SS Temporary Camp Guard collar tab set WWII German

The ultra desirable SS Temporary Camp Guard collar tab set. In August 1929 the SS, Schutz Staffel, (Protection Squad), incorporated the wear of rank collar tabs on the left side of the collar of the service tunic. The SS collar tabs were originally adopted from the earlier rank collar tabs as utilized by the SA, Sturmabteilung, (Storm Troops). Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler’s obsession with pagan runic symbolism manifested itself in runic emblems used by the SS, Schutz Staffel, (Protection Squad), the most famous of which was the dual sig-runes used on the collar tabs as introduced in May 1933. Additional runic style collar tabs were introduced at various times through-out the war. The assorted SS collar tabs remained in usage through-out the war with a couple of minor alterations. The SS-Totenkopfverbände, (Death’s Head Units), were responsible for guarding German concentration camps from 1933 until 1939 when its personnel were assigned as the nucleus of the newly forming Waffen-SS-Totenkopf-Division. As a result new Totenkopf-Wachsturmbanne, (Death’s Head-Guard Battalion), units were formed and assigned to guard the concentration camps. Later in the war as manpower shortages in the Waffen-SS became more severe many of the younger, physically fit, Totenkopf-Wachsturmbanne personnel were transferred into assorted Waffen-SS units and had to be replaced. This prompted Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler to induct roughly 10,000 older, (40+), reservists to fill the empty camp guard positions. This pattern collar tab was introduced late in the war, (circa June 1944), for wear by Heer and Luftwaffe personnel on temporary duty as concentration camp guards.

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 piping’s 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.