SS logo on German army uniforms due to ‘production error’

The error is highly unusual, as Germany has strict bans on Nazi-era iconography and symbols.

By World Israel News Staff

A “production error” recently caused German army uniforms to be issued with a notorious label dating back to the Nazi era.

The discovery of “SS” labels on Germany army jackets was made after the country’s Defense Ministry issued some €2.3 billion worth of new combat gear to its troops, according to the UK newspaper the Times.

The “SS” on the jackets reportedly means “Small/short,” but the error is highly unusual as Germany has numerous restrictions on using Third Reich-era symbols and iconography.

According to the Jewish Chronicle, placement of the letter ‘S’ twice on license plates – which would spell SS – is banned throughout Germany.

During the Nazi era, the SS (Schutzstaffel) was one of the military squads that rounded up Jews for extermination and helped to practically implement Adolf Hitler’s genocidal policies.

A Defense Ministry spokesman said a “production error” was to blame for the jackets issued with the SS label.

“It’s a very small number of jackets, and we are looking into it all. As soon as we were made aware of what had happened, we issued an announcement that they should get rid of these labels in some way,” the official told the Times.

“Right now we are in contact with the manufacturer to investigate what happened. We know that it looks very strange to the public, so it became something we had to deal with immediately. We are investigating, and as soon as we have clear results, we will think about what to do then.”

The reports about the uniforms appeared less than a week after the German branch of American fast food chain KFC shocked its customers by sending a push notification urging the public to “celebrate” Kristallnacht with a special promotional deal on fried chicken.

Kristallnacht, or the Night of the Broken Glass, was an antisemitic pogrom carried out by the Nazis across Germany on November 9-10, 1938, that saw the destruction of synagogues and homes and businesses belonging to Jews. An estimated 90 Jews were killed in two days of rioting, and the event is widely viewed as the beginning of the Holocaust.