Hey /r/askhistorians, first of all - you guys rock! I have learned so much interesting stuff in the past year and even distributed to some nice threads, thank you all for that!
On to my question.
Recently I remembered my Granddad earned a nice war medal back in WW2. Sadly it got lost in the depths of my brothers room. When I asked my grandma what he earned it for she said that he never told her, as that topic was not spoken of in their family life.
I remember it being a Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes. And these are not too common.
And it got me thinking what my Granddad did to earn it. Is there some kind of place where I can find that out?
Some points that I know for a fact: He was stationed in Italy. He had a driver. He was a dentist. He said he was working a lot with the local population (partisans[?])
On to one of the things he told me I am not sure if its are true: He said he was in the Luftwaffe (He never flew in his life. He always drove or took a ship, even when visiting friends in England).
Sorry if I am offtopic, please redirect me if so. If you help me find out anything and I think the data isnt too sensible I will update you guys!
I know Wikipedia isn't the best resource, but have you tried checking their List of Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross recipients for your grandfather? You could also try this WW2 awards site, though I'm not sure how accurate that information is.
And it can't hurt to Google your grandfather's name if you haven't tried that yet.
Do you speak German? If you do then it would be relatively easy to get his war records as long as they were not destroyed at some point in a bombing or the like. If he was Luftwaffe then you have a slightly better chance of them surviving then if he was Heer
https://www.bundesarchiv.de/benutzung/oeffnungszeiten_kontakt/index.html.en
You could also look at this book if you want to spend some money.
http://www.amazon.com/Elite-Third-Reich-Recipients-Knights/dp/1874622469
This book has information on 7000 recipients of the Knights Cross including dates, units and rank.
Contact the military archives in Freiburg: https://www.bundesarchiv.de/bundesarchiv/organisation/abteilung_ma/index.html.de
They have all the paperwork from the Prussian army up to the NVA. Non-classified material can be accessed by everyone, you don't have to have special access or anything, just call there and ask or write an email. At some poimt of course you have to go there and look in the files for yourself.
There is a chance though, that you don't find anything about your granddad. Many files did not survive the war, or are in a bad condition. Bring as many information about your granddad with you as you have. Maybe you can dig up his service number or at least on old photograph in uniform, where you can see division insignias.
Good luck, keep us updated.
Edit: I assumed, you live in Germany or at least still most of your family is German. Something about your use of the language, I guess... Plus you mentioned, that this topic was not touched by conversations in your family, that sounds awfully familiar for a certain generation of German families. If you don't live there, maybe some redditor living close to Freiburg can help. Last time I used the Militärarchiv, they didn't have a great service, but that may have changed.