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Group showing Runes and TK tabs as well - picture by G.Hanson ..
Interesting to see they have WH eagles on the tunic together with the SS tab.
Makes me wonder how many tunics the collectors community have dismissed as postwar Put-together because of traces of both chest eagles and ss tabs could be seen.
Nice honest collar tab! Great find. Excellent photos and very informative thread!
That picture is a very good uniform/insignia study indeed. The somewhat advanced age of these men is quite typical of late-war camp guards, when just about all of the healthy younger SS men had been sent to field formations, with their places taken by foreign personnel, elderly reservists and wounded/convalescent personnel.
It is pretty safe to assume that most if not all of the men in this group are among the 1944 transferees from the replacement army, having brought their army-issue uniforms with them.
Some have retained their breast eagles, other have removed them with the outlines still clearly visible. Some have retained their army shoulder boards (made with field grey rather than black badge cloth) and a few have even retained their belt buckles.
(By the way, the jawless death's head worn on the field cap of the left man in the foreground trio is of interest as well.)
Many thanks Wim; excellent documentation as always. I had not seen the actual documents before, which surely applies to most of us here.
For the benefit of the non-German speaking members, here's the translation.
First letter, dated 5th June 1944, sent by the head of the SS-WVHA, SS-Obergruppenführer Oswald Pohl to the Reichsführer-SS:
"re: Transfer of 10,000 army members to the Waffen-SS
Referring to: Order of 11th May 1944 RF/M. 1926/44 GRs.
Secret national matter!
2 copies
1st copy
Reichsführer!
As per the Führer's orders, 10,000 members of the army are transferred to the Waffen-SS for the purpose of guarding the Jews employed in the major construction projects of the OT and in important armaments work. The transfer has already begun. Up until now, we have received 2,000 army members. The remainder are continuously arriving. The transfer procedures have been co-ordinated with the Army High Command.
Only men with limited fitness for military duty who are fit for guard duties are taken over by us. Unsuitable men are returned by us. However, the number of 10,000 men will be met of course.
You have ordered these men to wear a patch with an embroidered "W". The result of this is an outward distinction and thus a downgrading vs. our current concentration camp guard personnel, all of whom are wearing a "Death's Head" patch. This is not going to have a favorable effect on their service and their enthusiasm. Particular consideration has to be taken to the fact that army officers are being transferred as well.
Among the army members transferred so far are some who had volunteered for transfer to the SS and thus have come enthusiastically.
Therefore, I suggest that the transferred army members are to be given the "Death's Head" patch as well, especially since our current guard formations also include some who do not fully meet the requirements for SS membership, such as among the Germans from Hungary, Slovakia etc. The question of their remaining in the SS shall then be conveniently attended to after the end of the war, as it generally is.
I request a decision."
Last edited by HPL2008; 10-18-2014 at 04:35 PM.
Thanks for the translation HPL2008. I think various members will like it.
The letters were in a portfolio for all these years. I can't even remember from whom they came
(but deep in my old, grey brain it says it was my friend David Delich). You see there always will
be an occasion for using them! Hope I could help a bit and let shine some light in the darkness!
Here's the second letter. Sent by the head of the SS-WVHA's Office Group I (Concentration Camps) at Oranienburg to all camp commandant's and administration heads on 3rd August 1944:
"Secret.
re: Uniform patches.
By a decree of 27th June 1944 - RF/M. 1960/44 - the Reichsführer-SS had ordered that for the duration of the war all members of the commandants' staffs and the Totenkopf-Sturmbanne* are to uniformly wear the double-armed Swastika as a patch insigne instead of the "Death's Head" previously worn. In addition to that, members of the SS wear the "Sig" runes on the left breast of the uniform tunic.
The transferred army- and air force members are to put on these patches effective immediately; SS-members of the commandants' staffs and the Totenkopf-Sturmbanne are to first wear out the old "Death's Head" patches.
The new patches with the double-armed Swastika are allocated to the concentration camps' administrations by the head of my office group's administration."
*) "Death's Head battalions", i.e. the wartime camp guard units.
Last edited by HPL2008; 10-18-2014 at 04:33 PM.
Thank you as always Wim, Winkelman and HPL for your contributions. To add a little to the correspondence regarding this piece of insignia, here is the order from Himmler that is referred to in the last document and that HPL has already explained in detail.
d'Alquen
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