The Historama
Alex Ben-Arieh
P.O.Box 32128
Tel Aviv, Israel 61321
Tel/Fax: +972-3-546-1971
Mobile: +972-547-680-086
e-mail: alex@historama.com
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The Historama Alex Ben-Arieh P.O.Box 32128 Tel Aviv, Israel 61321 Tel/Fax: +972-3-546-1971 Mobile: +972-547-680-086 e-mail: alex@historama.com |
| The Fakes Page |
| MENU OF ARTICLES: Some Remarks on Fakes Examined Items: Ghetto Police Badge "Sonderkommando" Disk |
Presenting and learning about fake collectible items is almost as much fun as watching accidents at car races: both are the unavoidable outcome of lots of money spent striving for success and perfection. Like crashes, the manner in which fakes are discovered reveals something about their nature - how they were made, presented and received by the buyer, and from those 'failures' there's much to learn and be aware of. Sometimes the lessons are amusing in their simplicity, sometimes they open a new world of knowledge and understanding. In the course of acquring pieces I'll invariably come across suspicious or completely spurious objects, so those which I can explain will be presented here for your information. |
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SOME REMARKS ON FAKE OBJECTS The following are some points I've made before on certain notions in collecting which address the issue of fakes in the market, and all of them are interconnected in the overall scheme of things. Sizing up the merchant: from personal experience, be wary of one location (stall, shop or website) carrying "too many" of the rarities: sometimes I see dealers carrying several once-in-a-lifetime pieces that I've searched for for years - and miraculously all of them are there in that one place. Likewise too, be suspicious of a downtrodden looking site or stall carrying such heavy items. In a way, the sales point has to look the part in order to properly promote such 'prestigious' merchandise. For instance an open-air market dealer can't be seen selling pristine Rolex watches as genuine merchandise. On item histories and "hoard" stories: steer clear of items with a "hoard" story, that they came from some "recently discovered" hoard - there's no such thing. And also avoid the long yarns. Even an item coming from its original owner should have a story that can be summed up in a minute; good things speak for themselves (or as a university recruiter once put it: "the thicker the file, the thicker the student" - the more descriptives needed for a straightforward object, the more suspicious the object). On the issue of how "hoards" is understood to the public, there is a difference between materiel being "hoarded" (as in "grouped together") from captured POWs after a war and placed in some central collection depot versus many of the same type of item being "hoarded" by some private individual - a soldier, an opportunist or some random person - and then being discovered by someone else years later. Consider the notion of hoarding: if you think about the scenario logically, the likelihood that someone hoarded stocks of the same object during a war (especially in the generations before militaria became a widespread hobby, i.e. before 1945) is near zero. Nobody in that period would have expected massly available objects then to be worth something years later - and no one would have known what to bury and where to bury it in order to obtain it again later. Especially in the Second World War and especially in the hottest war zones. It's impossible to imagine a German taking "a break" from the siege at Leningrad to go pack boxes of iron crosses under a rock, and more physically impossible for a Russian to have "left the front lines" (with the NKVD behind his back) to go store away SS helmets. In wartime, especially when it's a total war, there is no time or opportunity to go collecting up items and then storing them away. Just the opposite - both sides are trying to erase each others insignia. Memorabilia is easily the last thing on everybody's mind. Then consider the awareness of a hoard: when there is a hoard of anything discovered - Roman coins, skeletons of soldiers (like those of Crusaders, found recently in Jaffo), ammunition stocks or even medals - there's always something in the press about about it, because it is a noteworthy event. These discoveries do not occur everyday; a "hoard" is not some kind of teenager's rash that just crops up on a regular, anonymous basis all over the world. Here in Israel, when hidden weapons stocks from the pre-State period are discovered in a Kibbutz somewhere, it's always a curiosity story in the papers. Until today we still even stumble across stories of Japanese soldiers just now emerging from jungles in the Far East, unaware that the war ended long ago - the same concept. This is not to say that hoards of items don't exist at all - hoards of items are uncovered at long lost temples and burial grounds - it's just that when do they exist they are so unusual as to stir up interest. So that when a dealer pitches you a story about a "recently discovered hoard" of [pick one: coins, militaria, ephemera, Judaica] you have to appreciate the unusualness of the event. And the event itself can give even the objects extra value - but only if the event is real. For example, one hoard story is well known, the supposed "Amber Room" of