Eventually his friend Heinrich Himmler had him released on a probationary release and given an honorary rank in the SS. With the war going badly, Stegmann was given a chance to redeem himself for his past mistakes. He was given a command in the courageous knights of the Dirlewanger Brigade, where he eventually gave his life, forever redeeming himself and earning himself a place in the vaunted hall of heroes.

Stegmann was incredibly unique in the history of National Socialism. A man who reached the heights of respect and power, to his steep fall and imprisonment. Stegmann believed he was standing up for National Socialism when he went against Streicher, he never betrayed his beliefs, which were his life's passion, and he eventually died gloriously for them. Oskar Dirlewanger gave Stegmann a second chance, but his heart was never in question.

The blackness that blankets this world will never win as long as there are selfless soldiers like Wilhelm Stegmann. The darkness does not seem so absolute, so insurmountable, so invincible, when there are men and women who operate without fear, but by faith and love of their people, and iron dedication to principles like glorious National Socialism and the divine guide of our dying age: Adolf Hitler.

[Below: Allied terror of the ghost of Adolf Hitler. They went to great extremes to censor his image and words from leftover postcards and stamps. Here they cut off the part of the postcard which bore a stamp with his image.]

[Below: Another example of the Allies trying to hide the image of Adolf Hitler. This was postmarked on May 6, 1946. Click to see reverse.]

[Below: I guess they wanted to save ink on this overprint design. This was postmarked on May 15, 1946.]

[Below: This one shows a total blackout of of the Hitler stamp and Hitler quote at the bottom. They were not only terrified of his image, but his words. So what did it say before they blotted it out? Oh very evil and controversial: 'Der Führer kennt Kampf, Arbeit und Sorge, Wir wollen ihm den Teil abnehmen, Den wir ihm abnehmen können.' (The leader knows struggle, work and worry; we want to take away from him the part that we can.) Apparently Hitler did not know struggle, work or worry! And damn it people did not want to help him! Click to see reverse.]

[Below: Here is a bizarre version of the 'Hitler blackout' issues. I guess this is another failed attempt to save ink. This has many more stamps than are needed, since it is philatelic. It uses American/British and French occupation stamps. It was postmarked on August 16, 1946. It's also interesting that it uses a Feldpost registration stamp. Click to see more.]

[Below: This technique of cutting the stamp in half is called a bisect, but this isn't quite half, since they apparently only wanted to cut Adolf Hitler's face off. This was postmarked on July 6, 1945.]

[Below: This is from the French zone of occupation and postmarked on June 7, 1947. It uses the same type of Hitler blackout as the one above, but it places the postage stamp right over the Hitler head. The word 'Deutsch' is to let the censors know what language is written, a requirement for all mail sent out of Germany. Click to see more.]

[Below: Another technique to block out Adolf Hitler's image in a vain attempt to force the Germans to forget about him. It is strange that they used stamp sheet selvage (the empty border on stamp sheets) to cover the quote at the bottom and then used the same overprint used on the stamp. They really didn't want people to read this! This was postmarked on June 26, 1945. Click to see more.]

[Below: They tried to be creative with this type of Hitler blackout and forgot to cover the quote entirely. It was postmarked on June 10, 1945. Click to see more.]

[Below: This handstamp Hitler blackout wasn't quite black enough so you can still see the forbidden face, and again they forgot to cover the quote. It was postmarked on June 5, 1945. Click to see more.]

[Below: Here is an unaddressed postcard with a French zone of occupation postage stamp postmarked on March 20, 1946. This postcard has a deep black Hitler head blackout stamp and a 'Gebuhr Bezahlt' (fee/postage paid) stamp. Click to see more.]

[Below: This is one of the most bizarre Hitler blackout overprints, from 1945. This was released in Austria, as the overprint says, with what is referred to as a skeletal hand over the stamp (but with five fingers and no thumb). Click to see more.]

[Below: Here is an envelope done by a stamp collector that shows the wide variety of Hitler blackout overprints. This was done by hand, which is why each overprint looks different. It was postmarked on June 16, 1945.]

[Below: Hitler stamps weren't the only stamps the Allies tried to destroy, there were an array of verboten stamp designs. On the far right this has a postage stamp with a gold bar on it, which covers the image of a soldier. It was postmarked on February 23, 1946. Click to see more.]

[Below: Sometimes Hitler stamps were snuck by the postal authorities, or in this case canceled but not sent. This shows an Allied occupation stamp (with a peculiar hammer and sickle design like that of communism). It was postmarked on August 28, 1945 in Vienna. Click to see more.]

