SS-SD Sicherheitsdienst Intelligence Service Leutnant Tunic

The tunic is the four pocket, open collar style in field gray wool that was adopted by the SD as a less sinister alternative to the black SS uniform. The collar carries the blank right side tab which was worn by the SD instead of the standard SS runes tab. The left side of the collar carries the rank tab for the SS-SD rank of Leutnant. The shoulders have sew in shoulder boards for an SD Leutnant, being matte gray cords with the “toxic green” waffenfarbe underlay which was distinctive to the Sicherheitsdienst. On the left sleeve is the blank cufftitle worn by personnel of the SD. Above this is the silver bullion “SD” sleeve triangle, and above this is the silver bullion SS-SD officer’s bullion sleeve eagle. The tunic has scattered holes in the back, sleeves, and collar. The tunic is fully lined. The left side of the tunic has one set of loops for one badge, while above the pocket are four loops for a ribbon bar. The tunic is exceptionally scarce and makes a very good appearance.

The Sicherheitsdienst ( the full name of the organization being the “Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS”, or “Security Service of the Reichsführer-SS“) or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Originating in 1931, the organization was the first Nazi intelligence organization to be established and was considered a sister organization with the Gestapo (formed in 1933) through integration of SS members and operational procedures. The SD was administered as an independent SS office between 1933 and 1939. In 1939 the SD was transferred over to the Reich Security Main Office (the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, or “RSHA”), as one of its seven departments. Its first director, Reinhard Heydrich, intended for the SD to bring every single individual within the Third Reich’s reach under “continuous supervision”. Following Germany’s defeat in World War II, the tribunal at the Nuremberg trials officially declared the SD to be a criminal organization, along with the rest of Heydrich’s RSHA (including the Gestapo), both individually and as branches of the SS as a whole. Ernst Kaltenbrunner, who was Heydrich’s successor as Chief of the RSHA, was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials. He sentenced to death and hanged in 1946.