My wife's family has had a Nazi knife as a souvenir since the end of WWII. I want to find out who owned the knife, so I can add a name to the history of it. The story they tell about the knife is that the Nazi commander that was in charge of the town of Patange was on trial by the allied forces. My wife's great grand father allegedly came forward to speak on behalf of the commander (who I guess wasn't a bad guy). Because of my wife's great grand fathers testimony the commander was not killed (this part is murky, he apparently got a light punishment or something). Out of gratitude the Nazi commander gave my wife's great grand father his knife. I figured if anyone could help me find out the name of this particular Nazi it would be war historians of Reddit!
Also I have a little information about the knife. I want to preface this by apologizing that I don't have a picture of it. The knife is very far from me and my mother in law doesn't know how to take a picture and email it. I sent my mother in law a link to this website [http://www.germandaggers.com/Gallery/DG.php] (http://www.germandaggers.com/Gallery/DG.php) and I asked her to pick the dagger out of the images. This was her reply:
It's the first dagger of NSDAP but has a black sheath also like the last in the third row same NSDAP section called NSKK dagger 1933. Mine is made by Eickhorn Solingen with a squirrel holding a large sword through the i of Eickhorn. Also there is a circle Encircling the letters RZ. Underneath there is an M 7/66 and below that 1938. Have fun.
That is all of the information I have, is there anybody that can help me find this mystery Nazi commander?
according to the Wiki the mayor of Pétange was Pierre Hamer (but in name only) at the time. The administrator for Luxembourg through World War 2 was Gustav Simon who became over time a high ranking Nazi official. He was also a part of the Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrerkorps (National Socialist Motor Corps) or NSKK - which would correspond to your Mother-in-Laws claim that the dagger had those markings on it.
news reel of Simon inspecting volunteer corps
The details are sparse, and its hard to make a direct connection to Simon since the story has the Commander being absolved or at least released at some point. Simon either committed suicide in his cell after being imprisoned in 1945 - or, more controversially, was killed after some sort of confrontation with his escort. So the only information i can find links the knife to Simon possibly, but the story seems either inconsistent or deals with someone else who might have had possession of such a knife (which could be many thousands of former SA men)