[Below: Now here is an oddity. A Hitler head postcard used in Germany on August 1, 1960! Very strange this got past the post office. Knowing Germany you could probably be arrested for trying to send a Hitler stamp through the mail. Click to see more.]

[Below: Here is an attempt at sneaking a Hitler head postcard through the postal service. Notice the word 'Zurück' (return). The reverse shows this was sent in January 1946. Click to see more.]

[Below: Official envelope which bore the official eagle and swastika stamp which were left over after the war. You can find many different means the Allies used to cover these 'verboten' designs. Here is a corner of tape being used, postmarked on January 17, 1946.]

[Below: The next three envelopes show the stupidity and madness of the Allied occupation. Like that above here is an example of attempting to cover up the eagle and swastika on official envelopes. These are from Austria, which had previously voted over 99% to rejoin Germany (it was literally separated by Germany's enemies to make Germany weaker), but voting democratically isn't cool when the tyrants of this world don't like the results. Anyway, here is a piece of tape used to cover the eagle and swastika. This was postmarked on April 26, 1947.]

[Below: This time they called in the BIG GUNS and used black ink... but it still didn't hide the eagle and swastika. Did they run out of tape? This was postmarked on November 7, 1948.]

[Below: This time they used blue ink and it hid the forbidden symbol even less. Someone went to an Allied concentration camp for this mistake. This was postmarked on November 12, 1949.]

[Below: Another attempt to hide the forbidden symbol on an official envelope, this time they tried to conserve ink. This was postmarked on January 18, 1946.]

[Below: This one was sent by the German Reichsbahn (railroad) and uses a modified ink handstamp. This was postmarked on December 1, 1945.]

[Below: This uses a machine cancel where the eagle and swastika has been cut out, leaving a sloppy looking stamp with '6' in it (pfennig). This was postmarked on December 1, 1945.]

[Below: This also uses a machine cancel meter mail where the swastika has been cut out (atop the box with the 016). This was postmarked on December 20, 1946.]

[Below: This uses a professionally blacked-out Feldpost postcard (top middle black boxes) and a 'de-Nazified' meter cancel (the swastika was in front of the eagle). This was postmarked on January 10, 1947.]

[Below: Allied Military Government occupation stamps. Note the use of a flaming sword. This symbol is used to symbolize 'avenging justice'. Michael, from the Christian bible, is depicted with a flaming sword, he defeated the all-evil Satan with it. Go against their plan for world slavery and you are the next all-evil Satan, just like the 'Nazis' were depicted.]

[Below: On this pre-paid postcard they have shaved off the entire surface of the ink handstamp but you can still see the outline of the eagle. This was postmarked on February 18, 1946.]

[Below: On this pre-paid postcard they have shaved off the swastika and left the eagle. This was postmarked on October 13, 1945.]

[Below: On this pre-paid (red ink handstamp) postcard they've shaved off the entire eagle and swastika.]

[Below: On this pre-paid (blue ink handstamp) postcard they've shaved off the entire eagle and swastika.]

[Below: On this pre-paid postcard they've shaved off just the swastika.]

[Below: On this pre-paid postcard they've shaved off the entire eagle and swastika. Postmarked on September 11, 1945.]

[Below: Another example of a pre-paid postcard where they've shaved off just the swastika. Postmarked on October 1, 1945.]

[Below: This is an interesting postcard with an equally interesting story. There were massive shortages after WWII in Europe, especially in Germany. Apparently a post office in Fredersdorf didn't have any postage stamps so a customer, a stamp collector, brought in old Imperial German stamp sheets from the 1920s. These were overprinted with a round blue circle with the initials 'FM' in the middle (which stood for the postmaster's name). These were then canceled with an oval postmark. There are fakes of this stamp, but this particular postcard is expertized (see the 'Jeske' stamp on the left of the postage stamp). This was postmarked on October 1, 1945.]

[Below: Displaced Persons Mail. Between 12 and 14.6 million ethnic Germans and German citizens were forcibly displaced, fled, or were expelled from Central and Eastern Europe between 1944 and 1950, marking the largest forced migration in human history. It is unknown how many died during this inhuman act, but conservative estimates began at a few million.]

[Below: Soviet occupation of Laibach (Slovenia) after being previously liberated by Germany and given its independence. This country would be forced back into the artificial and unstable country of Yugoslavia, an ethic and religious cauldron of unrest. Postmarked June 23, 1945.]

