finger of the left hand. The family of the deceased person will return the ring to the SS Personnel Department, and then return it to Weewells Castle to commemorate the deceased. No family members can inherit the ring.

If the holder is killed in battle, the ring will be handed over to the commander of the army before his death, and returned to the castle directly over the SS personnel office. All the rings returned by the deceased form the SS Skeleton Ring Winner's Church.

In the latter part of World War II, as the Third Reich became weaker, Himmler ordered the cessation of the production and award of skull rings in 1944. As of New Year's Day in 1945, about 65% of the rings were returned to the Church of the Skull Ring Winners, and 26% were still there. Worn by its winners, less than 10% are lost on the battlefield by its owner.

"...Counting those who were captured on the Eastern Front and who were still alive in the final stages of the war, the Nazi SS had a very high rate of battle damage. You can see the number of recovered rings."

Zhang Nan is not talking nonsense. The cruelty of World War II, especially on the Eastern Front, was beyond imagination.

In the air-raid shelter, there were not only thousands of "naked rings" stuffed into a small box. After prying open a few boxes, many rings in small round wooden boxes were also found.

Zhang Nan held one in his hand and said: "The total number of such original Himmler rings is estimated to be at most 20,000 pieces. There are very few on the market, and even fewer with boxes."

These wooden boxes are neatly placed in the boxes. Obviously, the status of their former holders may be relatively high, or they may have made a great contribution to the SS.

Even a few boxes still retain the certificate of award, and they are stored together in a larger square wooden box. Even when the final retreat, these things were not discarded.

Guan Xingquan and Paul understand German. In this meeting, I will open a few copies and take a look: there are names that seem familiar, but there are also ones that have never been heard of-everyone is not an expert in the history of the German SS in World War II. .

But there are exceptions to everything.

Paul handed Zhang Nan a certificate and the ring box stored together, "Boss, Reinhard Heydrich's."

Open the small box, the ring inside is a bit worn out, the number inside the ring is "33", and the certificate was issued in 38 years, it should be reissued.

Zhang Nan looked at the ring of this high-ranking Nazi official with terrifying titles such as "Blond Beast", "Nazi Decapitator", "Black Prince of the Third Reich" and so on, and a big and tall image popped up in his mind: this guy The position in the Third Reich SS was second only to Himmler!

Everyone here is familiar with this name. In the past two years, everyone is not a club. Even if you don't care about the Third Reich before, you will know it after reading more books.

Suddenly, Zhang Nan asked: "It was Children's Day a few days ago. Do you know how it came?"

Only Jin Wenbo seemed to have heard of it and said: "It seems that it was because of a massacre."

Zhang Nan nodded, "The Children's Day on June 1st was established to mourn the Lidice tragedy that occurred on June 10, 1942 and all the children who died in wars around the world. The original reason was related to this murder king.

At the end of May of 2002, this Heydrich was the SS leader in the Czech Republic that was occupied by Germany. I forgot whether it was annexed or some Bohemian protectorate was consolidated. Anyway, this guy was attacked by British agents and local guerrillas. The team assassinated and was seriously injured and died on June 4.

On June 10, Hitler ordered the shooting and killing of all male citizens over 15 years old and all babies in Lidice Village, who had helped assassins, and escorted women and 90 children to concentration camps.

In the end, it seemed that more than a dozen people survived, and the others were basically sent into the gas chamber. "

At this point, Zhang Nan said in a mocking tone: "The British wanted to assassinate this Heydrich, not because of the cruelty of his rule, but because he is about to integrate the Czechs into Germans."

At this time Paul said: "It seems that his management has made Czech military production very efficient."

Zhang Nan smiled and nodded, and said: "After Germany annexed Austria, Hitler's treatment to Austrians should of course be the same as that of Germany before annexation, but the treatment of Czechs is quite different.

After Heydrich arrived in the Czech Republic, he greatly improved the treatment of Czechs, especially workers, and even the pension benefits that only a handful of government officials could enjoy before the Czech Republic was annexed by Germany ~www.readwn.com~ were all taken by Heydrich Promote throughout the Czech Republic.

If the British do not engage in assassinations, the Czech Republic will most likely be the second Austria! Because during Heydrich’s administration, the treatment of Czech workers under the Nazi rule was much better than before the German occupation, which is a bit ironic...

Heydrich died, the Czechs were massacred a lot, the successor lowered the treatment standards of the Czechs, the production capacity of the factory fell, and the allies benefited...

Strategically speaking, this is a perfect assassination! "

The guys have gained insights, and Zhang Nan clearly knows this. It was because he had participated in the children's day garden party of his daughter once in his previous life. There was an introduction about the origin of Children's Day in the kindergarten, so he took a closer look.

As for the issue of the treatment of Czech workers, I read it in idle books in my previous life.

...

The outermost boxes are all rings. It is estimated that all the 11,500 skull rings should be here.

"These can't be brought back to Long Island. They are too murderous and can be temporarily placed at the training base in Montana."

After Zhang Nan finished speaking, he put Heydrich's things into the outer pockets of the wide assault pants, and several Jin Wenbo began to seal the boxes.

The murderous spirit is too heavy, with more than 10,000 SS dead ghosts, Zhang Nan thinks he can't afford it.

Because the ones here are basically "naked rings", there are not a few boxes, and there are more than 30 boxes of much larger volume behind them.

Pry open a few, it will dazzle the eyes of the flower man: jewelry, almost all of them are jewelry!

Not "one box, one crown" jewelry, but a whole box of gems, gold coins, necklaces...

The value is difficult to estimate. Here, a few small boxes of German gold coins are the least valuable, and Zhang Nan’s favorite large wooden box contains 12 SS honorary epees all made of Damascus steel.