Waffen SS in Disguise

[Brian R]

Take a look at these two portraits. Both are of a Waffen SS man, but have been reworked (after printing) to look like regular Heer. The single portrait was taken first. You can see that he is wearing his EK2 from his buttonhole, but can tell that it was not a recent award as he has a ribbon bar above his pocket showing both the EK2 and Ostmedaille. Both his SS collar tab and his SS skull (on peaked cap) have been reworked.The wedding portrait is also very interesting - it appears that he was awarded a Nahkampfspange since the first photo - it is sticking out from behind his flowers. Also, you can see that not only have his collar tab and hat been reworked, the sleeve eagle and cuff title (I wonder which unit) have been blended as well. The reverse of the two cards has writing that dates from 1948 (when it was okay to be Heer, not WSS) and they appear to have been matted in a photo album or something.

Brian

[Brian R]

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[Brian R]

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[Tom M]

Very interesting Brian. I can see some other little niggles as well. You can still see the type of eagle that was on the belt, very distinct. I guess this is the sort of stuff that happened in post war times. I guess he didn't want to be hunted down by the partisans.

[Edward]

Hello Brian,

Thanks for sharing the scans. Without doubt very odd and interesting. What makes them so bizzare is that instead of just blurring the insignia out of the picture they replaced it with Heer!

Regards

[Lloyd I.]

Is this kind of photo work done by filling in the negative or the print? I have seen this when they add Oakleaves or Knights Cross to images but cant figure out how they did it.

[Brian R]

Thanks for the comments, guys. I really like this group.

Lloyd - I have seen many pictures where the negative was reworked (and have always wondered why as well). However, this group was reworked after printing.

Brian

[Robert Noss]

Very interesting photos, thanks for sharing them, Brian.

"Upgrading" of photos is more often seen on death-cards, when the relatives only had earlier photographs and let the photographer "add" the awards which were given to fallen later.
It was also used to expose the last actual rank of a killed soldier if only earlier photographs were available.
I think the photographer could do that in both ways, reworking the print or reworking the negative.

Your group is unique, I have photos where they "denazified" the SS-insignia after the war, but I haven't seen a photo where they filled Heer insignia in.

Kind regards
Robert