[Below: Communist occupation of the General Government (Poland).]

[Below: Communist occupation of the General Government (Poland). Postmarked on August 30, 1944.]

[Below: France's little puppet, Charles de Gaulle, who rode on America's tail into France, received by a country that did not want him or his semitic-style 'justice'. He personally ordered the murder of one of France's greatest writers Robert Brasillach, who was executed for hurting his enemies' feelings. Note the reddish brown postage stamp with the black Cross of Lorraine is an overprinted stamp of one of France's greatest war heroes Philippe Pétain, who was thrown in a dungeon for the rest of his life and denied burial on France. This was postmarked on August 24, 1944.]

[Below: Harsh and plain postage was the norm in Germany for years after the war. This rather rare stamp was used in the months following the victory of darkness over the bastion of light, Germany.]

[Below: Also rare and with a little color thrown into the stamp this time. Postmarked August 10, 1945.]

[Below: This mess of a postage stamp was postmarked on September 27, 1945. It's design was handstamped and signed by a postal authority.

[Below: The postage stamp above except pre-printed and in an array of 'fancy' colors. Postmarked November 23, 1945.]

[Below: Ah, this is cute. It says 'Het Ondier Vlucht' (The Beast Flees). Look around to the world today, especially Europe and every other Aryan country, and tell me who the beast was, and is. Everything Adolf Hitler warned our grandparents about has come to pass. It was all horrifically true. You better wake up white man and get angry. And you better do it now. Click to see reverse.]

[Below: Human registration in American-occupied Germany. Click to see reverse.]

[Below: Reverse. This uses the paper from an old map due to paper shortages.]

[Below: This is a letter of proficiency. Check out the horribly butchered eagle. Dated June 4, 1945.]

[Below: Close-up.]

[Below: An interesting pass for a woman to 'secure the machines of their bombed-out factory'. Dated July 18, 1945 and issued to a woman named Katherine Lüttger.]

[Below: Human registration paper in American-occupied Germany, issued on August 3, 1945 also to Katherine Lüttger. Click to see reverse.]

[Below: Work card also for Katherine Lüttger, issued on June 4, 1946. Click to see reverse.]

[Below: This is a 'resettler from the east' certificate issued on November 24, 1947. Click to see more.]

[Below: Reverse of certificate above. Interesting that two years after the war they are still using documents from the Third Reich, in this case a ration sheet. Also strange is that the eagle and swastika haven't been marred or covered. Click to see more.]

[Below: Here is an ID booklet from November 28, 1945. It uses the same format and look as the Third Reich versions, but you'll notice they've gouged out the swastikas on the Third Reich ink stamps, which due to shortages they were still using, sometimes even years later. Click to see inside.]

[Below: Let's see, what do we have here? That big black block is where the Allies ordered the eagle and swastika to be obliterated. A 'Kennkarte' just means 'Identity Card'. Click to see inside.]

[Below: This is a 1946 'Kennkarte' (Identity Card) from the Allied occupation of Germany. You'll note that it is in the three languages of the occupiers: English, French and Russian. I love the part where it says 'law for liberation from Nazism and Militarism', coming from Britain, who waged war on practically the whole world over its history, and the USA, who still continues to murder people all over the globe, usually civilians. And then there is Soviet Russia... I won't even get into that. Click to see more.]

[Below: This is another 1946 'Kennkarte' (Identity Card) from the Allied occupation of Germany. Like the one above, it is in the three languages of the occupiers: English, French and Russian. I won't even get into that. Click to see more.]

[Below: This is an Allied occupation card from 1948. It says:

' Beschäftigungs-Nachweis für Arbeitneher'.

(Proof of employment for employees).

Click to see inside.]

[Below: 'Kennkarte' just means I.D. card. This looks odd... Click to see more.]

[Below: Another Kennkarte, this time from the Allied occupation. This is made of thin paper. What is that design in the middle? Click to see inside.]

[Below: Allied occupation I.D. from Thuringia, 1946. It says: 'Ausweis für Ost-Umsiedler' (ID card for resettlers from the East). More like Germans who had their lands stolen, creating the largest human migration in history. But this person's card in particular might be a refugee from Breslau, which was utterly destroyed by the communists. Click to see more.]

[Below: This is an Allied occupation bicycle permit, issued August 20, 1945, for a Hercules brand bicycle. 'Do you have permission to ride that bicycle?!']