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This Nazi document grouping consists of six original Third Reich Ausweise or identification documents and other ephemera, issued to Thomas Schluderbacher, a man born on 8 October 1909 in a town near Klagenfurt. He was a journeyman stonemason who became a construction foreman according to entries in the various documents in this lot. All documents are in excellent, hardly-used condition with original ID photos and entirely correct Nazi stamps.

At first glance these Nazi documents seem fairly ordinary, but digging into Schluderbacher's background a different, very interesting story is revealed! The lack of wartime entries in his Wehrpaß, the permanent record of his Nazi military service, showed he had been exempted from Wehrmacht combat service, and a bright pink Wehrpaß-Notiz, a slip of paper dated 16 March 1943 sent to Schluderbacher by Feldpost and tucked into his Wehrpaß, confirmed that. An entry in his Arbeitsbuch connected the dots. He was exempted from military service due to his 'essential worker status' as foreman on a job for the firm of Ing. Adolf Raubal, the construction contractor in Klagenfurt that oversaw the building of Konzentrationslager Loibl, under the auspices of Organisation Todt!

Concentration Camp Loibl, a sub-camp of KL Mauthausen, was actually TWO camps, KZ Loibl-Nord and KZ Loibl-Süd set-up on both sides of the Loibl mountain. The barracks in the camps housed forced laborers and political prisoners that were used to build "The Tunnel of Death", a strategic tunnel through the Loibl Mountain connecting Austria with Slovenia, an important north-south route to Italy. The Gauleiter of Carinthia, Dr. Friedrich Rainer, had promoted the project and construction of the 1560 meter long tunnel with Nazi authorities in Berlin. General Contractor was the famous Nazi construction company Universale Hoch- und Tiefbau AG of Berlin, and they hired local contractor Ing. Adolf Raubal in Klagenfurt to oversee construction.

The owner of all the Third Reich documents, Thomas Schluderbacher, for sale
on this USMBOOKS web page was foreman for Ing. Adolf Raubal!

NSDAP MITGLIEDSBUCH

Thomas Schluderbacher became a member of the Nazi Party on 1 May 1938. When he received his NSDAP Mitgliedsbuch (shown left) on 13 February 1942 , he had already paid membership dues from April - September 1940, and the ID contains Nazi Party dues stamps for 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944 and even the first quarter of 1945! In this Nazi ID his profession is listed as Maurerpolier, meaning he was construction foreman.

The Nazi Party document contains its original ID photo and is in excellent condition.

ARBEITSBUCH

The Labor Office of Klagenfurt issued Arbeitsbuch number 375/004654 to 31 year old Thomas Schluderbacher on 3 June 1939. By this time he was married and the Nazi Labor ID lists the companies where he had apprenticed and worked before he started his employment at the construction company of engineer Adolf Raubal of Klagenfurt on 2 May 1938. His occupation is listed as Bauleiter (construction supervisor).

He remained employed at Raubal until 31 March 1948 (although the company name changed after WW2). It was Bauunternehmung Ad. Raubal that was the contractor overseeing the building of the tunnel under the Loibl Pass by up to 5000 slave laborers of the Konzentrationslager Loibl (if the RAUBAL name sounds familiar it may be because it was the married name of Adolf Hitler's sister Angela, and of her daughter and Hitler's niece Geli, who died in Hitler's apartment at 16 Prinzregentenplatz in Munich in 1931).

DAF MITGLIEDSBUCH

Schluderbacher's German Labor Front membership ID was issued on 1 June 1938 by the Administration of the Central Office of the DAF in Klagenfurt. His occupation is listed as construction foreman. There are written entries and dues stamps for 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943 through September 1944. This red Nazi ID is in excellent condition.

SA WEHRABZEICHEN UBUNGSBUCH

This is Thomas Schluderbacher's record book of his SA training, issued on 14 June 1941. It contains carefully filled in pages recording his qualifying results for running, hand grenade throwing, shot-put, long-jump, shooting, hiking with backpacks, field orientation, etc. SA examiner 12566 signed off on all the results (totaling 754 points) in Klagenfurt on 25 March 1942. It is in excellent condition.

SA WEHRABZEICHEN
URKUNDE + BESITZ-ZEUGNIS

This is Schluderbacher's official certificate, proof he officially qualified for and was authorized to wear the SA Wehrabzeichen in Bronze, number 1822213 dated 24 December 1942. With original ID photo and in excellent condition.

The Besitz-Zeugnis is a small but very rare and important 3-1/8 x 3-½ inch, two-sided tan card stock ID, issued to Schluderbacher so he could easily prove he had qualified for and was authorized to wear the SA Wehrabzeichen in Bronze. With original ID photo and in very nice used condition.

WEHRPASS

This original Third Reich permanent record of military service was issued to 30 year old Thomas Schluderbacher by Wehrbezirks-Kommando Klagenfurt and signed by its Oberstleutnant und Kommandeur on 3 June 1939 and there are several associated documents in the 'pockets' of the Wehrpaß. Personal entries show both his parents were dead, that he was single when the Wehrpaß was issued and married during its use.

This Nazi Wehrpaß contains no entries regarding military training or military service. Inside the front cover 'pocket' we found the 5-¾ x 8-¼ inch bright pink Wehrpaß-Notiz (shown near the top of this USMBOOKS web page) sent by the Wehrmeldeamt of Klagenfurt explaining he had a deferment as a result of his status as 'essential worker' at the Bauunternehmung Adolf Raubal, the company overseeing construction of KZ Loibl!

Tucked into the 'pocket' of the Wehrpass we also found two official paper documents (shown right) measuring approximately 5-½ x 8-¼ inch, relating to Schluderbacher's ownership of a motorcycle without a side-car (license plate K16029). A civilian owning a motorcycle was a rarity in wartime Nazi Germany and it was no doubt an essential vehicle for his job.

This Nazi document grouping also includes five 3-¼ x 5-½ inch photographs of Reichsarbeitsdienst men marching, hand-dated 1 May 1937 on the back and one 2-½ x 3-½ inch deckle edge photo of a swearing-in ceremony of RAD men. Thomas Schluderbacher must be one of them.

On the internet we found that Schluderbacher started his own construction company in 1950, THOMAS SCHLUDERBACHER, Unternehmung für Hoch- und Tiefbau in Arnoldstein, just outside Villach on the Italian border, a few miles west of where he had been involved in overseeing a Nazi concentration camp a few years earlier! Engineer Adolf Raubal also started another construction company, registered in Klagenfurt in 1949!

A very rare Nazi document grouping of great historical value because the documents have never been separated, and as a result tell a fairly complete and highly unusual story related to the construction of concentration camps in Nazi Germany.