Third Reich Anti Partisan Badge Award Document and Civil Tax Inspector Appointment Group of One Man

The group is comprised of four documents of Karl Hess, who was born on July 13, 1922. The group consists of the large document appointing Financial Officer Karl Hess as a Tax Inspector, issued in Dusseldorf on September 1, 1943, approximately 10 by 13 3/4 inches, showing spots and age soiling; an award document for the Iron Cross, 2nd Class to Gefreiter (Lance Corporal) Karl Hess of the 1st Company of Division Füsilier Battalion 371. It is dated to August 13, 1944 and signed in pencil by Lieutenant General and Commander of the 100th
Jäger Division, Willibald Utz (1893–1954), a recipient of the Knight’s Cross. The document is approximately 5 1/2 by 7 3/4 inches and shows age soiling, a horizontal crease, and spots; the  printed award document for the Anti-Partisan Badge in Silver to Gefreiter Karl Hess of 1st Company of Division Füsilier Battalion 371. Approximately 5 3/4 by 8 1/8 inches, the document is dated August 25, 1944, and it is again signed in blue ink by Lieutenant General and Commander of the 100th Jäger Division, Willibald Utz. The document shows age toning and a horizontal fold; and Hess’s Arbeitsbuch Labor Service work record book. The Arbeitsbuch shows that Hess served his mandatory term in the Reich Labor Service from February to August 1941, and that this was then followed by an amazingly brief period in the army from September, 1941 to June of 1942, after which he was discharged. Since his appointment as a Tax Inspector is dated on September 1, 1943, and named to him as a “Financial Officer” Hess was clearly in the civil service of the Third Reich after his brief military stint. However, Hess was obviously back in military service by 1944, as a soldier in the ranks of a unit that was engaged in anti partisan warfare on the Eastern Front.