Strange SS possibly camp guard photo

[Dennis S]

I found this photo on the net (holocaust site) I don't know if it has been shown before. Photo looks legit.
The armband looks like one of those fantasies you see at shows once in a while in the wide variety of nonsense.

[Dennis S]

Here is another , probably non Germans militia by lack of boards on uniforms and the hats look funky to me for some reason as well as their whole get ups

Maybe a post war propaganda movie still. I don't know

[C. Betz]

Photos

Can't say about the first photo, looks to be good. The second appears to be a Russian propaganda effort, especially with the spurious SS on the sleeve.

Charles Betz

[Ian Hulley]

The second appears to be a Russian propaganda effort, especially with the spurious SS on the sleeve.

Charles Betz

Exactly my thoughts Charles. Maybe the first one is a POW photo 'enhanced' by the spoof armband.

[Byzanti]

What's up with the shoes?

[Grossfuss]

Shoes?

Hi,

I think you'll find they are a wooden-soled boot that are often sold as Kz footwear BUT there is a brief clip in some wartime footage on YouTube (don't ask me where) of a Flak gun crew also wearing this style of boot - the white upper material is the give away.

Regards,

Grossfuss

[Byzanti]

You know I was wondering if they were the wooden soled shoes.... did not know about the white! I see you mentioned marketed as- meaning post war or perhaps they had a different use/users?

[Sonderkommando]

There is a number of similar pictures like the one in post 2. Not sure what they are meant to depict or where they even came from, but all are of course fake. If anyone knows more about these pictures I would be interested to know what they are meant to be. I've got at least 5 different ones on my computer from the series, another shown below.
(all are staged, here he appears to hang from a post but is actually standing on a small ledge on the post)

[Sonderkommando]

one more for the hell of it....(note his hat hasn't fallen off!)

[Kurt Meyer]

Heer cap eagle and pirate skull ?

Does anyone know how to recognise the period clogs ?
You have them with splitpens and stitched.
I always thought the stitched ones are ww2.

[Grossfuss]

Boots

Hi,

I bought these as "last-ditch late-war boots" at the Military Odyssey at Detling in Kent many years ago, primarily because they were cheap.

As I say above, I've seen them advertised as KzL boots for prices in excess of £200.

However I have replayed the YouTube clip many times over, a fair while ago, and the soldier at a Flak site is definitely wearing a pair of similar boots. It's not possible to determine details but the white uppers are unmistakeable.

Regards,

Grossfuss

[kevin john]

Very interesting .

[Sonderkommando]

Here's something very interesting that I found while reading through some transcripts from the Bergen-Belsen trials.
They was questioning a Polish Jewess named Ada Bimko who was a (prisoner) doctor inside the camp, and they were asking questions about the medical supplies, etc.

Take a look at this passage from the transcript, it may explain the white armband worn by the SS guy in the picture at the start of this thread.....


"Were there sufficient medical supplies in the camp if they had been issued? - Three or four days before the British troops entered the camp, at a time when the SS men had already white armlets round their arms - later on I knew that that meant our camp was neutral territory - suddenly we got two more rooms for our chemistry, and then we discovered that there were enormous stores with medicine and other instruments of such quantity which we did not even see or think of, and suddenly whatever we asked for in the case of medicine we were given, and any amount we were asking for was given to us."

[Sonderkommando]

Just found another reference in regards to the white armband, this time while reading about Herta Bothe after the liberation of Bergen-Belsen......


"Herta Bothe at the age of 24, along with twenty-six other female guards, were assembled together in the camp yard, outside their living barracks, for identification and group film/photo procedures. On Tuesday April 17th 1945, Herta Bothe was officially arrested and held under guard by the British liberating forces, and ordered to wear a white armband on her left upper-arm sleeve to display her status as "criminal". She wore her nicely pressed wardress uniform, standing tall, with blonde shoulder length hair, and a smirk on her face."

[Ian Hulley]

She wore her nicely pressed wardress uniform, standing tall, with blonde shoulder length hair, and a smirk on her face."

To be fair that was her natural expression.

Ian