White SS uniform in wear

[Jonathan Wenberg]

Hello,

This website has a forum called "Black SS uniform in wear, 1943", which displays photographs of the distinctive black ss tunic in wear during the Second World War. I have been attempting to research whether or not the same situation existed to a degree with the white ss summer tunic.

On the Axis History Forums it was posted that:

"The SS-weisser Rock had a very short "official" life, compared to it's Heer counterpart, which served throughout the War, in a variety of roles, and dress forms. The SS version had only one role, and was discontinued in 1940. It was thereafter actually against regulations to wear. However officers, notably the higher ranks, who could expect to flaunt Himmler's regulations with impunity, continued to wear the regulation issue linen 1939 jacket. Some, who became officers after 1940, wished to emulate the "old hands", and had private purchase SS-weisser Rocks made up. These were tailored from a variety of materials, and were sometimes different in detail to the regulation 1939 pattern. It is likely that comparitively few original 1939-1940 "official" SS-weisser Rocks remain today. The majority being the 1940-1945 private purchase variants."

Does anyone have any photographic proof of the white tunic worn in a similar fashion to the photographs such as the example below of the black uniform in wear during the second world war? Or can anyone who is more knowledgeable about the black and white allgemeine ss tunics shed any more light on this matter (whether or not white ss tunics were widespread or extinct during the second world war?)


(Credit: "Black SS uniform in wear, 1943" F.B., Lumsden)

[tempelhof]

not sure if this is the kind of thing you are asking for, but here are a couple of shots of SS Gruppenfuehrer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS Wilhelm Bittrich taken in 1943:



other additional officers:

[Killroy]

Nice photos! Thank you for posting!

Jeff

[jHAM]

Here is a camp commandant who wore his weiss rock for the photographer. There is no white tunic in the last photo. I think these are Bundesarchiv photos.

[Paul D]

not sure if this is the kind of thing you are asking for, but here are a couple of shots of W-SS Gruppenfuehrer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS Wilhelm Bittrich taken in 1943:



other additional officers:

Love those shots of Bittrich !!

[tempelhof]

Thank you, Paul and Jeff.

These photos are from pages of Walter Harzer's personal album. Harzer sits to Bittrich's right in the two top photos.

The album unfortunately had been picked through when his estate was dispersed and I was able to acquire 4 pages from it. The person who got these pages for me found the album already separated into pages with many already missing so it was beyond saving. I much rather would have seen that it remained intact. I don't know why anyone would think to tear up such an important album.

at any rate, i think this is a good topic the OP started here and I'd like to see what else comes up!

any other SS photograph collectors with white tunics in wear in the collection?

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I owned a wonderful grey silk cap, an a white army style tunic to an SS doctor in the LAH, and the black pants with the white piping, all which I got forty years ago from an infamous German dealer who had some loose Stasi connection. I do not have any images of the tunic, which I trade away, but I kept the cap....I wish I had it. This dealer was straight out of the black market days prior to 1948 and the currency reform. A picture of a man.
This site has many images of white uniforms in wear at various times. Our senior member Mr. D'Alquen has a fine library of such images.

[jHAM]

Here is one more from the same series I posted earlier.

As F-B said there are more photos and info on the white ss uniform on this outstanding site. But you must extend some type of effort to find what you seek and that is a barrier to most.

[sam1chlt]

This was discussed on WAF. I have never seen a white SS Officers visor......stunning!

Two SS Officer Visor Hats for your consideration - Page 3 - Wehrmacht-Awards.com Militaria Forums

[d'alquen]

The pictures of the KL Commandant are of Arthur Roedl. They come from a Julfest album compiled during his service in Gross-Rosen. To put the pictures in context I have attached the frontispiece to the album.
It seems, from photographic evidence, to have become the fashion for camp commandants to sport white jackets as a mark of superiority. Pictures of Stangl, Koch all show them wearing this style of tunic within the camps. I will let others speculate on the psychological background to this.
Although my interests are primarily in the pre-war years I do have some photos of the white tunic during the war and will locate and post them.
d'Alquen