NSDAP POLITICAL LEADER'S CAP AND GORGET, DIED WHILE IN FLIGHT FROM CONCENTRATION CAMP PRISONERS

NSDAP POLITICAL LEADER'S CAP AND GORGET, DIED WHILE IN FLIGHT FROM CONCENTRATION CAMP PRISONERS
Rare pair of items belonging to an unknown NSDAP political leader with a dramatic backstory. Included is a heavily-weathered brown wool visor cap with blue waffenfarbe piping, indicating leadership in the 'Ortsgruppenleitung'. The interior bears a tattered faux leather sweatband with torn rayon lining, which contains the remnants of a diamond-shaped celluloid sweat shield and a faded "2" ink stamp beneath the celluloid. Beneath the leather sweatband is an RZM tag, bearing the ink serial number 'DN63134' yet some of this number may have been lost due to age. The braided rope which once rested upon the faux leather visor has since become disconnected, and the cockade and swastika affixed to the front bears a visible crack. The cap is badly torn and water damaged, commensurate with having spent eight years in a wet basement. WITH: NSDAP standard bearer's gorget and chain, marked 'RZM M5/8' on one back hook and marked 'RZM 1/17' on the back of the two end chain links. The links on the chain bear alternating nationalistic images, including a swastika surrounded by laurels and a German national eagle. The large national eagle, once affixed to the front of the gorget, has since come loose, and the entire piece bears spots of oxidation and wear, also consistent with years of neglect. A contemporary typed document, included with this lot, explains: 'At the end of 1945 in the outlying area of Munich, a band of freed Concentration Camp Inmates chased a local Nazi Official in uniform trying to flee the area. He was never seen again until 1953, when a bombed-out building was demolished. In a basement room that was blocked by heavy rubble, they found 2 bodies - one of which was wearing a party uniform with the hat and gorget next to him...Those items were picked up by a worker from the demolition crew and later gave it to his nephew who sold it to me in the late 1980s at the Munich Fleamarket...' Sold with an extremely water damaged and disbound copy of 'Mein Kampf' (Munich: Franz Eher Nachfolger), dated 1934, with ragged edges and clearly showing signs of significant neglect, likely found in the same premises. Sold as is, only as a curiosity.