Germany, SS. A Rehabilitation Letter Signed by SS-Hauptsturmführer & Brandenburger Adrian von Foelkersam (KC, KIA)

The document was sent to the SS Leadership Main Office, department for rehabilitation of lower leaders and enlisted men. It was sent by the SS-Jagdverbände (hunting units). The department is informed that 13 men named on an accompanying list are to be fully rehabilitated, effective October 1, 1944. A handwritten note states that #6 was killed in action. The men may have been convicted criminals given a second chance to redeem themselves through front service (see also SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger). The document is dated to October 29, 1944 and signed in black ink by SS-Hauptsturmführer Adrian von Foelkersam.

Footnote: Adrian von Foelkersam was born on December 20, 1914 into an aristocratic Baltic German family. During his university studies in the mid 1930s in Munich, Königsberg, and Vienna he became a member of the NSDAP and the SA. Foelkersam joined the so-called Brandenburgers in 1940. The Brandenburg special forces were units made up of volunteer ethnic Germans from outside the Reich, used for sabotage and infiltration due to their knowledge and familiarity of the enemy’s language and way of life. Foelkersam was awarded the Knight’s Cross on September 14, 1942 in the rank of Lieutenant. He went on to form a unit of ethnic Germans with Russian roots. In 1944, he joined the Waffen-SS, taking command of SS-Jagdverband Ost. Foelkersam was killed in action on January 21, 1945.