Waffen-SS 18th Volunteer Horst Wessel Collar Tab

Product Description: This is a beautiful and well-preserved example of an 18th SS “Horst Wessel” Division Collar Tab. This distinctive style is widely recognized in the collecting community as part of the group of insignia produced by prisoners at the Dachau concentration camp, located in Bavaria just outside of Munich. These tabs are historically significant not only for their unique construction but also for their provenance—since the end of the war, they have been found almost exclusively in U.S. veteran estates, brought home as personal war souvenirs.

The tab is constructed with a tan buckram backing overlaid with fine black badge cloth, which is carefully folded and secured on the reverse with white machine stitching. The emblem on the front is neatly embroidered in white cotton thread, displaying the characteristic quality associated with Dachau-made pieces.

This Waffen-SS 18th Volunteer Horst Wessel Collar Tab remains in near mint condition, with no stains, wear, or damage. A textbook example, it represents a rare opportunity to acquire an untouched piece from one of the lesser-known yet historically rich formations of the Waffen-SS.

Historical Description: Regulations for the SS Collar Tab went through quite an evolution in just a short 16 year period. The first SS Collar Tabs were introduced in 1929 by Heinrich Himmler as part of the newly introduced SS uniform code. Initially, tabs were worn by both lower rank SS men and their senior leaders. Lower ranks would wear a rank tab as well as a numbered unit identification tab, with senior leaders wearing their rank tabs on both collars. In 1933 the well known “SS” runic tab was adopted by Hitler’s personal body guard detachment, the “Leibstandarte” or “LAH”. The LAH used this runic tab in lieu of the numerical unit identification tab to identify them as members of the elite unit protecting the “Führer”. In 1934 the runic “SS” tabs were again adopted for use by the early “SS-VT” units. This adoption eventually led to the wide spread use of SS runic tabs by German Divisions; the later non-German volunteer units would not be permitted to wear the runes, and bore their own unit designed patch instead. SS Collar tabs can be found in an extraordinary variety of numbers, designs, and pipings depending on unit and rank, from hand-embroidered tabs worn by officers to mass produced embroidered and machine woven types that were used on combat uniforms.

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