BACKGROUND: On May 27^TH 1942 SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, head of the RSHA, Reichssicherungshauptamt, (Central Security Department), and Reichs Protector of Bohemia and Moravia was the victim of an assassination attempt in Prague and died a week later as a result. In early June 1942 personnel of the SS-Gebirgsjäger-Regiment 6, (6^TH SS Mountain Infantry Regiment), of the 6. SS-Gebirgs-Division "Nord", (6^TH SS Mountain Division North), were bestowed a commemorative honor cufftitle, "Reinhard Heydrich", in his remembrance. Of Note: The SS-Gebirgsjäger-Regiment 6. was redesignated SS-Gebirgsjäger-Regiment 11 in October 1943 and personnel continued the right to wear the cufftitle. Originally the cufftitles for EM/NCO’s were manufactured in the RZM pattern with machine embroidered script until the machine woven "BeVo" pattern was introduced in 1943. Of Note: The RZM, Reichzeugmeisterei, (National Equipment Quartermaster), was official founded in June 1934 in Munich by the NSDAP, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, (National Socialist German Worker’s Party) as a Reich Hauptamt, (State Central Office), and was based on the earlier SA Quartermaster’s Department. The functions of the RZM were not only to procure and distribute items to Party formations, but also to approve chosen designs and to act as a quality control supervisor to ensure items manufactured for the Party met required specification and were standardized. Starting in late 1934 items manufactured for the SS came under the quality control of the RZM and were marked by a cloth RZM/SS approval tag. The dimensions and design of these cloth tags was altered in 1935 and this second pattern tag remained in use until early 1938, when it was replaced by a paper tag. In 1943 the Waffen-SS assumed full control over their uniform item production and no longer fell under the authority of the RZM.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Roughly, 1 1/8" tall, 19" long, full length, pre-1943, RZM pattern, machine woven, black rayon construction cufftitle featuring machine embroidered, Latin script, "Reinhard Heydrich", in silvery/grey, cotton threads. The cufftitle is bordered at both the top and bottom edges in seven strand, horizontally woven, bright, silver/aluminum wire threads. The full length cufftitle has folded over, machine stitched ends and the reverse has a white, paper RZM/SS tag with black printed script and the faint, black, inkstamped manufacturer’s numerical code. The printed script to the tag includes both the RZM logo and the SS runes within circular borders. The cufftitle is in overall excellent, unissued, condition with minimal age toning.

GRADE ****1/2                             PRICE $1,730.00