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On this poster conscripts were told they were required to show up on Sunday 15 April 1945 at designated military offices and to bring their Wehrpaß or temporary military ID as well as a coat, blanket, provisions for a march of three days, and if available military clothing and equipment for which they would be reimbursed. The Summons also states that anyone within the age group who failed to report, would be prosecuted.

The broadside is laminated in clear mylar to preserve it permanently and stamped on the back at the bottom with certification of its authenticity by authors Ray & Josephine Cowdery, who have examined the piece and the provenance of it carefully before certifying it authentic.

The poster was issued by Karl Holz (shown in a reference photo above) who was both the Nazi Defense Commissioner of Gau Franken and Gauleiter of Gau Franken. He was also the Editor-in-Chief of Der Stürmer, Julius Streicher's extremely anti-Semitic weekly Nazi newspaper.

Holz, whose office was in the Nürnberg Gauhaus on Schlageterplatz (see reference photo below), led the defense of Nuremberg with Wehrmacht and Volksturm personnel but surrendered to troops of the US 3rd Infantry Division on 18 April 1945, just four days after the facsimile of his signature appeared on this poster! Holz died on 20 April 1945, Adolf Hitler’s 56th birthday, either by suicide or as a result of battle injuries.

Aufruf is the German word for “Summons” or “Notification to Report” and this original Nazi Plakat (broadside or one-sided poster in English) from Nürnberg is an Aufruf for military service in the Volkssturm or “citizen troops” of Gau Franken, for all men born in 1884 or later.

The 12-¼ x 18-½ inch (31 x 47 cm) “Call to Arms” poster is dated 14 April 1945, so men born in 1884 were 64 years old by then! Clearly, there was an urgent need for able-bodied men to defend and die for die bedrohte Heimat (the threatened homeland) in April 1945, including Nürnberg, “the City of Nazi Party Days”!

This broadside or poster is a very rare and very important piece of both Third Reich German and World War II European history. It is genuine, it is rarely seen, and it is in remarkable condition for ephemera that was printed on newsprint paper only days before Adolf Hitler’s death by suicide and the Nazi capitulation in Germany.

This is a museum piece, as closely related to an extremely historical moment in mid-20th century events as anything could be. A friend and fellow collector remarked, “finding this is like finding an original broadside calling for reinforcements for the Alamo!”

Any prospective purchaser might be interested to know that we purchased this very rare Aufruf in a grouping of a dozen or so rare Third Reich books that were ‘liberated’ shortly after the end of World War II by an American Army Captain working in an office that had been occupied during the Third Reich by staff of Ortsgruppe Nürnberg-St. Johannis.

While this poster was folded once horizontally through the center when it was printed, it will be mailed to the buyer in a strong tube, rolled rather than folded because of the relatively fragile condition of old newsprint. It should be properly mounted and framed or laminated for display.