WW2 German Border Security & Customs | RFV Walther Variation

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Check This Out

Check This Out

It doesn't look like much, it's very light, aluminum and if you take a quick closer look at it, you of course recognize the Nazi symbol, it's a badge number. So this is an aluminum badge and across the top, I'm not going to try to say that big long German word. They tend to take three words and put them all into one, but this is the Reich's Finance Bureau or Reich's Finance Agency. We've talked about this once before and we're going to take another look at it. 

A Border Security Badge

A Border Security Badge

Underneath it, it has another word that basically means border security, or customs, border and customs security. And this badge you can see if you take a closer look at it, you will see the tiny holes. And that's where this would have been sewn onto the sleeve, right like this. So it would be on the sleeve or as you know, the Germans love to wear armbands. It would go on your armband or on your sleeve. Now ironically, border security, it’s what we call Homeland Security. 

They were like Homeland Security

They were like Homeland Security

Homeland Security is usually charged with keeping unwanted people from coming into our country, illegals. And Germany certainly was interested in keeping illegals from coming into Germany or spies or saboteurs, things like that. So they very heavily invested in border security for that reason. But also, it seems ironic, because even though they wanted to get rid of all the Jews, the gypsies, the homosexuals, and the communists, the border security also stopped everybody trying to leave, to keep them from leaving the country. They had a different outcome in mind, other than just leaving. 

This Badge vs Other Police Badges

This Badge vs Other Police Badges

Again, as we take a closer look at this badge. It looks a lot like some of the other police badges that we've actually sold on our site. There's a couple of examples. They do have Gestapo Badges. We have sold on our site the Crypto badge and they do come in a nickel color and a brass color. And those were both issued to the local police but also the Federal Police. When they showed up at your door and this would generally be on a chain, they would they would flash this badge and it was usually an unpleasant experience. 


Let's look at the Badges worn on the Sleeve

Let's look at the Badges worn on the Sleeve

These badges, sewn on the sleeve, you can see they originally came in a bronze color and that was just probably a bronze colored coating. And on a brand new looking one you can see the color. On this one you can see that most of that color has been worn off.  The original color you can see, as you look at the lettering you can see the colors and also within the details of the eagle you can see the original color. And this number is fairly low, meaning 9600. I have seen them online with the numbers going up to at least 50,000. So there was at least 50,000 of these Border Security Police that were stationed at the borders of Germany, keeping people both in and out of Germany. But with this badge was also issued a gun that was marked R.F.V. I've previously talked about the Walther PP and PPK. It was one of our early earlier videos and didn't get a lot of views. 



Brief Back Story

Brief Back Story

Let's just take a few of the highlights from that video. We talked about the guns that were issued to the border patrol, but also to the finance Bureau, which would be equivalent to our IRS. They were the people, if you didn't pay your taxes, they came knocking on your door, and they also had other purposes, which will be discussed in this video. 
 

Clip from an Earlier Video

Clip from an Earlier Video

So these are always small guns. The PP, there was about 22,000 of these made. So the 22,000 they probably went to mid-level and upper level management people and I'll tell you in a minute why they will would have carried a gun. Really every Nazi official at that time was carrying a gun. They like to show off their guns. PPK much rarer. They actually made less than 1000 R.F.V marked PPKs. So only about 1,000 compared to 22,000. But they obviously preferred the PP over the PPK.

These are early high polish, they're both crown N, but they also made them later in the War Eagle N. There's not a solid block; whenever I talk about serial numbers I talk about whether or not it was a contract where there was a solid block taken off the factory floor. This is not a solid block. They started making these in 1929. First year of production we have R.F.V marked guns. Again before the Nazis even came into power, the R.F.V. marking, they did have those contracts. And they're just randomly chosen from 1929 all the way to '43. Now I've said in earlier videos, they probably still made them for the Reich's Finance Bureau after 1943, they probably stopped marking them because who cares? These things were being rushed out the door off to war, making sure they were issued to the officers that were a part of this Treasury Department. 


The Sinister Side

The Sinister Side

Now I mentioned earlier it had a sinister side. So not only did they manage budgets, treasury, collected taxes, you know why you have to carry a gun if you're collecting taxes. But the sinister side, I actually read some articles that said R.F.V. members, the bureaucrats, actually were among the first waves of troops when they occupied a country.

They came in among the first wave because they immediately would seize assets. They were trying to fund the war which was very, very expensive and they needed to raise money. So when they went into Czechoslovakia and Poland and France, each country that they seized, they would go in and the Treasury Department would lay claim to the assets including paintings and real estate. They in fact, were responsible for seizing the property of Jewish families and then reselling them to finance the war. So not cool, not good guys, not at all like our Treasury Department. Although if you've ever been audited, you might feel almost like the Nazis were coming after you. But we'll hope and pray that doesn't happen to us. 
 
Guess What's Coming Next
Hey, thanks for watching. I hope you enjoyed the video and as usual, I hope you learned something today. Every time I do a video I learn a little bit more, so stay tuned because I have a lot more coming at you. In fact, this gun right here I'm going to be talking about next.