looted art by the Nazis. Were that "room" to be located the whole art world would be abuzz. Since the hoard has not been located, no one can present a piece of artwork today and claim that it came from there - that would raise too many questions. Also take into account that the collecting community in every specialty is much smaller and tight-knit than outsiders imagine: there's no such thing as everyday discoveries of "hoards", and when there is such an event - even if it doesn't cause a ripple that reaches the national or international press - at least the collecting community would know about it. The collectors' press exists to publish these kinds of stories - they're starving for a cover story other than a piece on how this year's Lincoln Penny is a nanometer smaller than last year's. So at least collectors would be in a position to be aware of the event. And more than that: the discoverer of the hoard would welcome the publicity, for the attention would drive up interest in and awareness of the pieces and facilitate their sale - possibly at higher than average prices. So there is no business reason for a hoard to be kept secret, as the target market won't be aroused by it. Now consider the supply chain for a hoarded item: how does an object buried in a certain location ever reach the hands of the average dealer? After all it's normally the small-time dealers who present allegedly hoarded objects - how did these reach theirs of all hands? It's quite expensive to go metal detecting in foreign lands and cumbersome to go schlepping shovels and pick-axes on air flights; there's paperwork required, export licenses probably needed, and legal ramifications to consider. And if you imagine rare or valuable objects that were in a hoard, you'd expect them to end up in the hands of a well-connected or respected dealer who could sell them, and not languishing in the tray of a stall keeper at trade shows. The supply chain scenario could work like this: a biologist from the Smithsonian lands on an atoll and stumbles upon 1000 Japanese helmets. Chances are those helmets will first go to the local authorities, or the Japanese Government or the Smithsonian; in short, there will be many stages in the 'supply chain' already from the start before such things ever wind up in the hands of an average dealer far from the site of the discovery (and by the time he gets them he won't even know they came from a hoard). And in the event that a truly rare item or hoard of items does get discovered and someone does want to sell them, the high pedigree of the items will force the seller to consider consigning through a dealer with repute and not an average hack - if only because the established reputation of the first dealer gives credence to the object and its origins, whereas with the second dealer it would/should raise questions about how he obtained it. Many hoard stories exist for mid-level collectible items of the kinds whose value shouldn't raise too many eyebrows on the surface. These stories are used to dump fake items on the market by fabricating an excuse for their sudden widespeadness. But if you take into account the scenarios I describe above, unless the hoard story is confirmed somewhere, stay away. And with that in mind, as a bottom line I would always suggest to spend more money but to get the real thing. At a minimum you'll feel much better knowing you have a real piece and you won't lose sleep (literally) wondering if you were taken. For instance, if you collect German items you also know how rare most original pieces are: it's better pass on something at 70% of the regular price but with a fishy story (or a suspect dealer) and spend 100% to get the real thing. If you're looking at items that cost above $100, be conservative and don't take any chances. Take cuff titles for example: I don't know how many cuff-titles per division are out there on the market but at an average area militaria show I don't think you shouldn't be seeing more than one or two (originals) from the more (not even the most) sought after units; anything more and I'd stay away from them all. As a starting point always ask if an item is original, dating from the time it's supposed to be from, made from the correct materials and untampered with. If you don't ask, the dealer can later say "but you didn't ask" - and sell you a fake. But as far as suspecting the dealer presenting you an item item he calls "original", if you already suspect him right away, he's going to lie about everything you ask to confirm if it's real. An honest dealer can make mistakes and you can sense it in his presentation style, but if the item (or the seller) is suspect right off then he's not making "mistakes" in his presentation - that's all part of his routine and he'll never concede publicly that he's selling fakes. On Field-Made Pieces: this is another danger zone. Although there's more chance of finding a "field made" item than an item from a hoard, treat these also with high suspicion. With an example of a German "field made" Cholm campaign shield in mind, consider these two issues: 1. Much small militaria is medals or awards - should a soldier's award go missing or get ruined he would not turn around and start (as in the case above) hammer out a Cholm shield on the field of battle for himself. These are honors and the soldier would