Grandad's key fob

[freightshaker9]

This was my grandfathers key fob. He was in WWII, said he had it since then. Kept his harley keys on the same ring and called it his lucky charm. He passed and it went to my father for his harley. It has been used as a lucky key fob scince I was a kid. I am in my 50's now. I have it on my harley key ring. The wife after 10 years finally got a close look at it and about lost her mind! "racially insensitive" she screamed! I asked my father, now in his 80's and not the greatest memory how it came to be on everyones keys, and was it from Germany.No real answer there, just it was grandads lucky charm so I am here. The pics arent the best they are from a phone, and it is beat to hell from 60 plus years on a motorcycle keyring but here it is. Your opinions?

[Friedrich-Berthold]

An SS long service medal without its ribbon. Others can tell you more.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Motor cycle rebel types in California of the 1950s and 1960s were great ones for using Nazi regalia to disturb middle class sensibilities of the Leave It to Beaver epoch.

[Scout]

Maybe time to retire it from key fob duty. Different times.

[Adrian Stevenson]

So that you can research it more, it is known in German as: SS-Dienstauszeichnung 3.Stufe (8 Jahre)

[Friedrich-Berthold]

So that you can research it more, it is known in German as: SS-Dienstauszeichnung 3.Stufe (8 Jahre)

Bravo.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

It was worn by such men as these:

[freightshaker9]

Thank you. Now I know my father and grandfather took a medal that should have been preserved and had a real value and basically destroyed it.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

No, I would not say that, it still exists. What happened to it is a part of history, too, since the SS did not last for long, but its relics have outlasted it and had a different meaning for those who came after.
I, for one, am glad that the organization went down in flames only twenty years after it came into existence and its booty became trophies and souvenirs, really. Your relatives kept the thing, and, you can add a ribbon to it and it is preserved.
Heini H would be deeply irritated to know, for instance, that I have many of the old clothes of his black corps. In fact, such a thing was seriously against the law in the III. Reich, but so what....

[Wagriff]

Destroyed it? Not at all...It's just missing it's ribbon, is all. Even with a somewhat worn finish, it's Still worth considerable value.