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Help! I need some guidance on SS Totenkopf collar tabs.

Article about: Hi. I feel a bit of a fraud being on such a knowledgable forum but I need some basic information about SS-Totenkopf uniform. I'm working on a film and one of our characters is an Totenkopf o

  1. #1
    dirkmachete
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    Default Help! I need some guidance on SS Totenkopf collar tabs.

    Hi. I feel a bit of a fraud being on such a knowledgable forum but I need some basic information about SS-Totenkopf uniform. I'm working on a film and one of our characters is an Totenkopf officer at Auschwitz in 1944 and I'm a bit confused on what collar tabs to give him. Should it be bullion/metal thread or embroidered and should it be horizontal or vertical? Was it personal preference? Help! I so want to get this correct.

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  3. #2

    Default Re: Help! I need some guidance on SS Totenkopf collar tabs.

    Quote by dirkmachete View Post
    Hi. I feel a bit of a fraud being on such a knowledgable forum but I need some basic information about SS-Totenkopf uniform. I'm working on a film and one of our characters is an Totenkopf officer at Auschwitz in 1944 and I'm a bit confused on what collar tabs to give him. Should it be bullion/metal thread or embroidered and should it be horizontal or vertical? Was it personal preference? Help! I so want to get this correct.
    SS-TotenkopfverbÀnde (SS-TV), meaning "Death's-Head Units", was the SS organization responsible for administering the Nazi concentration camps for the Third Reich.
    The SS-TV was an independent unit within the SS with its own ranks and command structure. It ran the camps throughout Germany, such as Dachau, and Auschwitz in Poland

    The black SS was the dress and service uniform for the SS-TV. A special earth brown uniform was used for service within the camp.Field grey service uniforms cut like the black uniform began to be issued in 1937. Unit collar patches used the SS Totenkopf skull. SS-TV EM shoulder straps for the field grey uniform were modelled after German army straps but most other insignia were Allg-SS related .

    Not to be confused with 3rd SS Division Totenkopf
    This division was famous (or infamous) due to its insignia and the fact that most of the initial enlisted soldiers were SS-TotenkopfverbÀnde (SS concentration camp guards).

    The 2nd pattern collar patch for officers and NCO's on the staff of the camp commandant used a embroidered skull with a K under denoting "Konzentrationslager"

    See Mollo's book Volume 4

    As you can see by the attached pictures uniforms could be a mixture of everything (Note the Army cap eagle)



    Hope this helps a little
    Click to enlarge the picture Click to enlarge the picture Help! I need some guidance on SS Totenkopf collar tabs.  
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  4. #3
    dirkmachete
    ?

    Default Re: Help! I need some guidance on SS Totenkopf collar tabs.

    Thanks John for such an informative and speedy reply. It's all good info to have.

  5. #4

    Default Re: Help! I need some guidance on SS Totenkopf collar tabs.

    By 1944, the character should be wearing a horizontal Death's Head without additional cyphers on his right collar patch.
    (May 1940 regulations abolished the letters and numbers that appeared below the Death's Head emblem and changed the orientation of the Death's Head from vertical to horizontal.)
    By that time, however, "SS" runes were also frequently seen worn by personnel within the camp system.

    For reference, you could refer to the well-known Hoecker album:
    http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/ssalbum/

    And here are some images of camp personnel from the Mauthausen camp. Note, though, that most of the officers in these photographs are still wearing vertical Death's Heads:
    http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ca...camp_personnel

  6. #5
    dirkmachete
    ?

    Default Re: Help! I need some guidance on SS Totenkopf collar tabs.

    Thanks HPL2008 that's good info. I think we're going to use a horizontal death's head in silver bullion. Many thanks again.

  7. #6
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    I have read the totenkopfverbande did the exact opposite of the totenkopf division in may 1940 and flipped the skulls to a vertical position.

    The guys with the horizontal ones were people transferred in and out of the fighting division to work guard duty etc.

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