History

In February of 1945, the SS-Sturmbrigade ‘Dirlewanger’ was made a division and renamed the 36th Waffen-Grenadier-Division of the SS ‘Dirlewanger’.

‘Dirlewanger’ is in reference to the division's leader, Oskar Dirlewanger. The division was composed of convicted criminals and had a bad reputation even among many contemporary members of the SS and the German army.

Foreign SS volunteers were not permitted to wear SS runes and instead, they were issued collar tabs that were unique to their division. The divisional collar tab was worn on the right side of the tunic and a rank collar tab was worn on the left side.

The division’s collar tab featured crossed rifles and a hand grenade.

The collar tabs were produced by covering parallelogram shaped pieces of buckram with black cloth. The collar tabs were then machine-embroidered with white/silver thread. Officer grade tabs may have been embroidered using aluminium wire. There are examples of Officer grade collar tabs that are piped with twisted aluminium cord.