SS Guard Dog Award Medal
This extraordinary piece came out of Dachau, following the liberation in spring 1945. The US forces member who found it brought it home.
It is a beautifully crafted award, designed by the famous Georges Contaux, French sculptor and medallist. It was engraved with the following...
"Best dog at Dachau concentration camp 1936, Bella"
Scary and Horrifying to say the least ...that a medal is given for being the best dog or in another term " Corrective Action " with camp prisoners.
The dogs at those camps just were not those friendly Golden Retriever types.
Interesting item with a dark history.
It is not the size of a Collection in History that matters......Its the size of your Passion for it!!- Larry C
One never knows what tree roots push to the surface of what laid buried before the tree was planted - Larry C
“The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.” - Winston Churchill
I had never heard of or seen anything like this before. Have seen lots of images of the dogs but never realized that there were decorations for them too.. As Larry said, scary and horrifying..
Reminds me of the dogs along the East/West German Border when the Wall existed. While in Berlin I patrolled sectors of the wall that had dog runs and the Guard dogs were very vicious (from what we could observe). We had heard that they only feed the dogs a few times a week to keep them more aggressive to dissuade folks from trying to escape. After the wall came down, we had heard that the dogs had to be euthanized since they were in no condition to be adopted as home pets.
Smitty
Thanks for the interesting addition Smitty.
I have had numerous photographs over the years, featuring the dogs that were used within the concentration camp system. Still have a few, including a private image of Amon Göth with SS guards and a dog. These attached below were taken at Dachau. The first, obviously during the camp's existence. The next pair show a former prisoner posing with a guard dog that the liberated inmates had beaten to death, along with a post war image of the kennels area. The dog kennels were located next to the Krematorium zone in Dachau.
Carl
Carl,
Thank you for the additional images. The one I have attached was from my time in Berlin looking across the Wall during a Wall Patrol. Not the best image as I only has a small 110 instamatic camera with me at the time. The other jeep in the patrol carried the 35mm camera that was issued by the intelligence section to take pictures of the activity of the East German and Soviet soldiers.
Smitty
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