Round bronze with rune - what is it?

[Laurence]

Hi from this newbie. When my uncle came back from ww2 in N.Africa, France, and Germany, he brought along souvenirs. He was never collector-minded, so I assume they are all genuine. There is one item I haven't seen the likes of anywhere on the net: a 17mm round bronze badge/medal that is RZM M1/34, but the front is a rune/symbol I haven't seen anywhere. What is it?

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[wilhelm saris]

It is a brooch for the NS-Volkswohlfahrt (the welfare federation), so
for women (nurses). They were known as Volkspflegerinnen.

Sorry, it is not a brooch, but a membership pin (had not observed the
given size).

 

[Laurence]

Thank you, Wilhelm. From what you said, I was able to find that symbol elsewhere. Although no one explains the symbol, it makes some sense as combining the social solidarity of a wolfsangel with the uplifted arms of the feminine. In fact, it would seem to have been how NS Germany converted the Red Cross's simple red cross into a less international emblem. Oddly it now seems more suspect than swastikas, because I see these round nazi-ized nurses' pins for sale with their center blanked out by a big red dot.

My goal really is to find a good home for my uncle's stuff. Is this HJ forum a good place to find someone to take on the variety of items he gathered, or is there a broader forum that would be better?

 

[cemifor]

The symbol are the 3 letters N S V in th words Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt .

 

[Laurence]

Thanks, cemifor. That makes sense. Still, it wasn't usual, was it, for abbreviations to be made so rune-like. Maybe it was nurses who suggested that design, so that it would look more like a symbol retaining the red of the Red Cross (not my piece) but not implicate them too explicitly with national socialism.

 

[wilhelm saris]

The globally used red cross was also the red cross for the DRK.
The symbols for the NSV are quite normal. The letters are obvious.
The letter "N" was cleverly styled an looks as a wolf-hook.

There are more of such, as for example the SA symbol. As far as
I know it might be Egon Jantke who designed the NSV symbol. He
did design many brooches for females.

The stuff you got: if it is indeed related to HJ, this is the forum
to show and offer. Otherwise I would say, have a look at the
Wehrmacht Awards Forum.

 

[Jo Rivett]

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