GOTT MIT UNS

[Tom Sanders]

For those of you who have been following this saga for the last ten years,,here is an update. I now am pretty sure that i have found how Hemingway acquired the Nazi Gott Mit Uns belt buckle and i am 95% percent sure I know the name of the Germam soldier who was the previous owner. I am going to Poland in early October to interview the man's 85 year-old brother, and am very hopeful that interview will enable me to confirm my research. I never expected to get this far, and it has been the help of Mike Galvin, Mark Wilson, Hijo and many other Hemingway scholars and afficionados on this site and elsewhere that I have made it this far.. Others include H.R. Stoneback, Rene Villarreal, and Dr. Susan Beegel. It is truly a fascinating story and I hope to publish next year under the title 'GOTT MIT UNS, The Strange But True Story Of Ernest Hemingway's Nazi Belt Buckle'.

[eHemingway.com]

That's good news Tom...that belt buckle has become your white whale! I hope the interview pans out and I look forward to reading the whole account next year.

[Paul Hammersten]

Good news Tom.

Someday I hope to find out the story behind the buckle Hemingway wore in the photo when he was being treated in Billings, MT. Mark was able to post it on the old HRC Message Board.

Best

Paul

[Tom Sanders]

Well, it's back to the drawing board. I was wrong. Iit turns out. , Huberrt Powalla probably wasn't the Nazi soldier Hemingway killed to get the Gott Mit Uns buckle and belt.

I say jthat after having gone to Poland where I intervied his 85-year-old brother.The soldier I am seeking was riding a motorcycle, possibly as a dispatch rider. Powalla was a tank driver and, according to an eyewitness, probably burned to death when hils tank took a direct hit.

So it goes!

[James H. Meredith]

How did this turn out for you, Tom?
Jim