Generalgouvernement-Sonderdienst Uniforms and Insignia

[SCHUPO]

An excellent thread with some very nice photographs.

[dblmed]

Outstanding (!)

Thanks Chris for initiating this thread - and the informative posts by all of the other
contributors! Lots to learn about this little known TR organization. And, wouldn't you
know it - initial photos courtesy of Diane at Brandenburg! ... Dave / dblmed

[John T]

I want one of those sleeve insignia! Great pictures...the closest I have in my collection are items from the German controlled Labor Organization for Generalgovernment but the police stuff is great! If we ever get a thread on that I will post pix.

[Askold]

John what kind of Labor stuff do you have? Is it for Baudienst?

[John T]

HI Roman-

Yes, exactly, I have a pair of bullion officer collar tabs and a flatwire shield with the crossed picks and the "G"...they were brought back together so I assume from the same tunic worn by a member of the German Officer Corps, as the men were Polish? (or whoever was brought into work in Generalgovernment) laborers and from pictures they wore different versions.

John

[Bob Clark]

Thanks to Stonemint for this thread....had never seen this type of German WWII
insignia before...still amazed by the depth and breadth of regalia these Germans
devised during 12+ years of rule.

[Askold]

HI Roman-

Yes, exactly, I have a pair of bullion officer collar tabs and a flatwire shield with the crossed picks and the "G"...they were brought back together so I assume from the same tunic worn by a member of the German Officer Corps, as the men were Polish? (or whoever was brought into work in Generalgovernment) laborers and from pictures they wore different versions.

John

- Hi John, would it be possible to see photos of tabs and the shield? I never seen one "live". From the photos, I always thought the shield with crossed picks was printed.

[Gaspare]

Check out that enlisted Sonderdienst man! ,,has SS eagle on cap and SS belt buckle.
He very well could be Ukrainian and might have been acting in a translator type roll..

[John T]

- Hi John, would it be possible to see photos of tabs and the shield? I never seen one "live". From the photos, I always thought the shield with crossed picks was printed.

Hi Roman-

I will take some pictures later today and post them. I will tell you a short interesting story of how I obtained the pieces. The son of the vet had some German insignia and badges that I was looking at and identifying for him that he was interested in selling. I recognized the collar tabs as being related to a German Labor Organization in the "East" and told him that is what they were and bought those. I did not remember the exact name of the unit, which is stated in the thread above. Then looking at the bevo shield I told him that I thought that was likely for a local factory fire protection unit as it has crossed axes/picks and the "G" was possibly for the name of the company and I was not interested in that one as fire protection items did not interest me. I went home and was curious about the exact name of the organization that wore the tabs and found pictures on the web and in some Bender books and there I see the patch being worn on the sleeve and I think to myself, "what an idiot...the patch goes with the tabs"....I did not connect it at the time. To be honest at the time I did not even recall properly that the tabs represented axe/pick heads but to me they reminded me of antlers or some odd thing...anyway I called the son back and explained to him what the insignia was and we made a deal and a week later I purchased it. I truly enjoy some of these esoteric areas of Third Reich collecting.

John

[stonemint]

Another pair of Officer tabs that were posted on the forum:

[stonemint]

The precursor to the Sonderdienst: SS Officers wearing Selbstschutz armbands:

[Askold]

Hello John,

Thank you for sharing the story, sounds like a great catch! I am currently trying to figure out the Baudienst ranking system - do the tabs have twisted cord piping, like in Angola book? In some photos the piping is plain silver, but for higher ranking tabs, the piping cord is multicolored (red and white I would guess). Would be great to see your photos.

P.S. Few years ago, there was a gentleman who was selling a Galicia division lot - two photos and some documents. I got the photos, when I asked the documents - most were post-war British papers, but along with them was his Ukrainian Baudienst soldbuch!

[John T]

HI Roman-

Here is the set I acquired from the vet's son..the set in the Angolia book are likely for a higher rank...the arm shield is flatwire, if you look closely at these two tabs, they are not an exact match but likely off the exact tunic,

John

[John T]

Shield-

[John T]

detail----