SS General Oswald Pohl's Litewka tunic

 Amazing Provenance

The Litewka style tunic of high quality gabardine material with typical closed collar, fly-front, and slash bottom pockets. The tunic with the SS-Obergruppenfuhrer rank epaulettes with silver & gold entwined braids on off white / grey wool backings. Each epaulette with two fine silvered pips. The collar  with a matched pair of SS-Obergruppenfuhrer post-1942 style collar patches. The collar complete with silver-aluminium edge piping. The left sleeve complete with an SS officer / general rank silver bullion wire eagle/swastika. The inside of the tunic  finished with a fine field-grey silk lining, and with typical tailor-stripes to the sleeves. The tunic complete with a name panel to the inside pocket, ‘SS-OBERGRUPPENFUHRER OSWALD POHL’. It is interesting to note that the tailor stripes in both the Litewka, and the Pohl open-neck tunic, are the same, confirming it was the same tailor that made both.

Condition report: The tunic showing much general service wear. The collar with repairs through use. Some darning in places. The insignia showing general service use throughout.

Provenance: This Liteuka belonging to Oswald Pohl was acquired by the historian, Andrew Mollo, from the Munich-based theatrical costumiers company, Breyer. He had already purchased an open-neck tunic belonging to  Pohl in the late 1950s. The Litewka was acquired from Breyer later, in 1974. Peter Breyer told Mollo that after the war, Pohl’s widow had sold Oswald Pohl’s uniforms to Breyer. When Mollo acquired the Liteuka from Breyer, the epaulettes were in place, but the collar patches and sleeve eagle/swastika were missing.

Mollo kept both tunics until 1980. In 1980, Mollo sold the Pohl Litewka to the well-known UK-based collector, Michael Pollock. Later that same year, he sold the Pohl open-neck tunic to him. During Pollock’s ownership, he found a pair of collar patches and sleeve eagle, and had a specialist restoration company sew them in place. In 1986, Pollock sold the Litewka to the UK-based collector, Stewart Wilson. In 1989, the Liteuka was acquired from Wilson for the ULRIC of ENGLAND collection.

Since 1989, the Pohl Liteuka has been shown in numerous books, including SS-Regalia, Waffen-SS Unforms, Inside the Allgemeine-SS. Also included in the sale, a copy of a letter dated 3^rd October 1980 from Mollo to Pollock describing the purchase of the Pohl open-neck tunic, and Liteuka, from Breyer.