One of 15 pages from a day book, measuring 14.8x21cm, showing a picture of “Recipient of [Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with] Oak Leaves and Swords SS-Gruppenführer and Lieutenant General of the Waffen-SS” Herbert Gille, measuring 4.5x8cm. The picture is a newspaper cut-out. The page carries Gille’s rank titles and signature in blue ink. He also wrote out the motto of the Waffen-SS: “Unsere Ehre heißt Treue!” (Our Honour is called Loyalty!). From the collection of an autograph collector.
Footnote: Herbert Otto Gille (1897–1966) was a recipient of the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds, and as such one of the most highly decorated German soldiers of the Second War. He received the (47th) Swords on February 20, 1944, and the (12th) Diamonds on April 19, 1944 – for successfully defending the besieged city of Kovel, modern day Ukraine – which pretty accurately dates this item to early 1944. Gille had already received the Iron Cross First and Second Class in the First War. In the Second War, he fought in Poland, France, and Russia.He was promoted to SS-Gruppenführer and Lieutenant General of the Waffen-SS on November 9, 1943. Exactly a year later he received his final promotion to SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS.