RARE Sicherheitspolizei “Security Police” Armband

$325.00

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Description

This Sicherheitspolizei Armband is a nice example of a very scarce armband type. It’s made of a thin green fabric, the same type of rayon commonly seen on BeVo machine woven insignia. It’s printed with the wording “Im Dienste Der Sicherheitspolizei” (In the Service of the Security Police) in Latin letters, in black ink. The Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo), formed of the combined Gestapo and Kriminalpolizei, was the state political and criminal investigation security apparatus during the Third Reich. The colors of the green fabric and black ink on this armband remain very strong and vibrant. The long edges at the top and bottom have been finished with machine sewn, overlock style stitching. The ends are sewn together in the back. On the inside, this Sicherheitspolizei armband shows expected typical ink bleed-through. Great armband that is rarely encountered, pulled fresh from a US veterans estate.

Note – Originally the army had established small auxiliary police units for these purposes which were followed by SS action groups. The territories occupied proved to be too large for these small auxiliary units to police effectively which resulted in recruitment of local anti-communist personnel which were formed into Schuma, Schutzmannschaften, (Protection Troops), units in November 1941. The Schuma personnel fell under the control of the regional Höhere SS und Polizeiführer, (Higher SS and Police Leader). These Schuma personnel wore a wide variety of uniforms, headgear and insignia including surplus black Allgemeine-SS uniforms, and assorted field-grey and police green items. Schuma personnel serving as non-combatant, administrative personnel were subordinate to the SS-SD, SS-Sicherheitsdienst und Sicherheitspolizei, (SS-Security Service and Security Police), and were issued with field-grey uniforms with no insignia until an identifying armband was introduced on August 18th 1944, to be worn on the upper right sleeve of the tunic.