I was boy there were many souvenirs around that had been brought back from Europe and the far east. At first they seemed important to the veteran and the family but after a while the novelty wore off and mothers didn't want the want the dangerous long knives and guns around. I was never able to get a pistol but I did some of the knives and bayonets from my friends. They were given to them by their older brothers. One family had a wall covered with Samurai swords and daggers. Their son was with the first troops to go into Japan as occupiers. A younger brother cut his arm while playing with a Naval dirk. It looked for a while that he might loose the arm but he didn't. Theer was a fortune hanging on that wall. I hope they realized that in time. The family moved to Texas shortly after the war so I never heard what happened to all the weapons. I was able to trade a friend out of a beautiful German dress or parade bayonet. When I was a boy I loved throwing knives before that bayonet didn't have a handle. The blade never broke but it did make a very loud Prang when it hit side ways. I also collected shoulder patches and had a shoe box full. I am too embarrassed to tell what I did with those. In the 1960s I became interested in collecting German insignia and metals of any kind and so did thousands of other people. Well the Germans were more than willing to oblige. They made more of that stuff after the war than they did before and during. I did get a beautiful metal that was given to a Spanish soldier who fought on the Russian front. That guy must have done something big to get a metal like that. It was cast of silver and had the Russian double eagle on one side with an Iron cross on the eagle's breast with a swastika in the middle of the cross. on the other side it had depiction of Moscow. It even said Moscow on that side. Sadly I sold that too.
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