want to retrieve them in their original form and not sport some crummy imitation of them. Moreover, where would he get the material to make such a near-perfect-but-not-perfect-enough imitation? And beyond that, which soldier is so truly in love with his insignia as to dedicate hours to making one out of hand during a war? Also imagine the reaction in certain armies (German especially) if the insignia was non-conforming: an inspection line-up and someone's insignia or awards looks imperfect - that's not possible. Mass conformity is an object in nearly every army, down to the precise location and display of each piece of regalia. In one known example, collectors make much noise over a certain German soldier in the SS photographed with a Wehrmacht eagle on his chest (rather than the SS eagle on his sleeve) - and that's just over genuine insignia. 2. The other issue is the frequency with which collectors encounter these "unique" variants of original items. My suggestion is, avoid them, avoid them all. With a few - and well known exceptions, like the [very shoddy looking] Kaminsky Brigade armshield - there are few pieces of militaria that were "field" or "hand made", nor again, should there have been any such things made in number (confirmed original Kaminsky Brigade shields are thought to number no more than 25-30 in the market). And like the comment above about obscure dealers peddling "hoard" items, the likelihood that a genuine "field made" piece wound its way to that dealer's hand is near-zero. However there are so many of these unconfirmed 'variations' in the market now that it's best just to avoid them all. It's better to save up and just buy the textbook example. What props up hoard and field made item stories is the notion that war creates chaos and that this chaos somehow affects production and supply systems; that it enables people to either bury items in quantity or to urgently need to make things that are lacking. On the surface this sounds reasonable but historical examples and some common sense show otherwise: about the only improvised insignia that existed (particularly in World War II) was insignia needed at the very last minute, on the spot. Such things like brassards, identifiying someone as an auxiliary, or helmet marks denoting someone as a resistance fighter. (After all, for example, what's the burning need to make a Cholm shield instead of requesting a replacement? Will this aid on the field of battle and will the Russians care?) And if I take an extreme example, like the Holocaust, even here we see order in the chaos: Jews wore regulated yellow stars of a fixed size and usually with the word "Jew" stamped in the center - in the language of the region in which it was worn (this is also probably the only other known instance of improvisation in this period, where some stars were hand made from yellow fabric and it's hard to see even these in photographic evidence); ghetto police had organized insignia - hats, metal badges and colored brassards; some ghettos had stylized coin and paper currency - even standard, uniform paper chits; and the concentration and death camps even had their own uniform paper currency. What this example shows is that even people with no intended future and no resources invested in their welfare (like food or health) were nevertheless issued with uniform and controlled means of identity and payment. In other words, in a more established and civilized setting like an army, there should not be such a widespread phenomenon as field or hand made insignia - and indeed there was not. Therefore, avoid unconfirmed variations of collectible items as these unique pieces - and the trend they represent - should be harder to come by than the original pieces that they are based on. |
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FAKE JEWISH GHETTO POLICE (ORDER SERVICE) BADGE Background: Though a little documented and researched specialty area of Holocaust and militaria studies, there is enough published and tangible information on the insignia of the Jewish Police of Holocaust-era ghettos to follow patterns of dress and insignia - and to spot fake or spurious items. For a start, there was no uniform standard of appearance for the Jewish police forces of the various ghettos; some may have used common designs and designations for insignia, but what may have been common between a few ghettos was not univerally instituted at them all. The piece here was acquired from a market vendor, who to his credit, doubted the authenticity of the piece. However, until a genuine example was obtained, this piece here actually looked like a legitimate era badge. |
 Fake badge of the Czestochowa Ghetto police |
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The fake badge under examination is patterned after a certain shared badge design used in a few different ghettos: a thick bordered hexigon with the words "Ordnungsdienst" (Order Service) written in German and Polish in block letters within, along the edge; a thinner internal border followed by an incused line border around a flat central field with a thinly incused and "flat-looking" Star of David in the center. Some variations have blue enamel color in the field where the "Ordnungsdienst" text appears and also on the incused letters mentioned just below; some also have some initials and abbreviations in the field where the Star of David appears - these can be abbreviations of the words "Eldest of the Jews [Ghetto Name] in German above and in Polish below (the Jewish Councils which the Germans charged with administering the ghettos were were led by a person usually known as the "Eldest" of the Jews, and these Councils were also the bodies that the Germans charged with forming the Ghetto Police); sometimes also the abbreviation in German above and the letters "G G" below. These badges are slightly curved, of relatively thick metal, with a screw back. A few ghettos used this type of design - Czestochowa ("Tschenstochau" in German), Kielce, Minsk Mazowieki, Warsaw and Wegrow - although there are some variations even between the badges of these five ghettos. Below are pictures of genuine samples: |
 Czestochowa |
 Czestochowa |
 Kielce |
 Kielce |
 Warsaw |
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Of the samples pictures above, the Czestochowa and Kielce samples come in blue-enamelled and plain varieties. Regardless of the color variations, the badges of belonging to the same ghetto were otherwise identical in presentation: the Czestochowa pieces bear the abbreviations in German and Polish of title "Altest Der Juden in Tschenstochau"; the Kielce pieces bear the same legend in German but with the initials "G G" below instead. There are some slight variations in style - the first Czestochowa piece above has larger incused letters than the second piece, for example. I have not yet been able to track dates and sources of production, but the dates of some photographs the ghetto police forces suggest that this type of badge existed as early as 1941. As the Warsaw Ghetto was destroyed in 1943 (and pictures of these badges worn before then), we can also surmise that this badge design did not first appear as late as 1943 or 1944. Photographs of this badge type also suggest that while they were worn largely on visored hats, they were also worn on jacket lapels. Here are some examples of the badges in wear: |
 Minsk Mazowiecki Ghetto |
 Warsaw Ghetto |
 Warsaw Ghetto: these policemen also appear to wear a round badge on their lapels; in a picture further down we will see a Warsaw Ghetto policeman with this hexagonal badge on his lapel as well. |
| With this information as the background, we now come up to the badge which turned out to be fake. In spite of the seller's caution that it was likely not real, lacking photographic evidence to assist me at the time, this badge actually had the physical appearance of what many of us might have expected of Holocaust-era insignia: the badge is of a cheap-looking, light weight metal with a highly polished finished and black shoe-polish(?) color in the text areas; the back is a simple screw on with a non-descript screw - it is even stamped with a 3-digit number. All these details seem plausible to the conventional imagination: a people destined to die; a police force with minimal investment placed in its appearance; simple metal insignia and color from shoe police. The number is a nice touch too - crudely stamped, and low numbered, implying the small levels of its staffing. (Those with a numismatic background may also be drawing correlations between the supposed crudeness of Holocaust-era artifacts and, for example, Israel's first - and hurridly designed - coin, the highly polished 25-Mils; or South Africa's 1902 Veld Boer War seige issued "Een Pond" gold coin. Wartime and strife conjure images of poorly or crudely manufactured materials.) Here it is for initial viewing (apologies for the poor quality photos - I haven't mastered the art of photographing very shiney objects): |
 Warsaw Ghetto policeman, of the Ghetto's 4th precinct wearing the hexigonal badge on his jacket lapel. To a first-time viewer of a ghetto police badge, especially like the fake Czestochowa one, the details of this photo can seem to confirm that the fake is actually real: the policeman's badge looks flat (a key detail as we will see below) and shiney in the light. |
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| With the information we now posess on genuine examples, we can see at least two major distinctions between a genuine badge and this fake: the highly polished metal which does not characterize genuine pieces, and the uneven surface of the badge in the center - it's "wavy" on the fake. Obviously too the black (shoe-polish) color is incorrect. Design-wise, however, the fake is identical to a real piece - specifically the first real Czestochowa sample on the left, further above, with the larger incuse letters. Here below are two shots of the reverse: |
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Immediately visible is the cynically low issue number stamped on the back. Genuine badges (of this particular hexigonal type) actually had no such serial number on them. The crude uneven suface, with the metal glob at the bottom, plays to unsuspecting collectors' notions of wartime and seige quality production. The poor resulting production is actually an outcome of the faking process, but less detectible to those who haven't seen a real specimen before. And what the comparisons between the real and fake pieces now reveal to us is that the genuine badges were actually of a high-quality manufacture - surprisingly, given the tragic futures of their wearers. Now, ironically, the reverse of a real badge - in this case, the Warsaw Ghetto badge from above - is much simpler than that of the fake - there are no numbers stamped in. That was just a spurious initiative of the faker. The screw on the reverse of a real badge is also simpler than that of this fake. In fact the screw on the fake looks like a watch gear: |
 Warsaw Ghetto badge, with screw on |
 Warsaw Ghetto badge, with screw off; the back is plain and smooth |
 Detail of the front of the screw from the fake Czestochowa badge |
 Detail of the back of the screw from the fake Czestochowa badge |
 Detail of the (milled) side of the screw from the fake Czestochowa badge |
| Perhaps the most subtle aspect of badge - and maybe the hardest detail to fake - is its curve: a real badge is curved; the fake is virtually flat. A study of the curves also reveals an interesting detail about the fake: seam-lines along the edge (poorly photographed below), indicating die cast manufacture - a common production technique among faked metal items. Arranged below are 3 vertical side-views - one of the fake and two of the genuine Warsaw badge; and below 3 additional horizontal views - one of the fake and two of the genuine Warsaw badge. |
 Fake Czestochowa badge, with flat back and die casting seam lines visible (in black, from the shoe polish) |
 Warsaw Ghetto badge, with curved shape |
 Warsaw Ghetto badge, another view of the curve detail |
 Flat surface shot of the fake Czestochowa badge, with seam lines of die casting just visible along the sides |
 Warsaw Ghetto badge, with curved shape |
 Warsaw Ghetto badge, another view of the curve detail |
| Here is some photographic evidence of the badge's curved nature: |
 Minsk Mazowiecki Ghetto policeman whose hexigonal hat badge curve is just visible here |
 Wegrow Ghetto Police, with curved shaped badge (and very young wearers) |
| This closes our examination of the hexigonal Ghetto Police badge. Keep in mind that fakery is an organic 'industry' and that newer and better quality fakes are produced all the time. Here we have only examined one of what may be a larger body of such fakes - but remember, poor quality production, die cast seamlines, spurious serial numbers, crude surfaces... and shoe polish coloring can blow the lid off any similar hexagonal badge being passed off for a genuine piece. For some more pictures and general information on the Ghetto Police, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has excellent photographs available through a simple online search, or you can see this chat thread on the subject. Your feedback, comments and additional information are always appreciated. 17 Aug: I apologise for this omission: I forgot to indicate the weights of the authentic and fake pieces. I'll add those in when I return from the Philippines. |
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FAKE "SONDERKOMMANDO" DISK TAG Background: the featuring of this item may raise a few eyebrows since it seems that many collectors have or have come across these. This is a metal 'identity' disk purportedly of the Sonderkommando of Mauthausen concentration camp. From time to time disks such as these - from any camp - make their way into the market, get purchased - and then provoke questions by their acquirers about their authenticity. Frankly, this is one of the rare instances where I would come out and say that all such Sonderkommando disks are fakes. My position comes from two sources: one, I acquired this piece from the same dealer from whom I acquired the fake Ghetto Police badge above; two, for reasons of historical circumstances I can't see any reason why disks like these would exist. The historical background of the Sonderkommando will help address both my points above. The Sonderkommando were "special units" (the translation of the name) of prisoners established at the death camps of the Third Reich to assist with the killing process in those camps. These teams did not participate directly in the killing itself (i.e. the gassing of prisoners), but in the surrounding logistics of it. |
 Obverse view of fake disk |
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Depending on the camp the Sonderkommando were even divided into teams, each with a specific function: some were assigned to greet new arrivals at the camp and accompanying them to the gas chambers, assuring them that this was part of the delousing process; another team would sort through the suitcases and belongings of the new arrivals, unpacking them, sorting out their contents and preparing them for re-shipment to Germany; others were tasked with removing the bodies from the chamber after the gassing; others would remove gold teeth, clothes or other belongings from the corpses; still others would cremate the bodies, and others would take care of clearing away the ash and debris from this process. The Sonderkommando had mildly better living conditions than the other prisoners but their members were forced into these units under the threat of being gassed immediately or shot on the spot. Likewise, because the Sonderkommando were exposed to this sensitive reality, they were regularly replaced by new members by being gassed off themselves - and disposed of by their replacements. As regards this specific piece, the first key detail about the Sonderkommando casts doubt about the historic authenticity of this piece: the kommando existed in "death camps". In the delicate parlance of Holocaust terminology, that phrase refers to those camps whose express and immediate purpose was mass extermination - Auschwitz-Treblinka, Belzec, Birkenau, Chelmno, Majdanek and Sobibor. While other camps, like Mauthausen, also killed their prisoners, their methods and processes were different. In other words, how-ever prisoners were killed there was no Sonderkommando to assist in the process in those other camps (or if such a function was fulfilled by prisoners they were not called "Sonderkommando"). Mauthausen was a concentration camp set up in Austria in 1938, and although it had a gas chamber from 1940 (one of the few camps in western Europe to use one), its primary function was economic and the main manner by which its prisoners was killed was through overwork and abuse. Mauthausen provided slave labor to many economic enterprises; prisoners were overworked and mistreated, and in the extreme - though frequent case - pressured to death either by being forced to jump off a tall cliff, or by carrying heavy stones from a quarry up a long flight of steps and dying either from exhaustion or execution (after collapsing from weakness). One survivor recalled 62 manners by which prisoners were put to death in the camp. With this as our historical background, we can suspect right away the origins of a disk belonging to a Sonderkommando that didn't exist. And together with the historical context also comes the question: why issue such disks? In other places on this page I've mentioned that in the Holocaust the Germans invested resources in currency and forms of identity - even in camps. But the known and proven use of metallic identity in Holocaust literature does not extend to the camps. Simple special armbands existed; currency exsted, but in flimsy paper form. Identity numbers existed, but in the form of tatoos on arms whose bearers arrived and died. |
 Reverse view of fake disk |
 Rotated reverse view of the disk |
 Side view of the disk |
Now lets take another look at the disk in question and observe more details about it. The obverse bears the name "Sonderkommando" and a Star of David with a hole at the top - presumeably to hang it around the bearer's neck. The reverse bears the name "Mauthausen" and the number "932" all in punched characters in two parallel lines (with a nice, sloppy doubling of the "A", implying rudimentary production conditions), and the letters "SS" stamped in an opposite angle. The disk is smooth surfaced, brown and aged-looking, with a slight concave curve, with no signs of die casting (normally a tell-tale sign of metal forgery - in other words, this is a well-made piece). If we just recalled that the only nomenclature in a camp was the prisoner's tatooed number (and not his name), then we have to suspect the numbers on the back of the disk: tatooed numbers were at least five or six digits long, so why issue a different number to that of the prisoner's own? Going a step further, if the lifespan of a Sonderkommando member was measured in single months (sometimes even in single weeks), why go through the effort of creating uniquely numbered disks? And if issued a form of identity, why even invest in metal - and well produced tags at that? |
Ironically, given the role of the kommando, the existence of a metal tag undermines the purposes of the perpetrators: metal is difficult to destroy, so if the extermination program was secretive and its assistants liquidated on a regular basis, why issue a form of identity likely to outlast even the program itself? "Sonderkommando" with a Star of David, the "SS" initials and the name of the location are all prominently - and irremoveably - stamped on the tag. This is an otherwise damning document from the Holocaust, if real. Other elements of this tag also suggest that it's not authentic: although Holocaust sources speak of Sonderkommando members as being "Jewish prisoners" it would be a fair supposition to say that they may also have been of other origins. In other words the disk - as all others I've seen - need not bear the Star of David. And on procedural grounds, concentration camps - when mentioned in writing, in German - were called "K.Z. [Camp Name]" (or "Konzentrationslager") and not just by the camp name alone as on this disk. One source for this is presentation style of the currency issued in the camps, and indeed if the controlling body is mentioned (i.e. the "SS") it is identified by its full name ("Waffen-SS") and in the name of the position standing at its head in the camp (i.e. the Comandant). |
 Genuine sample of Auschwitz currency note. Note the way the camp name and issuing authority is presented. |
I have the luxury of comparing this piece to the other forgery above - the Ghetto Police badge - which was obtained at the same time from the same source, so I also see a similarity in the lettering of the name and number. If we accept this disk's number as spurrious, then the style follows the pattern set for the badge above. Overall, this disk is fake and one of the styles for presenting it as an unusual and possibly real item is the combination of many Holocaust-related elements - but all of whom are either incorrect or contradictory to the purposes of the bearers who had to die and disappear. |