Reader’s Mail to David Irving’s website about the Holocaust (May 2004)

about the Holocaust your Heinrich Himmler Index your Adolf Eichmann Index your your Rudolf Hoess Index your Hans Aumeier Index your Robert Jan Van Pelt Index Robert Barnaby asks, Wednesday, May 19, 2004, if Sonderkommando men wore a dogtag? Did Sonderkommando men wear a dog-tag I HAVE written numerous Jewish organizations, including the Holocaust Memorial Center in Washington D.C. information center.

I have waited over a week for a response from these organizations and have not received any type of acknowledgment. Can you please help answer this question for me? Can you please give me your opinion if the following item is a Holocaust artifact? A few years back I picked up a piece which I thought was a coin. It turned out to be some sort of tag, or dog-tag. This is the description of it: its round, brass, the size of a half dollar or slightly bigger.

On the front, in the center is a perfectly engraved Star of David. Along the round bottom, in block letters, is the word “Sonderkommando”. On the reverse side, stamped, (not engraved like the front), is the SS insignia; a pair of lightening bolts along with some type of serial numbers. There is also a hole on the top that either a neck chain, rope or safety pin can fit through which leads me to believe that it is some sort of identification tag or dogtag.

Based on this description, can you please explain what this is, what it was used for, who it belonged to or any other information that you may have on this item? Robert Barnaby