In the Wehrmacht, how would an Oberregeriungs greet an Unterscharfuhrer (1942)

by blurgtheamoeba

I'm helping a student finish a novella (historical fiction). In one scene, a Carlingue soldier escorts a prisoner to a superior officer and leaves the room. How would he greet him? And what salutations would he use when leaving? Also, what would the officer reply?

Thanks in advance! :)

pqvarus

First of all you should get some facts straight, starting with the title of this post:

  • I assume Oberregeriungs (a word that doesnt make any sense in german) is supposed to mean Oberregierungsrat which is a civil official title.

  • UnterscharfΓΌhrer is a rank in the SS.

  • As you also mention the Wehrmacht we already have three quite different institutions mixed together.

  • To top it all, you also bring in a Carlingue soldier. The Carlingue was the french auxiliary branch of the Gestapo, so its members would be policemen, not soldiers and would if at all only be loosely connected with the SS and the Wehrmacht mentioned above.

In the light of these contentual inconsistencies I doubt that anyone is able to answer your question salutations are the biggest issue concerning the historical accuracy of said novella.

EDIT: corrections

[deleted]

Carlingue counted no soldiers, it was the French Gestapo, and was composed mainly of nazi sympathizers, criminals and opportunists. They worked for the German Gestapo and were considered as auxiliaries of it. You should probably use "Carlingue agent" that is more general.

As the Gestapo was the Political Police of the Reich under the control of the Sicherheitsdienst which was the Intelligence services of the SS, the officers of the Gestapo generally had SS ranks that would be respected as such etiquette wise.

The Gestapo had nothing to with the Wehrmacht which was the regular German army. Their was often a big competition and some distate between the Wehrmacht and the SS so do not mix them together.

To answer your question specifically they would probably greet each other with the nazi salute and "Heil Hitler" both as a greeting and as a farewell. The Gestapo agents were civilians and would therefore address a military officer in various way. He would probably just call him by his ranks providing he knows the rank of the officer he is talking to (Carlingue agents were French civilians and were not trained to recognize German SS ranks, they would probably learn to recognize them from habit though) .