The question on the original collar tab 36 SS division "Dirlewanger"

[Turukin Sergey]

These pictures amazed me! The number of subjects is enormous. I'll be sure to post these photos on the Russian forum. Look, what do you say to those who doubt the items from Dachau.:)
I read the information that such items, including collor tabs were repeatedly found in the personal effects of many veterans across America together with other 100% of the original subjects - people who have no relation to collecting and common sense dictates that this fact can be considered for these tabs as proof of their originality.
And I cover photo like this book found, just on this topic - "German War Booty".

Great photographs jHAM, thank you for posting them. Turukin, you may want to share this thread with the members over at the Russian forum you spoke of.

[BOB COLEMAN]

Those of us in the USA who have been collecting for many years have had the opportunity to encounter many US 45th Division vets who had large amounts of original SS insignia that came from the storerooms at Dachau. If you were not in a position to have met these men and see their bring backs, how can you state something never existed when you have no first hand knowledge of the facts? A very stupid approach to collecting in my opinion. At one time, there was so much Dachau insignia in the market place, it had little value.

[seventyeighth]

The stockroom at Dachau is far from legend. I have spoken to a dealer who has been in field for many many years and has met with US veterans who passed through it. He explained that the facility served as kind of a depot for the eastern front where they were outfitted throughout the war. He went on to tell me that the GIs, in some cases, were allowed to "take one from each bin."

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Those of us in the USA who have been collecting for many years have had the opportunity to encounter many US 45th Division vets who had large amounts of original SS insignia that came from the storerooms at Dachau. If you were not in a position to have met these men and see their bring backs, how can you state something never existed when you have no first hand knowledge of the facts? A very stupid approach to collecting in my opinion. At one time, there was so much Dachau insignia in the market place, it had little value.

Well said. The VA SS and WVHA system of quartermaster supply with its Bavarian hub is a historical fact above and beyond misinformed collector lore ca. 2014. The photo of Hess and Himmler in 1936 substantiates this fact, as do thousands of historical sources from Pohl's system of the Verwaltungsamt SS, to include its uniform and equipment role and mission. I have collected since the early 1960s, and, as Bob mentions, I have
constantly encountered items from this source. Pohl and his minions had their own trial at Nuremberg for which they prepared an extensive monograph on how the SS administrative and economic enterprise
worked in detail, and it includes mention of the Dachau facilities and its role in the clothing economy of the SS.

The successful collector is the one who refrains from engaging the half truths and superstitions that are the core of this digital mad house.
Rather than read the ignorance of a few poured out in endless threads, the wise collector can read solid books on this subject, which we have detailed here since 2008.


Zu den Bildern: I also enclose the Muenchen Freimann barracks of SS VT 1 "D" which went into US hands and today is the medical academy of the Bw.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I do not doubt that some larcenous people sell fakes with the idea that they were seized among the trophy heaps of Dachau. US troops were stationed there until the 1970s, if I recall. We have included
maps and such of the US Army, Munich garrison at other times. The US Army ended up with many locales filled with regalia, uniforms and equipment the result of which is our collections. And Bob is very right to say that for some of his lifetime and mine, this material was considered next to worthless. A young person whose whole collecting experience in the past five years grows out of the internet cannot easily imagine
such a time, but it is also a fact.

[HPL2008]

It's quite remarkable to what lengths some people go so as to propagate the claim that all "Dachau insignia" are fake, really.

A decade back there was a rather remarkable incident over on another forum involving a once-respected member who created an additional user account under a fictitious name. That "new member" claimed to be a dealer who had traded in repro SS collar patches in the 1970s that were identical to those now accepted as original "Dachau" insignia.

(A charade that quickly unravelled, with the whole hoax backfiring on its creator.)

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I did not know the extent of this farce a while back. All too typical. Thank you, Andreas. Gruess nach Bayern.