May Day and Rally medallions

Hitler started the practice of having low cost medallions produced to be given to members of the Party and others at special occasions like the rallies and May Day celebrations. They were a "one day special" and were not awarded before or after the particular celebration they represented. Some carried a full date, others just the year.

Badge

Small Battle Units, were formed in April 1944. Probably best known for their use of the small midget submarine types such as Neger, Biber, Molch etc, they also used small speedboats packed with dynamite and driven directly to their targets. These were not suicide weapons (though nearly so!) as it was intended that the operator dive overboard at the last possible moment and be picked up by a control boat.

Naval Coastal Artillery

Small Battle Units


Navy High Seas Fleet	Navy A/Cruisers	E-Boats	Naval Watch Officer

Auxiliary Cruiser badge	Panzer Assault	Infantry Assault	Infantry

Sniper (cloth badge)	General Assault	Motorcycle	Panzer with 50 engagements

Driver's Badge	Panzer 75 Battles	DRL Sports badge (early version)	DRL Sports badge (in silver with swastika)

SS Proficiency	Army Anti Aircraft	General Assault 75 engagements	Anti partisan

After the war use or display of the swastika was banned in Germany. This meant that former soldiers were unable to wear the badges and medals that they had earned during the war regardless of any mitigating circumstance.

In 1957 the German Government authorised the manufacture of replica badges and medals that had been "de-nazified" by the removal of the swastika.

This General Assault badge is an example.

Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo) Warrant Disks

Ord Pol Warrants Ft.jpg (15211 bytes)

Ord Pol Warrants Rr.jpg (92570 bytes)

L to R-Office for Security for the City of Danzig, Gestapo Central Inspection, and Gestapo Disk

Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei) badge No 5254 (front & rear) from "Natzweiler Zentral Inspektion". The Germans established the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp near the town of Natzweiler, about 31 miles southwest of Strasbourg, the capital of the province of Alsace (in eastern France). It was one of the smaller concentration camps built by the Germans. Until construction was completed in May 1941, prisoners slept in the nearby former Hotel Struthof, hence the name Natzweiler-Struthof. The camp held about 1,500 prisoners. Prisoners worked in nearby granite quarries, in construction projects, and in the maintenance of the camp.

Beginning in the summer of 1943, the Germans detained many "Night and Fog" prisoners in Natzweiler-Struthof. The "Night and Fog" (Nacht und Nebel) operation represented a German attempt to subdue growing anti-German resistance in western Europe. Suspected resistance fighters were arrested and their families were not notified; the prisoners simply disappeared into the "Night and Fog." Many prisoners in the Natzweiler-Struthof camp were members of the French resistance.