WWII German SS Camera

[FT.Monmouth1943]

I recently bought a nice Vietnam war boonie hat, and the seller mentioned that he had this camera for sale. The story behind it is that his father, who served in the Army, brought it home with him after being stationed in Germany in the 1950s. I know the camera itself is real and from the 30s, but I am curious if y’all think the SS attribution is real given there has been a cottage industry making these sorts of things since the end of the war. The leather strap is stamped “SS Weber” and the back of the camera says his name, rank and address. Just from some basic research it seems that there is a decent amount of information on him and some photos.

Everything looks old and looks like it has the correct age and patina to it, but it could very well have been done in the 50s. Any insight on this would be great as I don’t want to dump a bunch of cash on a fantasy piece.

 

- Jakob

 

[Gunner87]

12 hours ago, FT.Monmouth1943 said:

I recently bought a nice Vietnam war boonie hat, and the seller mentioned that he had this camera for sale. The story behind it is that his father, who served in the Army, brought it home with him after being stationed in Germany in the 1950s. I know the camera itself is real and from the 30s, but I am curious if y’all think the SS attribution is real given there has been a cottage industry making these sorts of things since the end of the war. The leather strap is stamped “SS Weber” and the back of the camera says his name, rank and address. Just from some basic research it seems that there is a decent amount of information on him and some photos.

Everything looks old and looks like it has the correct age and patina to it, but it could very well have been done in the 50s. Any insight on this would be great as I don’t want to dump a bunch of cash on a fantasy piece.

 

- Jakob

 

 

Hi Jakob.

 

I have paid some thought to your interesting post and whether I should voice an opinion but as you have asked for any insight I'll voice what could be worth considering.

 

I maybe way off the mark but what really concerns me is whether a very senior SS officer and party member would feel the need to attach to an expensive camera, most likely privately purchased, rank and name on paper using strong adhesive that would be difficult to remove. In addition, the officer's Munich residence is also glued onto the artefact. For a Standartenfurer to label a camera with both official title and private address seems a little odd.  I am also confident that if a camera was lost, then found by a member of the public, especially 80 years ago, and it was marked SS only the next port of call would be the police station or head quarters to hand the camera in. Would there be any need to add personal details.?

 

As I mentioned, this is only my opinion, but having seen so many forgeries and fake items, even those produced soon after the wars end, I would be asking myself whether the camera really belonged to SS Standartenfuhrer Josef Weber, who I'm sure you are aware died in January 1942.

 

One other consideration is the type face used to stamp WEBER on the strap. Having looked at a number of leather items from the period I haven't seen that style used before. Again, I might be completely wrong but I thought you might want to check that detail to see if you can find similar.

 

Kind regards

 

Gunner

 

 

[FT.Monmouth1943]

Thank you Gunner, those were some of the same concerns I had as well. Even if this did belong to him, it would be very hard to definitively prove it. I’m curious what others think, but I will probably end up passing on this piece