Gravity Blade

Group:
WWll paratrooper Knife
WWll paratrooper Knife

My artifacts from Germany and has to do with my heritage because I am Jewish. When I was young my dad showed me a weird object that I had not seen before. It was my great grandpa's gravity blade. My dad proceeded to tell me that it was from the germen side and that he found it on a dead paratrooper. WW2 German Paratrooper Knife (Gravity Knife) is the desirable "take-down model" which was introduced in 1937 and issued to Luftwaffe Fallschirmjager members. Used by German Paratroopers during WWII to free themselves from tangled parachute cords, they were made in two versions. A gravity knife is a knife with a blade contained in its handle, and that opens its blade by the force of gravity. The gravity knife uses a button, trigger, or fulcrum lever to release the blade from both the open and closed positions, and may use a side-folding or telescoping. The history of the Jews in Poland dates back over 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, thanks to a long period of statutory religious tolerance and social autonomy which ended with the Partitions of Poland in the 18th century. During World War II there was a nearly complete genocidal destruction of the Polish Jewish community by Nazi Germany. We immigrated from Poland.

Place(s): Germany, Poland

– DSD

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more