Italian Colonial Police Presentation Dagger: Presented to ORPO & SS Graduates

[Raffaello Carola]

museum photos

[Wim Vangossum]

After all those years busy with educate myself in daggers it is really cool to see something really new!

Regards, Theo

[JoeW]

Thank you Rafaello for the most interesting history.

Did the PAI give the men of the Babarigo Btl. the presentation dagger or the unmarked PAI dagger? I have seen photos of the white scabbard variety. Most beautiful.

[SiPo]

Not into daggers but this I like due to the SiPo connection. Very, very nice Joe.

Graham

[JoeW]

I realized that most of the info for my article concerned SIPO graduates and consequent recipients of the PAI Presentation Dagger. However I acquired a photo album of a graduate (Ludwig Heinrich) in which I found photo evidence of the presentation of these PAI Daggers to ORPO graduates of the PAI School in Tivoli. This photo shows Heinrich's friend Oblt. Harmel with his newly received PAI dagger.

[rajko84]

I never saw one before, thank you for posting

[Frogprince]

My thanks also!! An astounding bit of history, with the photos and supporting information all put together in a very interesting presentation. FP

[T.Pasqueralle]

Pai

Of the 400 some odd award to the German SS only about 12 are known in collections today here is mine.

[T.Pasqueralle]

Pai

1

[JoeW]

Of the 400 some odd award to the German SS only about 12 are known in collections today here is mine.

And what a superb example it is. Compared to mine, it is in fantastic condition. Looks like the recipient brought it home and left it in his trunk for the rest of the war.

I knew the daggers were uncommon, but I was not aware of such few numbers in collections. As an interesting sidelight, the daggers could almost have qualified as a souvenir of the graduates "vacation" to Italy. The album Oblt. Ludwig shows a number of side trips to Naples, the beach, cultural tours and luncheons and dinners. And of course it turned out to be a waste of time, as the German Colonial Police never got off the ground as the fortunes of war changed course.

[JoeW]

The engraved presentation daggers given to the student graduates are rare, but the special engraved ones with ivory grips are super rare. This one is worn by Standartenfuhrer Zindel, Himmler's liason with the Colonial School. In this photo he is accompanying Heydrich during his visit to the Colonial Police School. Heydrich's arm is visible on the left.

[Raffaello Carola]

very rare dagger with an nice photo thanks to sharing
cheers, Raffaello

[Raffaello Carola]

Hello Joe,

this is the scan of the book of Raffaele Girlando " History of PAI"
(page 91) with the dagger of Standartenführer Zindel with the
ivory grip and the grip badge of PAI with enamel, the Marraffa's
signature is in part visible (the photo is real small) I think the photo
is interesting to have the idea of this very rare model.
cheers
Raffaello

[JoeW]

Rafaello, thank you. Would you be kind enough to provide a brief translation of the text?

[Raffaello Carola]

sorry Joe this is the translation:

left side: the daggers of Honor were an evolution of the PAI daggers
that are born to the troops, with the enrichment of particular species
in the handle that was ivory with the gold badge with enamel.
The dagger is an Honor present to the great personalities and some
had the signature of General Maraffa.
Those are little jewels very well executed in every detail of your cheeks
are held together with two small brass rivets, the badge PAI had
a screw that linked him to the ivory grips and gold and enamel was this
screw served to not lose the badge as often happened in the normal
patterns.