SS / WSS Helferinen

Mad Volksdeutscher · Post by **Mad Volksdeutscher** » Sat Feb 28, 2004 8:49 pm

While chasing links from a WW2 repro insignia site, found an outfit making Female Auxiliarist SS / WSS uniforms.

For some reason, the page was entitled "The Gray Little Mouse".

Was this the nickname for those helferinen? I know the WSS had this charming habit of coming up with "cutesy" names for some of the folks serving with them who weren't totally Nordic males...

(i.e. "Mujos" for the Bosniaks in the 13th, for starters)

Or was this a spin on the Heer/Luftwaffe practice of calling the female auxiliarists employed at rear echelon transmission stations "Blitzmadels"?

Well aware of the 3rd Reich not exactly being into passage of an Equal Rights Amendment & such, womenfolks to be best off staying home and raising the kids and baking, etc.

(There were a couple notable exceptions--like Leni Reifenstahl, filmmaker extraordinaire, or the petite-&-feisty aviatrix Hanna Reitsch, the only female I've heard of who got both the Iron Cross in 1st & 2nd classes. Aside from them, the only "girl award" winners were those who had enough children to get a Mother's Cross.......)

Fraulein Valkyrie · Post by **Fraulein Valkyrie** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 10:25 pm

I think the occupied French actually take the claim for titling German Helferinnen “Les Souris Grises” (“Grey Mice”), after the colour of their uniforms (very grey---“Mausgrau”---compared to feldgrau)---and as a derogatory nickname for them. Although I’ve most commonly seen the term applied to Heer Helferinnen, it could also be used for SS Helfs, whose uniforms were also grey.

Actually, there were over HALF A MILLION female auxiliaries in the various branches of the German ARMED services alone. In my own very modest collection, I have awards to females for such “girl awards” as the Kriegsverdienstkreuz (1.Klasse mit Schwertern), Verwundetenabzeichen, and Ostfront Medal. Obviously, not all of them were "staying home raising the kids and baking, etc." In fact, from many of the personal accounts I’ve read and heard, quite a few of them didn’t stay home---or alive, particularly toward the end of the war---long enough to earn the Mother’s Cross.

That doesn’t include females' service in such “civilian” services as the Feuerpolizei, Luftschutz, DRK, etc.

PS, Would love to see the site for repro uniforms you mentioned. Can you send a link?

Mad Volksdeutscher · Post by **Mad Volksdeutscher** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 6:07 am

Fraulein Valkyrie:

The Mad Volksdeutscher is NOT one to refuse the request of a Shield Maiden, so here's the web address:

http://www.militariacollection.com/ausiliarieSS.htm

An Ostfront medal award? That would mean whoever she was, she would have gone to the Russian Front in 1941...as I understand it, award criterion for the "Frozen meat" decoration was to have been on the Eastern Front during the winter of 1941-42. And apparently a wound badge and war merit cross with swords.

Love to see the "DD-214" / service records for that Auxiliarist......

Fraulein Valkyrie · Post by **Fraulein Valkyrie** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 9:58 pm

Mad Volksdeutscher,

The Shield Maiden thanks you for the link! But...Woof, the SS Helferin uniform on the site was pretty rough.....

Sorry to disappoint you (and me!), but the awards I mentioned were not all to one woman. They were single awards to several different women.

I've always wondered what the one woman did to win a Kriegsverdienstkreuz, first class and with swords.

Mad Volksdeutscher · Post by **Mad Volksdeutscher** » Thu Mar 04, 2004 5:53 am

Kriegsverdienstkreuz 1er Klasse
With swords

That would indeed be interesting--almost as much so as the 3-award winner I had gotten the mental image of.

Maybe a Flakhelferin with a high score of confirmed kills?

The uniform being a bit on the rough side is one thing--what makes matters worse is the $578 pricetag to boot! Ouch!

Helmut Von Moltke · Post by **Helmut Von Moltke** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 3:59 am

did Helfrein have unit cuff titles, etc if they were serving in rear elechon transmissions of elite units like Grossdeutschland, Leibstandarte, etc?

Fraulein Valkyrie · Post by **Fraulein Valkyrie** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 12:24 pm

Helmut Von Moltke wrote:did Helfrein have unit cuff titles, etc if they were serving in rear elechon transmissions of elite units like Grossdeutschland, Leibstandarte, etc?

No. But they were authorized to wear specifically female cufftitles that showed their work specialties or training. For example, Army Helferinnen wore the cufftitles NH des Heeres (NH = Nachrichtenhelferin, signals Helfs) or Stabshelferin des Heeres (for those who did clerical work with the army). SS-Helferinnen, the female auxiliaries in the service of the SS who had been trained at the Reichsschule SS at Oberenheim, were allowed to wear a Reichsschule-SS cufftitle.

~FV

Helmut Von Moltke · Post by **Helmut Von Moltke** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 1:07 am

thanks!

helmut

Holz · Post by **Holz** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 3:15 pm

Sorry for the old topic, but I I'm looking for any references photos on Helferin. I did a search of the forum but I didn't see anything.

jo stanley · Post by **jo stanley** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:08 am

[quote="Fraulein Valkyrie"]German Helferinnen....Actually, there were over HALF A MILLION female auxiliaries in the various branches of the German ARMED services alone.

Hi, I am writing a book on British women at sea in wartime,for Yale University Press. I want to compare British women - particularly armed forces nurses, and women in the Women's Royal Naval Service - with women involved with the German navy.

Could you or anyone tell me anything about the role of Kriegsmarine Helferinnen?

Did they go to sea?
Did they work on hospital ships?
What was the policy debate about whether women should be deplaoyed at sea?

I am sorry I don't speak much German, But I have a German-speaking friend who will translate stuff for me. Thanks. Jo.

Fraulein Valkyrie · Post by **Fraulein Valkyrie** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 6:30 pm

Hello Jo,

I haven't forgotten about the scan of the magazine cover--just haven't managed it yet!

Best,
~FV