Post your favorite SS Item!!

[NDShooter]

I love all of the great items that pop up on this thread!

[Normandie]

I will post my first SS Dagger Robert Klaas from Lakesidetrader next week, I'm positive I'll be a happy man that day!

[Lowboy]

I will post my first SS Dagger Robert Klaas from Lakesidetrader next week, I'm positive I'll be a happy man that day!

As adults this is the only time we feel like kids at Christmas.... try to sleep the night before it arrives.

[ToxicGas]

I spent a couple of days looking through this thread, some really interesting and impressive items.

I only own one SS piece, I generally can't afford SS things, but this is my favourite item in my collection, and my most precious possession. I know a lot of you have already seen my posts on this (and it is of course my display picture), so apologies for that, but I feel the story of this should definitely be shared with everyone.

I bought it from the nephew of the British soldier who acquired it. This is what he said:

"I was given this badge in 1953 by an uncle (Harold Belson) who served in the Royal Engineers and was in action in France and Germany. From what I was told and he didn’t like talking about it but in his words. He was sent to Belsen to undertake a clean up operation which included maintenance on bulldozers which were used to bury bodies. Whilst he was there one of the inmates came over to him and pressed your badge into his hand and said,”This is token for you to keep.” My uncle felt so sorry for him he gave him his leather jerkin which is a sleeveless leather jacket that the engineers used to wear and told the man your one of us now so you can help me out. My uncle insists because he gave the man something to do, a purpose, it kept that man alive. My uncle was only there for two days and he was moved on but he said it took a week to get the smell out of his clothes and never knew whether the man survived."

-I find it to be pretty powerful, that this badge was once in the hands of a freed prisoner. I'm not sure if the circumstances in which the Totenkopf was obtained by the man were ever known by Harold, but he has passed away, and so it remains unknown. I can only assume his reasoning for passing this token of gratitude on to an oblivious young child (He told me he thought it was a 'pirate badge' at the time, and so wore it to dress up when playing...) was that it served only as a reminder of the horrible things he witnessed. However, I think the positive aspects of the story are quite moving, and unexpected for such a 'dark' item. I never anticipated I would own something with a background like that.

Mat

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Thanks to our young friend for his account of the cap badge and the reality of the 20th century.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Many of these things have no such story attached to them specifically, other than the experience of Europe in the first half of the 20th century. The cap badge from Bergen Belsen is especially powerful, and how many degrees of separation operated from said badge and these other items? No one can say.

[sandgroper]

I will post my first SS Dagger Robert Klaas from Lakesidetrader next week, I'm positive I'll be a happy man that day!

I reckon you will be mate, I bought a Robert Klaas from Lakesidetrader about 2 years ago and I still stop and stare at it almost daily, I haven't regretted that decision for one second. I'm looking forward to seeing yours!

[sandgroper]

Many of these things have no such story attached to them specifically, other than the experience of Europe in the first half of the 20th century. The cap badge from Bergen Belsen is especially powerful, and how many degrees of separation operated from said badge and these other items? No one can say.[/QUOTE]

I really like the white gloves, I would love to track down a pair of those. I don't think I've ever seen a pair of those for sale anywhere.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Many of these things have no such story attached to them specifically, other than the experience of Europe in the first half of the 20th century. The cap badge from Bergen Belsen is especially powerful, and how many degrees of separation operated from said badge and these other items? No one can say.

I really like the white gloves, I would love to track down a pair of those. I don't think I've ever seen a pair of those for sale anywhere.[/QUOTE]

Dear Sir, thanks. The white buck gloves were a fluke. I do not think I have seen a pair for sale either. Happy collecting. FB

[Friedrich-Berthold]

soon to be a favorite item.