Red Star From The Liberated Neuhammer.

[CtahhR]

As today is Auschwitz Liberation Day, here is at item that is quite unusual to the forum. It is a hastily and crudely cut from a sheet of aluminium. This Red Star adorned Stalag VIII-E/308 at Neuhammer after it was liberated by Soviet forces on 15th February 1945. The star measures over 1 foot (30cms) in diameter and has a façade of red paint slapped onto the front. The reverse has a small blip in the centre where it was attached to whatever it was attached to, a gate a building who knows? Although there may be photographs of it in situ in some photographic archives. The reverse has had some rather crudely engraved "dedications" which are pretty much unreadable now although what surprised me extremely when I first got this in my hands is that there is "9 IX 44" scratched on in the largest writing on the reverse. As a keen collector of most things Bulgarian this was outstanding. As I have not yet found out as to which units actually liberated the camp I am unsure as to whether there were Bulgarian Army units there or maybe a Bulgarian in the Soviet Army. Maybe someone here can enlighten me as to which units participated in the liberation of this particular cam? Stalag-VIIIE "handled" over 100,000 Soviet prisoners of war during its operation, over 50,000 of which perished.

Not the sort of thing you see every day and out of respect to the history of this item it has been on permanent display since acquiring it.