Guide package

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The Führerpaket (also: “Führer Gift für Fronturlauber”) was a food package that German Wehrmacht soldiers (and other military personnel, e.g. doctors, paramedics and nurses) received once a year from 1942 to 1944 during World War II , as soon as they received from the Coming from the front, crossed the border on home leave.

The gift package was intended as a gratitude for the Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht , the "Führer" Adolf Hitler , for the war effort of the German soldiers and was expressly intended to benefit their families. It contained food and beverages; Usually sausage or dried ham, butter, oil, cheese, flour or cornstarch, canned food, sugar, chocolate or cocoa as well as a preprinted card on which the imperial eagle was embossed and which read: “A small thank you from the Führer to his soldiers " wore.

The handover of the Führer package to the vacationers at the front was noted in their pay book or ID when they crossed the border . In some cases, for example in the case of the wounded, the Fuehrer's present did not consist of natural produce, but of the corresponding food purchase stamps and a cash purchase fee of ten Reichsmarks .

The Führerpaket campaign was introduced in October 1942. It was under the direction of the Reich Commissioner for the Ukraine , Erich Koch , and his confidante, the state director in the Ukrainian town of Rovno , Kurt Knuth alias Kurt Quedenfeld. The administrative office for the guide packages was in the East Prussian Königsberg in the Kaiserstr. 50 - Erich Koch was also Gauleiter of the NSDAP in East Prussia , Kurt Knuth was district leader of the NSDAP in Heiligenbeil , Osterode and Angerburg in East Prussia.

From October 15, 1943, the members of all parts of the armed forces and the Waffen SS as well as members of the various organizations deployed within the framework of the German eastern front, from Italy, Greece, Serbia, Croatia and Norway, as well as all submarine crews deployed for combat, received and the air force flying personnel deployed to combat, who come home as wounded, sick or as vacationers and had a corresponding authorization note in their papers, again a "Führer present" in the form of a food package or a corresponding special food card in connection with a sum of money ten Reichsmarks (RM).

By handing out this “ Führer present ”, “at home” the impression should be created that the German soldiers at the front lacked nothing. The food parcels gave millions of German soldiers the opportunity to improve their families' meals with food from the occupied areas, which were often hungry.

Some of the food that was distributed in the Führer packets was requisitioned in German-occupied Ukraine , that is, stolen from the local population.

