Why did some Nazis wear skulls and bones on their collars?

[BuckyRea]

I just saw "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" with my class last week. I've seen those Nazi uniforms for years. Even back when my knowledge of the Holocaust was based on reruns of Hogan's Heroes, I always thought those little skulls on the Nazi uniforms was kinda badassed. But I'm a little more mature now. These days, it just seems to me that having a big grinning Skellator on your lapels makes you look like a B-movie villain.

Oh, sure, you can attract all sorts of scum-of-society types with that sort of motif. Look at the Hell's Angels or 14 year old Goths. They're all about the Halloween motifs. But shouldn't an army, while looking tough, also try to look like the good guys and the defenders of decency? The skulls sort of send out the message that they're up to no good. A clever bad guy ought to know better than that. At the very least it's bad marketing, from a vox populi point of view.

Does anyone have any insight on why the Nazis deliberately went with such a cartoon baddy sort of design? On the whole their uniforms looked pretty snazzy. How'd this detail get past the committee? Is it a culturally specific reference like the totentanz or dia de las muertas that seems less wicked in a European cultural context?

 

[Communisto]

Link to video.

 

[LightSpectra]

Intimidation and thorough devotion to war are, according to national socialists, more preferable traits than popular heroism.

 

[ParkCungHee]

Oh, sure, you can attract all sorts of scum-of-society types with that sort of motif. Look at the Hell's Angels

But that's exactly the sort of people that the Nazis were.

 

[Theige]

The Prussians had used the skull and crossbones for a while, long before the Nazis came to power.

 

[Dachs]

Yeah, the Totenkopf Hussars were a Frederician thing. Some people compare Fred to the Nazis, but have it as you like.

It's not just a German thing, either, FWIW. There are British, American, and RoK units that employ the death's head. The Brits use it more often than anybody else I can think of, most famously in the Queen's Royal Lancers emblem.

 

[Leifmk]

Link to video.

I was going to post that bit. Classic.

 

[Plotinus]

Me too. Beat me to it.

Skulls also have religious significance as a memento mori, but I don't think that's what the Nazis were thinking of.

 

[Flying Pig]

Oh, sure, you can attract all sorts of scum-of-society types with that sort of motif. Look at the Hell's Angels or 14 year old Goths.

Or the Queen's Royal Lancers?

The Death's Head used to be a common motif among European - although rarely British - cavalry units, especially in the old Holy Roman Empire and Poland. Apparently, a Prussian cavalry regiment adopted it on their headdress after their commander was killed in action, as a sign to the French of their mourning and deadly intent. Like many emblems, it was designed to show the regiments wearing it as tough and dangerous.

The QRL's predecessors have a similar story; they adopted it after the death of General Wolfe to show their mourning and to honour him; beneath it they wrote 'or glory'. They're still known as the [death or] Glory boys today. Also, I've just found out that Number 100 Sqn RAF use it, after they nicked a German flag from a Parisian brothel and brought it home.

Just realised that Dachs beat me to it.

 

[Karalysia]

What show is that from?

 

[Dachs]

It's a Mitchell and Webb thing.

 

[BuckyRea]

But that's exactly the sort of people that the Nazis were.

Oh, would that it were. Many of them were ordinary Joes.


Thanks, all, for the responses. Exactly what I was hoping for.

 

[Louis XXIV]

Or the Queen's Royal Lancers?

I think the "Or Glory" helps balance it out. Makes it clear they're talking about themselves. Death or Glory and all that. Still, not something anyone would invent today if they want to argue they're fighting a just war.

 

[Dachs]

Oh, would that it were. Many of them were ordinary Joes.

I like "ordinary men" better. Fits the circumstance even better than that overused Arendt quote :3

 

[ParkCungHee]

Ordinary Men wasn't about who the Nazis were though. It was about who the Not-Nazis were.

 

[Dachs]

Yeah, but invariably Browning ended up not talking about just reserve police officers. And then there's his other book. The really, really big one.

 

[Flying Pig]

Still, not something anyone would invent today if they want to argue they're fighting a just war.

I disagree. The ethos of 'death before dishonour' is still very much alive and kicking among fighting units, and it was only very recently that it was made permissible to tell the enemy anything under interrogation. The idea that 'we shall either be talked about for the manner of our victories, or our deaths' is a very powerful one and still very much exists, although it's not always easy to implement into modern asymetric warfare with the notable absence of ranks of enemy at which to charge.

 

[dannyshenanigan]

I thought of August von Mackensen as soon as a read the thread title.

 

[Karalysia]

Now that's what it means to wear skull and bones.

 

[Theige]

USMC Reconnaissance battalions still use them.. as do the marine raiders, and the 2nd Battalion 135th Aviation Regiment.

Here I'll just link this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skull_and_crossbones_(military)#Image_gallery

I'll add this one in too: