SS-TV war time insignia regulations
Mollo's books seem to be somewhat lacking in some things, such as explaining the war time insignia regulations of SS-TV personnel.
In period photographs, we can see war time camp personnel wear both the runic tab and the TK tab. Does anyone have information about these war time regulations? Who was entitled to wear SS runes, and who had to wear the totenkopf?
Basically, after the abolishment of the collar patches with the Death's Head and an additional number/letter, the collar patch with the Death's Head only was worn by personnel of the Totenkopfdivision, the wartime fielded Totenkopfstandarten, the Totenkopf-Wachsturmbanne and the staff of the concentration camps (which means that members of these groups are often indistinguishable in period photographs).
I doubt that the wartime wear of the Sigrunen collar patches by some camp guards had anything to do with official authorization for certain men or groups (although I will gladly stand corrected should somebody have data to the contrary) but would tend to assume it was mostly due to the common wartime practice of temporarily or permanently transferring personnel from Waffen-SS field formations to the camp system if they were no longer fit for combat duty due to wounds/injuries or other physical impairments. These men would surely have preferred to retain their original runic collar patches.
Finally, in 1944 the decision was made that the Death's Head collar patch should only be worn by the Totenkopfdivision while the camp guards and -staff should wear a collar patch with a double-armed Swastika. This changeover was not nearly completed by the end of the war. That business is explained in this thread:
Latvian SS Double Swastika Collar Tab - Original/Fake?
Many thanks Andreas!
I did once read (Possibly from this forum?) that camp medical staff transferred from Waffen-SS would have retained their sigrunen (Such as Mengele). However, as you say, I think it's more likely that all transferred Waffen-SS personnel would have retained their collar patch.
The case of SS-Untersturmführer Heinrich Wicker seems to somewhat contradict the claim that only transferred W-SS personnel would wear a runic tab. He was wounded in the jaw in 1942 and placed in non-combat duty.
Wicker's only combat experience was with the Totenkopf division, so as to why he is wearing a runic tab in this photo is a mystery. This picture was taken at the very end stages of the war, so it's possible that he simply couldn't get his hands on any other kind of tabs?
Kurt Bolender also sports the sigrunen on his collar, but I don't think he ever served in the Waffen-SS?
He did participate in the T4 program on the eastern front, but whether or not he was attached to W-SS, I'm not sure.
when you look to the photos of the Höcker Album you see quite mixed up skull and rune tabs, even high levels with Off rune collar tabs, NCO´s and EM ranks.
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