About


Who am I?

My name is Rick, and i live in the Netherlands. Yes that´s in Europe, next to Germany. I have been collecting items from WWI and WWII for some 15-16 years now. The date of writing this is 2020.


Why this website?

I have had the idea of creating a website to display part of my collection and honor those who participated in WWI and WWII for some time, in 2010 i started it by putting German WWII documents from my collection online, such as: Soldbücher, Wehrpässe, Führerscheins, etc. In the recent years i've began adding Allied WWII documents and items online like Russian ID-books and British AB64 paybooks. I hope to add WWI documents and a WWI and WWII photo database on a later date. My main collecting area is identification books of soldiers.

I do not only collect papier items, when i was young i started off with equipment and uniforms. But most of that is "the same" as most other uniform and equipment pieces around the world, it doesn't tell a personal story. Paper items on the other hand differ very much from each other, they tell a more unique personal story about a soldier. Meanwhile i have sold off most of my uniforms and equipment to fund my paper and photo item collection. I really enjoy researching these things, and instead of keeping that for myself i would like to have the stories avaible to the world, to learn from. Collections like these should, just like regulair museums, be shown to the public. These historical items are not for putting away in some attic or collection room, they got a story to tell!


Copyright watermarks

You may ask yourself why I have put those ugly watermarks on almost everything shown here on this website. Well, that´s basiclly to stop any fraudsters abusing items shown on my website. It happends allot in the collecting world that fraudsters sell an item that they do not own. In their ad´s they use photo´s that are copied from websites like mine or from discussion forums. Just imagine how someone takes a picture of your car, and put your car for sale on Ebay. That´s bad!


Can i use these pictures?

If you just want to use these pictures for non-commercial purposes, that’s okay with me as long as you leave the watermarks on the pictures. You can also post them on forums, etc. and you don´t have to contact me for permission. But if you want to use the pictures without watermark or for something commercial like a book then you need to ask me first. I can send a better and bigger scan of the item if wanted. I'm an easy guy, just ask me.


I see a mistake!

Even i am just a human and i do make mistakes. If you see anything wrong, please do tell me! Because mistakes should be corrected and learned from. Even if you just think something is not right, you can always tell/ask me, no problem.


What do you collect?

My collection focuses mainly on the German side, late war 1944-1945, on the eastern-front.
I´m always looking for Soldbücher with the following subjects:
* Oder (Oderbruch) front 1945.
* Seelow battle 1945
* Berlin front 1945.
* All pockets (kessels) on the easternfront 1943-1945 (Like: Tscherkassy, Kowel, Hube),
* Eastern-front, front soldier (with Sturm- nahkampftage).
* 116.Panzer-Division.
* 73.Infanterie-Division (officiers)

And all kind of items from the following subjects:
* Castricum (town in The Netherlands) during WWII.
* Bakkum (town in The Netherlands) during WWII.
* Dutch Police items from 1900-1945.

If you got anything that you wish to sell or trade, you can always contact me.