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From Hitler Youth to the USMC


Brig
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Very interesting group available on eMedals... a woman who was born in China, a member of the BDM in Nazi Germany, and later joined the Marine Corps. Interesting how much of her Nazi stuff she kept upon joining the Marine Corps. Also interesting is that, as an enlisted Marine, she opted to wear an officer cover emblem in the portrait.

 

The images are watermarked and can't be saved without screenshot, so I'll post the link here. Very interesting group...

 

http://www.emedals.com/an-adventurous-unique-group-to-hj-stationed-in-wartime-china?___SID=U

 

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Chickenpuffball

Very interesting group available on eMedals... a woman who was born in China, a member of the BDM in Nazi Germany, and later joined the Marine Corps. Interesting how much of her Nazi stuff she kept upon joining the Marine Corps. Also interesting is that, as an enlisted Marine, she opted to wear an officer cover emblem in the portrait.

 

The images are watermarked and can't be saved without screenshot, so I'll post the link here. Very interesting group...

 

http://www.emedals.com/an-adventurous-unique-group-to-hj-stationed-in-wartime-china?___SID=U

 

That is fascinating! War is so unpredictable but I still can't wrap my head around things like this which happened.

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I feel it's way overpriced. Like 200% plus overpriced.

It's mostly paper, and women items are a niche, I'd say more than 200%...but the seller is Canadian based and not primarily a US dealer. This is one of those groups where the historical value is worth more than the dollar value.

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Brig the diary sounds like a script from a potential Lifetime Channel movie...

I agree...quite a spirited young lady who probably never meant for any of that ever to be published.

 

Oh, the things we do when we are young!

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It's mostly paper, and women items are a niche, I'd say more than 200%...but the seller is Canadian based and not primarily a US dealer. This is one of those groups where the historical value is worth more than the dollar value.

 

 

And the seller is the kind of guy who has no issue at all sitting on the stuff for years until the "right" buyer comes along.

 

But still...one heck of a group! I don't collect German, Chinese, Marine Corps, or women's material, but I'd buy the group (granted if it were in the three-digit range!) just for the amazing story!

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I think it's one of those things that is interesting but not worth much. The price is beyond nuts IMO.

I mean I could see someone paying around the $1k mark just out of interest and desire to read the diary.

Also could be the basis for a novel or non-fiction book.. so the seller may be thinking of that route as well.

 

but it's still 5x the $1k mark.

 

-Brian

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This is a very rare group. While I would not pay this much for a paper group (I don't collect paper groupings), I do collect women's items and find it extremely interesting.

 

Most of the replies in this thread are from people who admittedly don't collect women's items. Therefore it is harder for them to grasp how someone might be interested in this from the aspect of it being a grouping to a woman who served across a wide variety of areas.

 

Out of curiosity, how much would this be worth for a rare group to a man "who was born in China, a member of the BDM in Nazi Germany, and later joined the Marine Corps"? Then multiply that amount by the fact that this is ever more rare due to it being associated to a woman. Then you might be closer to what someone might pay for this grouping.

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This is a very rare group. While I would not pay this much for a paper group (I don't collect paper groupings), I do collect women's items and find it extremely interesting.

 

Most of the replies in this thread are from people who admittedly don't collect women's items. Therefore it is harder for them to grasp how someone might be interested in this from the aspect of it being a grouping to a woman who served across a wide variety of areas.

 

Out of curiosity, how much would this be worth for a rare group to a man "who was born in China, a member of the BDM in Nazi Germany, and later joined the Marine Corps"? Then multiply that amount by the fact that this is ever more rare due to it being associated to a woman. Then you might be closer to what someone might pay for this grouping.

 

Saw it listed a while back.

 

I think being a woman is a rarer documented group......

 

If a man, Add in OSS and the Special Forces in Viet and Mercanary in Rhodesia.....Be quite a group....to someone(I think I knew that guy)

 

As we have seen before price is in the eye of the buyer.Some pay in the multible 5 digt figures for Civil War diaries from Gettysburg

I wouldt.Fascinating yes but not at that price.Some would and thats their bottle of warm ber.

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Saw it listed a while back.

 

I think being a woman is a rarer documented group......

 

If a man, Add in OSS and the Special Forces in Viet and Mercenary in Rhodesia.....Be quite a group....to someone(I think I knew that guy)

 

As we have seen before price is in the eye of the buyer.Some pay in the multiple 5 digit figures for Civil War diaries from Gettysburg

I would fascinating yes but not at that price.Some would and that's their bottle of warm beer.

 

Exactly. I agree.

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Ron is correct when he says to each their own (in terms of assessment of value). No one can really say what something would be worth to someone else. You can only really comment on what it would be worth to you or how you would value it in comparison to similar items on the market. Having collected documents for the last 30 plus years I have seen some unusual/interesting things. I, personally, do not think this would be worth any more if to a man. In fact, it might be worth less (if all other variables were the same). In reality you have a German lady who was born in China, ended up in the US and eventually became a citizen and joined the Marine Corps Reserve after the war. Certainly interesting from a human interest perspective but (to me) not that interesting from a military history perspective.

 

I don't see the asking price but if someone else does, that's what makes the world go around. An unusual and interesting grouping non the less.

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This is a very rare group. While I would not pay this much for a paper group (I don't collect paper groupings), I do collect women's items and find it extremely interesting.

 

Most of the replies in this thread are from people who admittedly don't collect women's items. Therefore it is harder for them to grasp how someone might be interested in this from the aspect of it being a grouping to a woman who served across a wide variety of areas.

 

Out of curiosity, how much would this be worth for a rare group to a man "who was born in China, a member of the BDM in Nazi Germany, and later joined the Marine Corps"? Then multiply that amount by the fact that this is ever more rare due to it being associated to a woman. Then you might be closer to what someone might pay for this grouping.

Some paper items are quite valuable...to the right buyers. Paper is a niche, though, and competition driving up prices happens far less than with other items

 

Being a woman group does not necessarily drive the price higher than a man's just because women items are scarcer, particularly in this case. Women items are very much a niche, that don't see the demand and competition of groups from, say, an infantry group or a tank group. However, in Third Reich fields, women items do often fetch a pretty penny. However, this group I think would appeal more to a USMC WM collector than a TR collector. (And if it were to a man, it would be HJ vs BDM)

 

Male or female, I think $1000 would be about top dollar. Her diary isn't something that's going to excite the masses like, say, a POW diary or a China Marine diary...it appears to be mostly personal (very personal)

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normaninvasion

 

 

 

Male or female, I think $1000 would be about top dollar. Her diary isn't something that's going to excite the masses like, say, a POW diary or a China Marine diary...it appears to be mostly personal (very personal)

 

Thanks for the tip, I feel a little strange after reading it now :(

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Ron is correct when he says to each their own (in terms of assessment of value). No one can really say what something would be worth to someone else. You can only really comment on what it would be worth to you or how you would value it in comparison to similar items on the market. Having collected documents for the last 30 plus years I have seen some unusual/interesting things. I, personally, do not think this would be worth any more if to a man. In fact, it might be worth less (if all other variables were the same). In reality you have a German lady who was born in China, ended up in the US and eventually became a citizen and joined the Marine Corps Reserve after the war. Certainly interesting from a human interest perspective but (to me) not that interesting from a military history perspective.

 

I don't see the asking price but if someone else does, that's what makes the world go around. An unusual and interesting grouping non the less.

 

 

I agree.

 

its not a man/woman thing.Personally I dont look at or try to catorgorize things that way.It is about content or signifiance to most buyers

 

I do look at related things pertaining to women as harder to find as there were smaller numbers that served in WW2 and post WW2.

 

I was just having a conversation with a friend friday about how collectors percieve items and it seems that the groups to clerks,cooks,techicians etc dont really draw the intrest.They all served but its not "super cool" to collect or research.I do have a 89th uniform to a cook who happened to be awarded the Silver Star.Im sure this is of much more intrest(or money to a seller...intrest equals money) to a collector or buyer.

 

Much the same for the females.What would be of more intrest...

 

WAC in a stateside clerical job

 

Army Nurse

 

Army nurse wounded in combat

 

Flight Nurse

 

Army nurse that was a POW

 

WASP pilot

 

They all served.They all had important jobs due to the skills they all pocessed.But the intrest and value are determined by the content of the group or the story thats there for the buyer.Here it matters not if it was a man as it dont compare.

 

Same goes for mens uniforms or groups.We see it all the time.A POW camp guard or camp clerk in Northern Iowa in a Service command isnt going to be as intresting as the Ranger wounded in North Africa who later came home to be a camp guard.THe Fighter pilot who shot down two ME262 jets thats a local farmer,The other fighter pilot thats an ace,The KIA 29th Div engineer,The 82nd Airborne surgeon,the signal corp glider rider who worked developing fiilm for the unit,the Navy corpsman who worked in the amputee ward at great lakes,the local veteranarian who in WW2 left/escaped germany due to his Jewish faith to later become a glider trooper and interpreter then actually land in the field that belonged to his grandfather in germany,it goes on and on.Some will be intrested in these vets as they all have a story others will not as there are some that dont meet the "cool" or trophy" factor thats a show piece at the next SOS.

 

To me they are all intresting.They had a job and done it whether they wanted to or not.Just some place a higher value on the more obscure or "cool" histories.

 

Again as far as female things go its never been easy to find most anything to women who served here.

 

But as Brig stated,the content is way over valued in this case due to more personal side.It tells a great story for sure.If say she had been Hitlers secretary and the diary chronicled this Im sure the price would really be up there to to Uncle Adolfs connection... :D;)

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Interesting how much of her Nazi stuff she kept upon joining the Marine Corps.

 

 

 

 

They were certainly keep sakes for her and is quite possible she never renounced the Nazi ideology, just because Germany lost the war doesn't mean their beliefs stopped. Joining the Marine Corps doesn't purify your soul either. I'm willing to wager that her joining the USMC was driven by basic principles instilled in her youth and I wouldn't assume that her joining the USMC had anything to do with just cause and redemption from the Nazi's. Though she did like romance she very well could have been a not so very nice woman.

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Wasnt it fairly common in the 50s for many from the war torn areas to join the US Military to become citizens.Seems a lot of the early SF men gravitated here toward the military.Many were very anti communist and this was an option for them

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