The images and the entire text used on this and all other USMBOOKS web pages are the copyrighted property of USM Inc.  Those images and the text may be used by others ONLY AFTER completion of a formal international licensing agreement and payment of a licensing fee! It is therefore, illegal for anyone to take any of the material found on USMBOOKS.com and use it for their own purposes without our written permission, irrespective of any excuse they may feel they have for doing so.

The Nazi German equivalent of USO entertainment for troops of the Waffen-SS and the Wehrmacht was the Truppenbetreuung der KdF or "Troop-Care Units" of the KdF (Kraft durch Freude or Strength through Joy) section of the Deutsche Arbeitsfront. The KdF Truppenbetreuung brought entertainment to German combat troops everywhere.

During World War II, Guido Goroll toured widely and entertained Wehrmacht troops, and this lot contains a Vollmacht or Power of Attorney dated 13 March 1941. Goroll authorized his wife Margarete Goroll to represent him and make financial decisions and payments for him in his absence. Goroll hand-signed it and below the autograph is a stamp that says Wehrmachtsbühne Guido Goroll.

A very interesting item in this lot is an original DAF Lastschrift, KdF Arbeitsgebiet Truppenbetreuung, a debit note issued to Goroll for expenses while performing the play 'Ich heirate meine Tante' (I married my Aunt) in Einsatzgebiet Südosten in 1943. The pencil entries on this rare 7-¾ x 8 inch Lastschrift state the performances took place in Athens, Greece between 20 December 1943 and 10 January 1944 and the total amount in question was Reichsmarks 2080!

We purchased this large Third Reich grouping in the mid 1980s in West Berlin from a lady who cleaned out houses after people died. We bought many treasures in her noisy shop under the railway bridge behind the Kempinski Hotel over the years, but we have always enjoyed this grouping and only recently did we decide to sell it.

The lot consists of dozens of permits, certificates, authorizations, correspondence, ration cards and ration coupons, all issued to and owned by actor Guido Goroll of Berlin (born 24 March 1899), his wife Margarete (née Lange, born 19 October 1903) and his mother, also named Margarete (born 19 July 1875).

Both Guido and Margarete (Grete) Goroll were Schauspieler (actors) and can be found listed as such in Berlin phone books (before, during and after World War II) and in the Deutsches Bühnen Jahrbuch Theatergeschichtliches Jahr- und Adressenburch, official yearbooks for German performing artists. They were both members of the RKK and lived at Fredericiastrasse 31 in fashionable Berlin-Charlottenburg before, during and after WW2.

Another related item is a rare authorization from Dr. Joseph Goebbels' Reichspropagandaamt on Leipzigerstrasse 88 in Berlin dated 11 August 1944, giving Guido Goroll and his wife Margarete permission to travel (and purchase train tickets) for their work. This 5-¼ x 8-¾ inch Bescheinigung contains several rubber stamps with August and November 1944 stamps showing Guido and Margarete Goroll did travel for their entertainment work during that time.

Shown directly above are two Flieger-Abreisebescheinigung, rare Third Reich documents one had to obtain after evacuation (Umquartierung) or resettlement after airraid damage to one's residence. One was issued on 16 September 1944 to Guido Goroll also listing his mother Margarete and wife Margarete. The second one was issued to Guido Goroll's mother on 19 March 1945 at the Heeresgutsbezirk at Zehrensdorf, the huge Wehrmacht compound near Zossen (military test facilities, training facilities, HQ, etc.)!

This lot also contains an empty envelope from the Arbeitsamt or Labor Office at Küstrin (now in Poland) mailed from Seelow on 4 January 1945 addressed to Guido Goroll while he was stationed at Gusow/Ostbahn (a transit station 4 km from Seelow, just north of Frankfurt on the Oder river, east of Berlin).

Shown left is an A4 size form called Familienkarte für Umquartierte aus dem Warthegau. It is an official form to obtain family ration cards in a new area of residence after evacuation from the Warthegau in the east. It was issued to Guido Goroll's wife Margarete and his mother Margarete by the NSDAP Ortsgruppe, Amt für Volkswohlfahrt (NSV) in Wünsdorf (Kreis Teltow, Gau Kurmark) and is dated 27 February 1945. The second official eagle and swastika stamp on this form is from the Wehrgutsbezirk Zehrensdorf, the huge Wehrmacht compound near Zossen (military research and test facilities, Wehrmacht training facilities, and underground military headquarters of the OKW and OKH between 1939 and 1945). Apparently that is where the Gorrolls were heading to after being forced to leave Gusow before the arrival of advancing Soviet troops. While Guido Goroll was not mentioned on this document (in all probability he was issued his own Stammkarte and this one was for his family members), we know from other material in this grouping that he was at the Wehrgutsbezirk Zehrensdorf in late March 1945.