In 1944, due to lack of space in the railway wagons, the guide packages were generally replaced by special food cards that were issued to those on holiday at the front "at home". A standardized cover letter with the blue seal wafer of the “Reich Commissioner for Ukraine” and the facsimile signature of Erich Koch was enclosed with the special “Führerpaket für Osturlauber” food cards.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christian Packheiser, “Heimaturlaub: Soldiers Between Front, Family and NS Regime”, Wallstein-Verlag, 2020, fn. 798 on p. 262, https://books.google.de/books?id=KpLaDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA262&lpg= PA262
  2. ↑ so Imke Wendt, "War in the East - in the West" Bathing and Winter Sleep "?" Volume 3/3: "The Second World War on the Eastern and Western Fronts from the Perspective of Former Wehrmacht Members", BoD - Books on Demand, August 3rd 2016, p. 1220; https://books.google.de/books?id=hJzNDAAAQBAJ . According to Christian Packheiser, “Heimaturlaub: Soldiers between the Front, Family and Nazi Regime”, Wallstein-Verlag, 2020, fn. 798 on p. 262, https://books.google.de/books?id=KpLaDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA262&lpg= PA262  : "The guide package for holidaymakers from the front contained entitlement certificates for 5 kg of wheat flour, 2 kg of foodstuffs or pulses, 1 kg of sugar, 1 1/2 kg of jam, 1/2 kg of butter or margarine ...". See also: EN, “The Führerpaket is packed”, Deutsche Ukraine-Zeitung, Wed., October 10, 1943, p. 3, https://libraria.ua/en/numbers/875/32201/?PageNumber=3&ArticleId= 1410702 & Search = F% C3% BChrerpaket  : "Five kilos of flour, one kilo of sugar, one kilo of semolina, one kilo of millet, one kilo of peas and one kilo of oil are included in the generous donation, which is tied into a handy package."
  3. ↑ see the illustration under: https://auktionen.felzmann.de/img/lose/168/05896q000.JPG
  4. ↑ “Again a guide package for vacationers on the front - issuing food packages or special food cards”, in: Deutsche Ukraine-Zeitung, October 15, 1943, p. 1, https://libraria.ua/en/numbers/875/32162/?PageNumber=1&ArticleId = 1408639 & Search = F% C3% BChrerpaket
  5. ↑ “Again a guide package for vacationers on the front - issuing food packages or special food cards”, in: Deutsche Ukraine-Zeitung, October 15, 1943, p. 1, https://libraria.ua/en/numbers/875/32162/?PageNumber=1&ArticleId = 1408639 & Search = F% C3% BChrerpaket
  6. ↑ Chronik.net, What happened in October 1942 ?, Sunday, October 4, 1942, https://chroniknet.de/extra/ereignisse/oktober-1942/ : “In a speech on the occasion of the harvest festival, the representative for the four-year plan announced , Hermann Göring, that in future every German Wehrmacht holidaymaker will receive a "guide package" with food when crossing the German border. "
  7. ^ "Again a guide package for vacationers on the front - issuing food packages or special food cards", in: Deutsche Ukraine-Zeitung No. 242 of October 15, 1943, p. 1, https://libraria.ua/en/numbers/875/32162/? PageNumber = 1 & ArticleId = 1408639 & Search = F% C3% BChrerpaket
  8. ^ Letter to the editor from Mr. HS from Stuttgart, in: Ostpreußen-Warte, volume 03 of March 1954, p. 2, https://list.genealogy.net/mm/archiv/ow-preussen-l/2016-02/2016- 02f.html  : “During the war Knuth was up to mischief in the Ukraine. There he exploited the population. Whole freight trains rolled to East Prussia and the Reich through his blackmail methods. The so-called "Führerpaket Aktion" - consisting of goods confiscated from the Ukrainian population - was his idea. " See also: Erich Koch , “To all Germans in Ukraine”, in: Deutsche Ukraine-Zeitung, No. 3, January 5, 1943, p. 3; https://libraria.ua/en/numbers/875/32218/?PageNumber=3&ArticleId=1411590&Search=F%C3%BChrerpaket  : “... the warfare of Adolf Hitler [...] with the Ukraine certainly knew what to do with it. Our soldiers did not shed their blood in this country for the sake of any ideas for the happiness of humanity, but to make the riches stored here usable for the front and home [...]. The civil administration set up by the Führer in this country knows only one major goal: to get the front-line army what it needs and to provide the homeland with the additional quantities of food, raw materials and workers to which the German people are entitled necessary for the attainment of final victory. It was with this objective that the Reichskommissariat Ukraine worked last year. To give exact numbers still forbids the interest of waging war. But so much can be said that the last increase in rations in the Reich, the special allocations at Christmas and, above all, the packages of leaders for vacationers at the front would hardly have been possible to this extent without the contributions of the Ukraine. In these days the four thousandth grocery train is rolling across the borders of the Reich, and almost 710,000 workers have been freed in the Ukraine to replace the manpower necessary for military service in the German arms industry and agriculture. These are numbers that can be seen ... "
  9. ↑ Markus Krammer, Memoirs: "Death Bell for the Eternal Third Reich" (Part 4), in: Stadt Ebersberg (Ed.), Stadtmagazin, February 2018, p. 22, https://www.ebersberg.de/fileadmin/ebersberg /Rathaus_Service/Stadtmagazin/2018/Stadtmagazin_Februar_2018.pdf