How many Nazi's wore the totenkopf(deaths head) symbol?

Question

How many Nazi's wore the totenkopf (deaths head) symbol?
What would the value of one of these?

I ask because i identified a totenkopf taken off of an ss hat(i presume) and stuck to the front of an old family post-war photo album.

I'm looking for an approximate number here...

Answer 1

~You probably refer to, whether you know it or not, the 3. SS-Panzer-Division Totenkopf.

Mannpower strength was as follows:


June 1941 18.754
Dec 1942 21.186
Dec 1943 15.415
June 1944 21.115
Dec 1944 15.400

(Don't add those numbers up, service was a continuous thing.)

Of course, the actual number of troops who wore the insignia at one time or another varied as men transferred in and out of the unit or were wounded or killed in action and replaced on the line. Also, members of the Totenkopfverband working the concentration camps (apprroximate peak strength around 15,000 - but transfers could mean the 15,000 could represent thousands more who were in the unit at one time or another) also wore a version of the death's head. Naturally, just like the Swastika, the Nazi's did not invent or design the insignia and it had been used by various groups long before the advent of National Socialism or the birth of Adolph Hitler. The symbol was only one of many insignias used by the Schutzstaffel and had no particular significance other than to identify the unit to which it was attached. The British still use an earlier version. The Queen's Royal Lancers inherited it from 17th Light Dragoons - a unit raised in 1759. Not even all units who used the totenkopf used the same version of it, so the answer to your question depends on the design you have.

All you have to do is type "totonkopf" into a search engine if you are really interested. Of course, if you really had any interest, you would have done that already.

Don't rely on answers here. All SS units absolutely did NOT were the death's head. Cases in point:

Unit: Insignia
1st Waffen SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte
2nd Waffen SS Panzer-Division Das Reich
5th Waffen SS Panzer-Division Wiking
6th Waffen SS Gebirgs (Mountain) Division Nord
7th Waffen SS Panzer-Grenadier Div Götz von Berlichingen
9th Waffen SS Panzer-Division Hohenstaufen
10th Waffen SS Panzer-Division Frundsburg

There were others, but I've got to leave some of the work for you.


Why is it that, with the most powerful research tool ever known by mankind, people are too lazy to type a few keystrokes and do a little reading? Geez, it is any wonder the rest of the world is leaving the US behind in a cloud of dust when it comes to academics and education?

The value depends on the provable history of the item and the market interest at the time of sale, just as with any other memorabilia. If it was worn by someone who saw active service in the Totenkopfverband, I wouldn't give you 2 pfennig for it, but if it was in service at Kursk and Kharkov, I might think twice about it.

Answer 2

The men in all the SS Panzer (tank) divisions wore the Totenkopf or Death's Head symbol on their visor caps, the same symbol that was also worn by the Einsatzgruppen when they followed behind the troops. The 3rd SS Panzer Division carried the distinction of being called Totenkopf. There were 8 SS panzer divisions (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 9th, 10th and 12th SS) during the war and most fought fanatically, ie, they were decimated in many battles and had to be reconstituted several times. An average division was about 15,000 to 20,000 men. So all in all, there were probably in excess of 420,000 counting the dead. At the war's end, the total Waffen SS strength was 910,000

Answer 3

This symbol belonged only to the SS which was Hitlers private army and was considered the elite storm troopers.
They were the planners and the executioners for him.

Answer 4

Only the SS wore this symbol.

Answer 5

Nazi Death Head

Answer 6

Death Record Search Database : http://DeathRecordsInfo.com

Answer 7

between 900,000 and 1,000,000