Chained SS dagger in wear

[Vernichtung]

Hallo guys,

I recently acquired this interesting photo. As you can see there is an Enlisted Man, SS-Rottenführer if I see it right, that has a chained dagger on his lap. I know these were normally worn by officers.
There is an Untersturmführer smiling to the far left of the picture , it could be that the dagger is his. The way the Rottenführer is displaying the dagger might indicate this.
What do you guys think and was it even allowed to wear this dagger if you were not an officer?

Regards, Job

[Frogprince]

I don't have it in front of me, but Himmler's original order also allowed those who had the qualifying period of time of service in the SS to be eligible to purchase the chained dagger. Later on there was an order regarding knots for officers. Best Regards, Fred

[Vernichtung]

So actually calling it an officers dagger is wrong.
Thanks for the reply!!

[KRISSE]

So actually calling it an officers dagger is wrong.
Thanks for the reply!!

Exactly. Only if they had a knot, it was worn by an Officer. EM and NCO's will not wear a knot on their chained SS daggers.

Btw, why should an Officer let another SS man let him wear his dagger? It totally makes no sence...
It is just the Rottenführer's dagger, attached with a D-ring loop on his belt. The dagger is resting on his leg while he's sitting.

[Vernichtung]

Thanks for the reply Kris. The fact that only officers were allowed to wear the knot was present with me. The reason that i thought the dagger might have belonged to the officer is that not every SS member was able to afford a chained dagger. Therefor some SS men probably would have liked to be on a picture with a dagger like this. Besides, with other peoples stuff you tend to be more careful than your own.

[KRISSE]

I understand Job. But I'm in the army myself and I even don't dare to risk asking at one of our Officers if I may wear their daggers or degens even for a second...
It's just one of those things that you just don't do or ask.
Especially not in the army.

[Larry C]

After 3 years of consecutive service with the SS ..would entitle an enlisted man to wear the Chained dagger as of 1933.

The Chained dagger did not come immediately after the 3 years..the process through SS channels and approval once the ems record had been reviewed the dagger would be awarded. This sometimes has taken months....and the end result seeing an early SS dagger in a Chained scabbard or later RZM daggers rarely found also together.

Below a very low rank SS mann that is entitled to wear the Chained configuration

[d'alquen]

For those who would like the official background to these daggers, here is the SS announcement of the 1936 dagger in the SS-Befehlsblatt of August 1936.

[Larry C]

For those who would like the official background to these daggers, here is the SS announcement of the 1936 dagger in the SS-Befehlsblatt of August 1936.

Thankyou d`alquen for the period order. For the readers including myself..could we get a translation of the script?
Old German Gothic Text is a little more difficult to translate with the modern day translators when the period script .... ( or most of it ) isnt used anymore today.

The Forum would be grateful for this information. Thankyou once again for the document.

Regards Larry

[HPL2008]

For the readers including myself..could we get a translation of the script?

I'll translate it when I am back home later today.