Today, I bought this Totenkopf badge for £75 after posting it on here for opinions. ‘Dimas’ and ‘carlsson1982′ said it looked original, so I am very grateful for the help. I would have passed it off as ‘too good to be true’ most likely, had I not sought advice on it. I’ve been searching for one for a long time and have found nothing affordable or genuine, so I have been very lucky here. After buying, I asked the seller if he knew any of the history of the piece, and this is what he sent:

‘Hi Mathew,

Just to reiterate what I mentioned before.

I was given this badge in 1953 by an uncle who served in the Royal Engineers and was in action in France and Germany. From what I was told and he didn’t like talking about it but in his words. He was sent to Belsen to undertake a clean up operation which included maintenance on bulldozers which were used to bury bodies. Whilst he was there one of the inmates came over to him and pressed your badge into his hand and said,”This is token for you to keep.” My uncle felt so sorry for him he gave him his leather jerkin which is a sleeveless leather jacket that the engineers used to wear and told the man your one of us now so you can help me out. My uncle insists because he gave the man something to do, a purpose, it kept that man alive. My uncle was only there for two days and he was moved on but he said it took a week to get the smell out of his clothes and never knew whether the man survived.

Sorry this is such a sad story but that’s how my uncle got the badge. When he gave it to me, my first thought was it might be a pirates badge and as a child whenever we played pirates I was always the captain cos I had the real pirates badge.
All the Best, ‘

-I really never expected to hear such a story. I have no reason to doubt the truth in this as he told this to me after I had bought the Totenkopf, I just casually asked. He told me this over the phone, so I asked him to write it down exactly in an email for reference, as this to me is equally as valuable as the item itself. I’m still a little shocked… I wonder how a camp inmate came into possession of this? I’ve done some research, but have read nothing on any uprising or camp rebellion. Were this manufactured in the camp perhaps, or would this have been a camp guard’s insignia?

I will post more photos when I have it in my hands. These are the seller’s photos.

Mat

Click to enlarge the picture