SS EM Visor for Review

[Eddie]

I don't have anything to say on the subject of fakes/fakery etc, but I did want to take the opportunity to extend my thanks to all of you who cheerfully chip in with your expert opinions. I find these discussions very fascinating and enlightening, and I appreciate everyone taking the time out of their day to write responses to the queries from the junior members. I haven't even been on this site a year, and I couldn't begin to list the things that I've learned from even my casual perusing of this site. It's not often that a person can find a rational, educated discussion of anything related to the TR period on the internet, and it is appreciated.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Thanks for the kind words and I am gratified that you have learned something of merit.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

the reality of our interests leads inevitably to the fragility of all things and to human vanity in its fullness.

[stonemint]

Great overview, Ben. This should be an authoritative reference thread on fake black em/nco visors for some time to come.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

One hardly need add here to Ben's nice compendium that this site has more images of authentic black caps in their number than the berserk site, as well as additional material relevant to the theme.
The discussion of this theme on the other site has fully earned the Lord of the Flies label, with the concerned outdoing themselves in mutual recriminations and the sowing of doubt and fear.
The cap in post 6 here did our Ben identify as a fake some time ago, a fact that seems lost in the mayhem and finger pointing.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Further in this vein, elsewhere on the site stand more images of authentic caps than are to be found on the paranoia and resentment website colored in the maroon hue of the seven deadly sins.
A person serious on understanding this regalia cannot do so merely with these images, but with a careful reflection on the evolution of these items in what is a brief period of time, say, 1932-1940 or so, that is just eight years.
Over this period of time, there unfolded changes in the features of these objects which we have analyzed, and which Saris did, as well, for Bender, though I dissent in some of his otherwise very fine analysis.
The Shea and Beaver book is also useful in this connection.
There is no substitute for the actual physical examination of these objects, perhaps the most intriguing of which is the Mueller Probe in the Beaver Shea book, and which Maederer still has for sale, and no one has bought.
It is the "textbook" ( to use an anachronistic and inaccurate term) for the Sonderanfertigung cap, but the high rollers and big wheels shun this object. I have no interest in the thing, mind you, but if you want an example that was to be imitated by contemporaries, this is it, in fact.

Happy hats and thanks to Ben for his civic mindedness.

[BenVK]

Thanks to FB for posting images of what these things should look like but alas, this might also be part of the problem. We have all become quite used to seeing a lot of these things.

Bare with me hear because my next comments might seem rather bizarre!

The human brain identifies and categorizes objects via visual references and clues. The more familiar it becomes with a certain object, the less visual clues it needs to recognize that object in the future but due to that fact, it can be easily fooled.

For example, these black caps have plenty of unique visual references. The brain is trained to recognize those references and judge them on what it has seen before. Like a check list, it subconsciously checks every detail such as the runes and the tag and the stamp, the insignia and everything else and categorizes everything based on whether similar visual clues were seen on an original or fake item. Now, let's say that you've seen hundreds of photos of black caps and you feel confident that you could recognise good from bad. You put your brain into automatic and let the identification process run it's course.

The problem is that you've trained your brain to look for, let's say 20 visual references and the key detail to identify the most recent fake item is number 21. You will miss it everytime. Such is the case of this fake RZM tag. It's number 21. Once you've been told what is wrong though, it becomes obvious and joins all the other visual clues in your memory bank never to be forgotten.

I think that's why there's been such an interest in all of this. Some people knew what to look for, some didn't and some don't care and just want to stir the pot and turn it all into utter nonsense which is what happened on the other site.

[davejb]

I think thats one of the best descriptions and easy to understand observations ive heard Ben, and when you take the time to digest it properly it makes perfect sense, not only in this field but in many more, its repetition that can be a downfall, but not to recognise that can and will cause many problems and to be totally ignorant of the facts that are being presented and allow oneself to be blinkered will see that ignorance multiply until noone else is right apart from the antagonist

[BenVK]

It's not Freud but it's the best I can offer!

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Ben is a disciplined thinker, and, of course, his inquiry into especially the visual image on the computer and our understanding of this regalia is suggestive and useful. To be sure, I also have felt and smelled these things, and taken them in with all senses in a very 20th century way, which is a bridge too far for some. Ben was able to break the code with the UM thingy and the deutsche Schrift, which, I, in my Colonel Blimp posture, would never have suggested or attempted.

In any case, with many fine minds all of this should be possible, but I am struck by the hateful and vicious outpouring of bile and sh!t that has eventuated on the other site in this connection, and Ben, to his credit has offered something of merit here for analysis. Ben and others should take cover, though, for the prevailing sentiment in this case is that many revile and despise thought, reflection, measured argument, and want to engage in hysteria, the finding of scape goats, smashing of icons or whatever. The discomfiture of the list makers and purveyors of text books in this episode is a real hoot.

Happy hats and I shall examine all these things twice. I do know my reaction at the sight of the female body, or of a plate of french fries. The New York Times today suggests that the craving for fat is one we cannot control.
Maybe the craving for RZM tags and foetid woolens is something similar?

sapere aude.