German WW2 Air Raid Course Certificate

This is an “Air Raid Course” certificate issued by the “Reichs Air Raid Protection Association District Group South West” for a one month course in air raid training in in November-December 1933.

The RLB was organized by Hermann Göring in 1933 as a voluntary association. Existing volunteer air raid precaution associations were forced to merge with RLB.

The RLB was a civil defence organization founded in 1935 on the order of Hermann Göring.
Marcus Wendel, 1999
     

The National Air Protection League (Reichsluftschutzbund) was actually formed in 1933 (29 April). Realizing the cities of Germany would be vulnerable to air attacks in case of war, the German government hoped to attract volunteer support for a large air defense organization. Thousands of Germans volunteered to serve in the
Reichsluftschutzbund and to provide services in case of air raids, both for precautionary activities and for responces in case of attack. This eventually would come to include bomb disposal, fire-fighting, rescue, damage repair, neigborhood watch, and even making ground decoys and camouflage after war broke out in 1939.

The RLB was in charge of educating and training ordinary German men and women in civil defence procedures necessary for the basic level of local self-help of the civil population against air raids. The local level was formed around air raid wardens and operated in small first intervention squads. The training include fire fighting, protection against chemical weapons, communication procedures and preparation of houses and apartments against air raids.