Lager Neubrandenburg staff, spring, 1940

[Friedrich-Berthold]

This image from May 1940 appeared on the Axis History forum and is of great interest to those of us concerned with the SSTV transition to Waffen SS.
Of note is the presence of what must be Sipo men as well as an Allgemeine SS member. Thanks to the Axis History Forum for this Uniformkunde source.

I also include the Stammrollenkarte for the Oberfuehrer here, a Johann Beck, who held a higher rank in the Allgem. SS than in the Waffen SS. Beck's career was checkered, it seems, if you read the personnel file carefully. He was a sculptor, with a grammar school education, an SS Mann of the first hour who made his way up the echelons of command of the Allgem SS, decorated, then on the staff of concentration camps, and then imprisoned in Mauthausen, himself. Not the typical thing we see on these sites with the Junkerschulen graduates and such and the typical picture book career.

These staff may be from Sachsenhausen, in fact.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The man in the black SS uniform of rather ancient pattern is a curiosity. Was he with Beck or was he an augmented staff member from the Allgem. SS which took place the fall before?

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Striking about this image also is how un uniform the appearance of these men is already so early in the war.

[Bochmann]

Striking about this image also is how un uniform the appearance of these men is already so early in the war.

Perhaps the ununiform look of these men is a result of the fact that they are SS reservists pulled from a miscellany of different roles/units in order to replace their younger counterparts who were off to the front?

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Perhaps the ununiform look of these men is a result of the fact that they are SS reservists pulled from a miscellany of different roles/units in order to replace their younger counterparts who were off to the front?

Yes, indeed, but the Sipo men were a normal part of the camp operation. It is the Allgem. SS persons, who were, indeed, mobilized as reservists. There are also those persons devoid of collar patches, who are thus SS Bewerber or SS Anwaerter.

[Bochmann]

I understand the Sipo connection, but would the Allgemeine SS who transferred to the SSTV have to start at the Bewerber or Anwaerter level?
I know that Allgemeine men who crossed over to the Waffen SS lost their rank and had to start at the bottom, I just assumed that they would automatically have started as an SS Mann, on the basis that they had already been accepted into the SS as a whole.
Also, if the Allge. NCO pictured was not yet a member of the SSTV or going on leave, would he not have retained his original uniform, meantime, as symbol of his status?
It's a pity that his right collar is not able to be identified.

[BOB COLEMAN]

An interesting image containing a few puzzlements. Thanks for posting FB.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The mobilization of Allgem. SS into the SSTV is covered in this work.