SS embroidery templates

[Dimas]

As I seen the early embroidery in the very bad moth eaten condition- looks like the paper template was made by hand- it was an early ugly totenkopf scull ( also the differences in the numbered collartabs ). IMO the templates before 1936-37 year was a hand made templates- what the peoples think about that interesting fact?

[Friedrich-Berthold]

When one considers that the alu embroidery was also made by hand, and that, generally, the firms that made these were based on Heimarbeit, one is not talking about IKEA or Tesco or the like (Walmart for Americans...) The early insignia for the SS Wachverbaende was for a small cohort of men. The end strength of the Wachverbaende in January 1935 (before this insignia was introduced...) was 1,987 men; in December, 1937, the end strength was 4833. If you mean the very first SSTV badge for the collar, then one can try to figure out how many of these might have been made, but really only very few. I doubt that they over produced, either, but whoever in the VASS only had them made they were needed--on a small scale.

Maybe my smart colleagues will add their words.

But the use of hand made templates does not surprise me at all. In my earlier years in Vienna, I recall such little family firms that made embroidery, which were really on a small scale by the standards even of the later 20th century.

By the way, the numbers I cite are from Vol. 4 of Mollo, on p. 50.