Related to this is a Bescheinigung or authorization from the Ortsgruppenleiter dated 5 March 1945 stating that Margarete Goroll and her family were ordered to leave Gusow. It measures 2-1/8 x 8-1/4 inch and bears the official stamp of the NSDAP Ortsgruppe Gusow.

The lot includes a rare Deutsche Arbeitsfront KdF Arbeitsgebiet Truppenbetreuung credit voucher for a payment of Reichsmarks 13.88 dated 23 March 1945. The payment was related to his 20 December 1943 performance of 'Ich heirate meine Tante'(I married my Aunt) in Athens. The 5-7/8 x 8-1/4 inch Gutschrift has Heil Hitler! pre-printed on it!

There is also an empty 3-1/8 x 6 inch envelope mailed by the Deutsche Arbeitsfront KdF Arbeitsgebiet Truppenbetreuung on Hohenzollerndamm 174-177 in Berlin-Wilmersdof on 26 March 1945 to Guido Goroll. It was sent to his Fredericiastrasse 31 address in Berlin-Charlottenburg but forwarded to his new address at the military compound at Wünsdorf-Zossen.

This lot also includes four undated Reichshauptstadt Berlin Bezugsausweis (ration cards) with Guido Goroll's name stamped on them. His title on the stamp is Gastspieldirektion or Guest Director while living at Fredericiastrasse 31 in Berlin-Charlottenburg.

There is also a very rare 3-3/8 x 4-½ inch cardboard folder marked Kapeka Lebensmittel-Reisemarken issued to Guido Garoll to store Reisemarken, ration coupons while traveling (still contains some bread ration coupons). These Reisemarken are more proof that the Gorolls traveled around for work and needed ration coupons that could be used outside Berlin, elsewhere in Grossdeutschland.

This Goroll grouping also includes two 1943 clothing ration coupon cards, 1943 bread ration coupons, 1944 socks ration coupons, an original orange 1943/44 Haushaltausweis (household ID) issued to Guido Goroll, 1944 receipts for food ration cards, two April /May 1944 smoking ration cards, three 1944 potato ration cards (valid from November 1944 through July 1945!), 1945 milk ration coupon, and many unused bread ration coupons, the special variety for Urlauber, people traveling so these coupons could be used outside the district of their residence anywhere in Adolf Hitler's Greater Germany.

While the Gorrolls traveled around, somebody else rented a room in their house on Fredericiastrasse 31 in Berlin, probably due to the housing shortage. We know this because of a letter sent to Guido Goroll by Anna Rudolph on 10 April 1945, informing him she moved into a room in his house on 9 April 1945. She mentions an Einweisungsschein, an official document giving her that right. However, due the furnishings left behind and stored in the apartment, there is not enough room for her personal belongings and she is requesting Goroll to remove the stored material. From listings in post-war Berlin telephone books we know the Gorolls returned to their residence at Fredericiastrasse 31 in Berlin-Charlottenburg, so Anna Rudolph's residence was only temporary!

We also discovered the May 1947 typhus inoculation receipts of Guido and Margarete Goroll amongst this paperwork. They are shown below.  Interestingly, due to the postwar paper shortage they were printed on the back of a used World War II Nazi color map of the area of Leningrad in Russia!

This lot is a triumph of Third Reich bureaucracy! Official documents, certificates and receipts still being issued, stamped and verified while the war was lost and just about over. While some of the authorizations might be a bit confusing to some, what is clear is that the Gorolls traveled around to entertain Wehrmacht troops in 1943, 1944 and 1945, resided at different military facilities while doing so and obtained necessary documents and permits from offices of the Nazi Party and Wehrmacht that facilitated their travels. Fascinating and very rare World War II material! There is more material and there are more pictures of Goroll that can be found on the internet.

We were able to find several movies and plays in which Guido Goroll appeared in the 1930s, and he continued his career in Germany after World War II until the late 1950s. As is so often the case, little can be found out about his career between 1940 and 1945, and if we had not discovered this material, interesting history would have been lost. The lot we are selling here fills in the blank spaces from about 1939 to 1945 in his online biographies.