We found a name faintly inscribed into the headband of a WW2 nazi police helmet. The inscription in German translates into "Police President Plesch". After some research, we found Hans Plesch was the owner of this helmet. His history is quite fascinating, and our read-through is that Hans was a "reluctant nazi". 

The Little Known Story of “The Reluctant Nazi”

Breif Synopsis: 

In 1930 Hans joined the nazi party and became a member of the nazi SS. By 1937, before the breakout of WW2, Hans left the nazi party and the SS. Our conjecture is because he lost interest , or was disillusioned by the cause. He joined his father in the family's car dealership business. A few years later, Hans Plesch was drafted back into service by the nazi party in 1940 (after the start of WW2). He was unfortunately assigned to the Eastern front, and soon found himself surrounded by Russians! He & his troops were surrounded on the Eastern front in 1940 for 3 months. Eventually the nazi troops made a run for it, and punched through the Russian encirclement. He was wounded in the German's escape, and forever handicapped as a result. He was also recognized by the nazi's for his heroism, and promoted to "Police President" of Munich.

Hey, welcome back to another walk-in Wednesday. You know, if you've been watching us, you should be watching us. You probably noticed that most of what we have walk-in our door are guns. And that's I think puts people a lot of times it finds them in the attic or they inherit them and they're uncomfortable with them. So, they bring them to us. And we love that. And then we bring them to you. But we did get nine items. This is a good example of a non-gun item that we got in.

Nazi Helmet of None other than President Plesch

Now, normally, I wouldn't show you a helmet. It's not that particularly exciting, except this helmet is particularly exciting. This one actually walked in twice. Can you believe it? The first time we kind of screwed up because inside the headband there is a name. You can see that the headband had very little wear to it, which means this guy didn't wear it a lot. Usually, there's sweat stains all around here. The top of the helmet is worn quite a bit. This is all original and this is, this decal indicates it's a police helmet. But inside, what it says is “Police President Plesch" say that three times really fast. Police President Plesch hits. It's just like Peter Piper. But Police President Plesch.

We didn't make anything of it. We sold it for about a tenth of what it was worth. But the lucky, lucky winner who bought this actually did, went back and did some research. He actually works for the War College and he has access to a lot of records and archives from World War Two. So, he looked up a little bit of this police Plesch. Police President Plesch and came up with this entire dossier about this particular helmet. There's even, he got a certificate of authenticity, and there's a picture of him there. Kind of a handsome dude, don't you think? But there's all kinds of information there. Often authentication is from an author and he values his helmet at about ten thousand dollars. So, we missed the boat the first time around. Second time around, we're going to wear.

Nazi Helmet Available for Sale with Certificate of Authentication

One of the reasons I'm doing the video today is we want to get it up on the Web site. We're going to offer it to the public. But let me tell you a little bit about Hans Plesch. I'm calling him a reluctant Nazi. Now, that's just my opinion. I don't I can't prove that.

Plesch a Newly Minted Member of The SS

And I in no way endorse any Nazi ideology. But reading his history, it's actually quite fascinating. He joined the SS in 1930. Now, remember, Hitler came to power in 1933. So, the climate in 1930, they're coming out of the Great Depression and Germany, it was twice as bad as it was anywhere else in Europe or the United States in terms of people starving, no jobs at all. And so generally there was chaos in the streets. It was during the Weimar period. If you know anything about that period.

Weimar Period in Germany Brief History: Communist vs. Nazi Parties

There are two basic political parties that were vying for power, the Communist Party. So, a lot of the young men who were of service age or a lot of testosterone, like to get in fights. They would join the Communist Party because they wanted equality for all. We all share, no more rich people. And then you have the Nazi Party, which were the loyal German Aryan race and they were fighting for we want to take control and we want the supreme leader, Hitler to take over. So, in 1930, he joined early on. But here's the interesting thing. You'd say, OK, he's hardcore, if he'd joined in 1930, he resigned from the SS in nineteen thirty-seven. So, before the war started, he must have gotten the point where he was a little disillusioned with what was going on. That's my conjecture. I can't prove any of that. I think my point is not everybody, not every American soldier was good. And not every German soldier was bad.

Plesch Leaves the SS

And let me tell you a little bit about Plesch, which excites me, somewhat. He left the SS and joined his father at his car dealership. He actually owned, his father owned the Opel car dealership and he became the CEO of their mates, basically administrative job with his dad. And he stayed there until 1940 when he was drafted, of course. Now the war breaks out. He's of service age. So, he gets drafted and he's in the battle for France in 1940. And after that, he's the unlucky winner of going to the Russian front. So, when they invaded Russia, his unit was sent to Russia, he was given promotions all along the way. So, we know he was a good soldier. It doesn't look like a big burly guy to me. I'll go back and, you know, you look at his picture. I don't get the image of a really big, burly guy. But let me tell you what this guy did.

Plesch Leads Charge in Horrific Leningrad

Russian front, he was in the battle for land Leningrad. So, you know, he saw a lot of brutalities. That was, people were freezing to death in Leningrad. They were actually eating people. Things got really, really bad, and when the Russians counterattacked, they surrounded the Germans, and his unit was completely surrounded for three months. No food, no reinforcements, very little ammo.

Plesch Receives High Ranking Medal for Service

He was wounded, and they eventually, he and his unit were able to escape the pocket and get back to Germany. He received a silver badge for being wounded, which was a pretty serious wound. I don't know specifics, but he was disabled for the rest of his life in some way. He made it back to Germany and he was given the Knight's Cross and also the Iron Cross. The Knight's Cross is equivalent to the Medal of Honor. So, he's a very brave man, got back to Germany where he became, they put him in administration for a police department in Dusseldorf and then in 1943. So now it's near the end of the war. Clearly, the Germans are beginning, the tide has turned, Germans are beginning to lose.

Plesch gets Promoted to Police President under Himmler

He has now made the police president of Munich. Now, if you know anything about police, president of Munich back in the thirties, Heinrich Himmler was the chief of police in Munich. And of course, he was promoted to chief of police throughout all of Germany and under the SS. So Plesch probably didn't wear this helmet very much. It was while he was the police president in Munich at the end of the war, the SS leaders said basically kill anybody who won't fight, and if you've seen some of the movies from the time, I think of the movie Fury, when the SS would come into the German towns, it was mostly young boys and old men. And if they refuse to fight, they were hanging them from lampposts. Americans came in and they found German citizens hanging from light posts, and that was because the SS said you either fight, you fight to the last man, never surrender.

Plesch a Hero to America?

And so, they ordered Plesch to never surrender the city, fight to the last man and execute anybody who refuses to fight. Plesch defied those orders, and when the American army showed up outside the city, he went out and met them and surrendered the city without firing a shot. So, I'm sure the German Germans would write his history differently, but he chose to save lives. He knew that was a fruit of futile endeavor, and so he surrendered the city.

Hans Plesch’s Actual Helmet

I have one other thing I want to show you. So, we have the helmet. We know we belong to Hans Plesch, but I just it just because I can't avoid showing you at least one gun.

Walther PP 1934: Police Department of Munich 

This was not his gun, I will say right off the bat, this was not his gun, but this is a Walther PP from about 1934. And you'll notice on the frame it says PDM, that's Police Department of Munich. So this gun went to the police department of Munich back in the 30s. And most likely he, President Plesch, carried a gun such as this.

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