BACKGROUND: The Postschutz, (Postal Protection), organization was originally established in March 1933 as a uniformed organization tasked with the security of all of the national postal and telecommunications systems within Germany. The Postschutz originally came under the auspices of the Reichspost Ministerium, (National Postal Ministry), under the command of Post-Master General and NSKK-Obergruppenführer Dr. Ohnesorge and drew most of its personnel from the Ordnungspolizei, (Order Police). In March 1942 the Postschutz became subordinate to the Allgemeine-SS, (General-SS), and was redesignated, SS-Postschutz with SS-Obergruppenführer Gottlob Berger being assigned as its commander. By 1942 the SS-Postschutz had a nominal strength of roughly 4,500 personnel mostly drawn from those either too old or unfit to serve in a combat formation. Of Note: The RZM, Reichzeugmeisterei, (National Equipment Quartermaster), was official founded in June 1934 in Munich by the NSDAP 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 1/4" tall, by 15 1/2" long, black wool construction cufftitle with machine embroidered SS runes and simulated handwritten script, "SS-Postschutz", in silvery/white cotton threads. The cufftitle has both the top and bottom edges machine stitched down to the reverse and has the typical opened back revealing a mirror image of the embroidery. The cufftitle is in overall very good condition with minor age and usage toning, minimal fraying to the unfinished ends and numerous loose threads to the top and bottom edges where it was removed from a tunic. Scarce cufftitle.

GRADE ****                             PRICE $1,699.00