S011957 "SS-ÄRZTLICHE AKADEMIE", OFFICER'S CUFFTITLE. (Ärmelstreiffen)

BACKGROUND: The command structure of the SS, Schutz Staffel, (Protection Squad), was highly complex and had many different levels and offices with numerous functions. The basic regional organizational infrastructure of the Allgemeine-SS began with the SS-Oberabschnitte, (SS Districts), which corresponded roughly to the German Armed Forces, Wehrkreis, (Military District). Each SS-Oberabschnitte contained two or three SS-Abschnitte, (SS Sub-Districts), and each SS-Abschnitte was comprised of two to four SS-Fuss-Standarten, (SS Foot Regiments). Each of the SS-Abschnitte contained at least one, or more, integral, Sanitäts-Sturm, (Medical Company), to care for its personnel. The SS medical units came under the auspices of the SS-FHA, SS-Führungshauptamt, (SS-Operations Headquarters), and was commanded by SS-Obergruppenführer, and Chef der Reichsarzt SS und Polizei, (National SS Medical and Police Chief), Professor, Doctor Ernst-Robert Grawitz who was also the head of the DRK, Deutsche Rote Kreuz, (German Red Cross). In order to train future doctors the SS established a SS-Ärztliche Akademie, (SS-Medical Academy), in Berlin in 1937. In 1939 the Academy was moved to Graz Austria and remained there for the duration of the war as the only SS medical training facility. Personnel serving on the cadre staff and students at the Academy were all authorized wear of an identifying cufftitle. With the expansion and re-designation of the SS-VT, SS-Verfügungstruppe, (SS-Special Purpose Troops), into the Waffen-SS in 1939, all Waffen-SS medical doctors were also trained at the SS Medical Academy. Each Division in the German Army of WWII and the Waffen-SS had Divisional Support units which included a medical unit that normally consisted of two companies, a mobile field hospital and two ambulance platoons. Within these medical units EM’s and Junior NCO’s with basic medical training acted as medical orderlies or stretcher bearers under the command of Doctors with Officers ranks. The Germans also maintained static hospitals in the rear areas for those with more severe wounds and those with the most serious injuries that would require long rehabilitation times would be sent to a hospital in their home military recruiting district within Germany. Generally the German field units preferred to care for their own wounded as much as possible as a convalescents transferred to a rear area static military or home military district hospital could potentially be dispatched to a new unit on their recovery. 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.

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