BACKGROUND: Non-Germanic personnel serving in the Waffen-SS were not permitted to wear the SS runic collar tab on their uniforms and were originally only authorized wear of a blank right collar tab with rank being displayed on the left collar tab. With the rapid expansion of the Waffen-SS at the beginning of the war it was soon realized that more non-Germanic personnel would have to be recruited and a wide variety of distinctive non-runic collar tabs were developed for wear by these personnel beginning in 1941.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Pre-1941 non-Germanic Waffen-SS personnel right side collar tab. Blank black wool construction collar tab mounted on a light tan buckram base. Small puncture hole to the center of the tab. Looks like it may have had an RZM tag at one time. Of Note: Personnel assigned to the SIPO, Sicherheitspolizei, (Security Police) and the SD, Sicherheitsdienst, (Security Service), also wore blank right hand collar tabs.