Waffen SS Temporary Camp Guard Collar Tab

Product Description: This is a choice, near mint example of the desirable SS Temporary Camp Guard collar tab. This pattern of collar insignia was introduced in 1944. It was worn by the thousands of Wehrmacht personnel who were transferred to the SS to serve as guards in the concentration camp system, to make up for manpower shortages as the SS pushed their combat-ready troops to the front. This tab is textbook in all aspects, and is the so-called “Dachau” type, very likely one of the many removed near the end of the war from the Dachau storehouse. The double swastika is machine emboidered in silver-gray thread on black wool. The reverse shows the typical Dachau white stitching, and a typical buckram stiffener with a couple of spots of glue. The embroidery shows very slight age toning. This SS Temporary Camp Guard collar tab was never issued or worn, and has no mothing or other damage.It’s an evocative piece of insignia from the most sinister and notorious SS branch.

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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