WW2 NAZI JUSTICE SYSTEM GUNS More Interesting than you Think

Hey good morning guys. This morning I'm going to do another one of my educational video series on Walther PPs and PPKs. Today it’s going to be quick and easy because I’m going to talk about a variation that's pretty simple - the R.J. marked PPs. There are no RJ marked PPKs, only the PPs were R.J. marked.  R.J. stood for Reichsjustice.
 

Interesting History on Reichsjustice

Now a little bit of background on Reichsjustice. First of all when I first started collecting, I keep saying thirty years ago I don't like the age myself it’s probably been more than that, but thirty years ago when I started collecting a lot of people talk about do you have any Hitler Youth guns? Hitler Youth guns, what's that? R.J. stood for Reichs Yuna Hitler Youth, but in fact there is no evidence to show that they went to the Hitler Youth. The kids didn't carry guns. Theoretically one of the leaders could carry a gun but that whole theory has been completely debunked and researchers now say R.J. which you'll see on the front strap of this pistol, R.J. stands for Reichsjustice, so the Justice Department.

What was the Justice Department About?

Now if you watch the news you know our Justice Department, you probably see why they carried guns. It gets a little nasty sometimes. It's just a joke fellows don't send me hate mail about the Justice Department. But back in Hitler's time the Justice Department were in charge of the courts, probably armed guards in the courthouse and within the justice system they also dealt with some prisoners, although most of that was offloaded to the SS. So, Reichsjustice were considered party officials and interestingly the first one shows up around 1934, which is right after Hitler came into power and at the same time, in the same serial range as the RZM which is a party leader pistol issued to the party leaders. So I would imagine that the Nazi Party said we want special pistols designated to party leaders and we want special pistols made for the Reichsjustice Department.
 

First Variation is the Crown N

So first variation is going to be Crown N. Little fact about the Crown N marking we've talked about that before, that was the standard commercial proof that went on every gun. Pre-1940 every gun was marked with a Crown N. Then in 1940, it wasn't a hard break but they began to move over to the Eagle N which you'll see on this second variation. 

On to the Second Variation

Now also on the second variation you'll notice the difference in finish. The difference in finish, the earlier Crown N had a high polished finish that they actually polished the metal. This one you can see machine markings and you can see it's a duller finish. So the finishes tended to deteriorate after 1940, 1942 in particular. So the first variation is Crown N with R.J. on the front strap, second variation is Eagle N with R.J. on the front strap.

My Third Variation Joke

But the third variation is R.J. with the marking on the back strap. Now, again part of my personal history is I only saw R.J. on the front strap. And the vast majority, there's less than 5,000 of these made. I've probably seen about 30 - 40 of them, all of them being R.J. on the front strap. Then one day somebody comes to a gun show and shows me this and I say total fake. Some of you probably made that mistake in the past, total fake, never…they always put it on the front strap, never looked this way. And then of course as I studied more and talked to other collectors and found the exact same marking in the exact same spot, in the exact same way. In fact a boxed one, in the original box, number to the gun with the R.J. on the back strap, I realized this is actually a rare third variation, rare variation toward the end of the war. 

Beginning to the End

They stopped marking the R.J. in 1944. I'm not going to say that they stopped issuing them in 1944 because I have a feeling the RFV which is a variation we'll talk about later, the RFV's they stopped marking them in about 1944 the R.J.'s. I think after a certain point even if you ordered a pistol no one cared because they were just rushing them out the door as quickly as possible, probably in a panic, so they didn't worry about marking these. So the first R.J. marking is in 1934 right after Hitler came into power and started ordering guns for the Nazi Party. The last one in 1944 when the war was ending up.
 

Special Treat

Now that's all the information however I've got one special treat, the only one I have ever seen and I'm here to show it to you today. This is in the original box Walther PP. We'll do a whole video on the boxes later but this is considered a green label box because it has a green label, of course, and it's numbered to the gun. When you open up the box typically what you will find is a cleaning rod, it looks like that. Also the manual, this is an original manual. If you look on the back there's actually a date and this one says 12 36, so this is December of 1936. This pistol was made in about 1938. So 1938, they grabbed an earlier manual, not a big deal that doesn't mean anything other than they were using up earlier manuals.

There's also what they call the cleaning tin. The factory is embossed on the lid which is kind of cool. Later they just put the Walther banner, but this is early enough that it had the earlier lid on the earlier ones. This is one of my favorite things is they have a cleaning rod but they have a little milk can, isn't that cute. Later they just went into an oil bottle but this had the original oil in it. If we look down in there and probably poured it on our skin it would still be there but it has a cork top, a little aluminum milk can. So this is the early variation tin. I have no idea why but the earlier ones had dummy rounds, I guess to cycle them through, but it had three dummy rounds. It has a spare mag. These came with one flat bottom and one finger extension mag. I think the later war ones probably didn't have the finger extension, the reason being they were just trying to save money and other than to hold your pinky it doesn't serve much of a purpose. 

It's Unbelievable

Now let's just take a look at this baby because how in the world does anybody still have the gun in the original box. You'll notice on these earlier guns how beautiful the high polished finish and notice the fire blue safety. Even in the American guns the early Colts, the commercial Colts, you'll see that really bright blue with a fire blue which is kind of cool. The extractor also has fire blue, very very cool. This gun is almost 100%. 

How is this Gun Still in Pristine Condition?

So how in the world did this thing last in this pristine condition over 75 years? But like Christmas morning I can imagine when people were issued this they just tore these boxes open and grabbed their gun and stuck it in a holster. So therefore I have to conclude that this was ordered and stuck in a shelf somewhere in a courthouse. They had extras, they probably had three or four up in the shelf and when the GIs came in, took over that whatever the court or the Justice Department building was, an enterprising GI saw this and brought it home. Again only one I've ever seen in the original box, R.J. marked notice it has a period. There's a R period, J period (R.J.) R.J. marked in the original box a stunning find, only one I've ever seen. If you happen to have one let us know. 

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