Article about: There are no illustrations of SS cuff titles in the 1943 Organisationsbuch der NSDAP. There were same, I think, in the 1940 edition, and maybe in certain of the 1938 editions. The SS Befehls
One of the reasons might have been that colored cuff titles actually made sense because they conveyed more information. And in the case of the cuff title being discussed, the department chiefs would have probably been reluctant to part with the symbols of their status. Besides, who's to say the orders were never revised?
Thanks for all the above. I am asking you and the others here to do as Derek and I have done and actually prove something with original documents versus speculation. Go to an archives, do the research, share the results, and then you can interpret them with the work of the historian with some authority.
The colored cuff titles endured because people either disregarded the order or somehow the obsolete uniforms survived the abyss of war and its aftermath because the old uniforms got retained somehow, which is quite miraculous.
Well, it was, as you said, speculation, and not a statement of fact. I do respect the work of researchers and thank Derek, as well as you, for the new insights you have provided.
There are two volumes which well encapsulate the mentality of Heini H. and the spirit of the SS. These are Helmut Heiber ed. Reichsfuehrer: Briefe an und von Himmler, 1968, and Smith B & Peterson A. eds. Himmlers Reden, 1974. I grew up with these two books, and especially the former gives the reader a glimpse into the pettifogging and fussy dream world of Heini H. If you want a snap shot of how the bureaucracy functioned, then deepen yourselves in these two volumes, which are now themselves quite rare and valuable. I bought them in West Germany while a student there. The volume of speeches was edited by a mentor and friend of mine who died recently.
Well, it was, as you said, speculation, and not a statement of fact. I do respect the work of researchers and thank Derek, as well as you, for the new insights you have provided.
Dear Walter, thanks for this note. I have not done much and I surely do not want praise. I am more eager to keep Derek here and not have him drift away, as often happens with others, because he is one of the few personages on these sites who has consistently unearthed primary material that follows the path mapped out by Andrew Mollo. I do believe the two persons are acquainted.
I am didactic and pedantic to a fault, not the least because I do all of this professionally. In the second instance, I just spent five weeks in Vienna, where one cannot help but have one's standards raised in the midst of so many people with books in the tradition of other learned and productive people. Where I am at this moment (....not on the Danube...) people are eagerly replacing books with machines, which I cannot really endorse. My alma mater gave rise to Google, of course, which is all well and good, but the ease with which we can appear to capture knowledge, is, I think, a chimera that does a disservice to the questions you ask. Your original question is a sound one. The time has come to re do the Mollo books with the state of knowledge in the 21st century and with the addition of more illustrations.
I also spent some time in the favorite cafe of Schickelgruber, around the corner from the Academy of Arts, but I could not figure out which place was his favorite there.
PS the people in this picture were more inclined to burn books than read them. The cafe and the academy of arts are some blocks away from this part of the Ringstrasse as it looked in March 1938.
Apropos all of this, read these extracts from the SS Befehlsblaetter from 1938 (various dates..) and think about it all versus collector dogmatism and doctrines which do not accord with the historical facts. It helps to read the original documents versus speculation about the past that arises in the special atmosphere of US militaria faires. These are relevant extracts from the SS Befehlsblaetter to the transition from the 1934 era insignia to those of post 1937 in the Allgemeine SS, i.e. the phase out of the colored banded cuff titles about which I speculated above.
These documents were posted on a Polish site in which the SS Befehlsblaetter for 1938 are now on line, and quite interesting to read. Good ole' Heini H. spent a lot of time chucking people out of the SS, that is for sure. Plus, many souls seem to have spent much time losing their civil lapel pins, i.d. papers and what not.
The announcement of the Oswald Pohl eight pointed star of recognition for the Verwaltungsfuehrer SS at subordinate echelons makes also for an interesting Lektuere.
Interesting reading, indeed. I discovered the website only yesterday and haven't yet gone through all its contents. It's things like this that fuel my enthusiasm for digitization.
To return to the original question, it has occurred to me that the Organisationsbuch der NSDAP contained tables of insignia, including that of the SS. Perhaps someone has the 1943 edition? It would be interesting to see the page(s) covering SS cuff titles.
Interesting reading, indeed. I discovered the website only yesterday and haven't yet gone through all its contents. It's things like this that fuel my enthusiasm for digitization.
To return to the original question, it has occurred to me that the Organisationsbuch der NSDAP contained tables of insignia, including that of the SS. Perhaps someone has the 1943 edition? It would be interesting to see the page(s) covering SS cuff titles.
I have the Organisationsbuch from 1943. I do not have an image of the relevant page you want. It was in the 1938 or 1940 edition. Digitalization is ducky, but this Polish site has far from a complete run of the relevant documents. It has fragments, although the SS Befehlsblaetter are present for 1938. This source alone is pretty rich. I cannot see how Mollo overlooked this issue in the original edition of his book, though, which might be an unfair generalization.
Bookmarks