Bandit-warfare Badge
Bandit-warfare Badge (Bandenkampfabzeichen) was a World War II decoration of Nazi Germany awarded to members of the army, Luftwaffe, Order Police, and Waffen-SS for participating in Nazi security warfare (Bandenbekämpfung). The badge was instituted on 30 January 1944 by Adolf Hitler after authorization/recommendation by Heinrich Himmler.
Also recorded as Anti-Partisan Guerrilla Warfare Badge · Anti-Partisan Badge
Bandit-warfare Badge
Bandenkampfabzeichen.jpg: KEN derivative work: see below · Bandenkampfabzeichen.jpg · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Name
- Bandit-warfare Badge Bandenkampfabzeichen
- Period
- 1944
- Region
- Nazi Germany · German Reich
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Documentary summary
Bandit-warfare Badge (Bandenkampfabzeichen) was a World War II decoration of Nazi Germany awarded to members of the army, Luftwaffe, Order Police, and Waffen-SS for participating in Nazi security warfare (Bandenbekämpfung). The badge was instituted on 30 January 1944 by Adolf Hitler after authorization/recommendation by Heinrich Himmler.
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wikidata · Q584653 · wikipedia · Bandit-warfare Badge
In this article
Overview
Overview
Recorded constituent parts are Bandit-warfare Badge in Gold with Diamonds, Bandit-warfare Badge in Gold, Bandit-warfare Badge in Silver and Bandit-warfare Badge in Bronze. It is associated with Nazi Germany and German Reich. The record gives 1944 as its date of establishment or first appearance.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Bandit-warfare Badge Bandenkampfabzeichen • Presenter — Nazi Germany • Type — Badge • Eligibility — Wehrmacht, Order Police, and Waffen-SS personnel • Awarded For — Bandenbekämpfung against those assumed to present danger to the Nazi rule or Wehrmacht's security in the occupied territories. • Campaign — World War II • Status — Obsolete • Established — 30 January 1944 • Lastawarded — 1945
Background
Background
Especially on the Eastern Front, the terms "partisan" and "bandit" were applied by the Nazi security apparatus to Jews, communists, Soviet state officials, Red Army stragglers, and any other persons deemed to pose a security risk. Rear-area security operations against armed irregular fighters ("pacification actions") were often indistinguishable from massacres of civilians, accompanied by burning down villages, destroying crops, stealing livestock, deporting able-bodied population for slave labour to Germany, and leaving abandoned orphans.
Chronology
Dated record
Chronology
The full dated record · 2 entries
1944
Bandit-warfare Badge first recorded.
1944
Bandit-warfare Badge is recorded from 1944.
Description
All versions of the badge feature a skull and crossed bones at the base, with a laurel wreath of oak leaves around the sides and a sword in the center. The sword's handle has the "sun-wheel" swastika, with the blade plunged into a Hydra whose five heads represent the "partisans". The second version of the badge had larger oak leaves in the wreath and a larger "sun-wheel" swastika. Historian Philip W. Blood notes the similarities between the symbol of the occultist Thule Society, with a sword and a swastika, and the design of the badge. He suggests that Himmler and Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski "had sealed [...] Germanic mythology into a medal for Lebensraum". The badge existed in three grades: • Bronze, for 20 combat days against "bandits" • Silver, for 50 combat days against "bandits" • Gold, for 150 combat days against "bandits" Criteria were slightly different for the Luftwaffe, being based on 30, 75, and 150 operational flights/sorties flown in support of "bandit-fighting" operations.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 3
- Scapini, Antonio. The Anti-Partisan Badge. B&D Publishing LLC. 2015. 978-0-9893646-7-6.
- Angolia, John. For Führer and Fatherland: Military Awards of the Third Reich. R. James Bender Publishing. 1987. 0912138149.
- Blood, Philip W. Hitler's Bandit Hunters: The SS and the Nazi Occupation of Europe. Potomac Books. 2006. 978-1597970211.
References
Citations
References
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Further particulars
Held on the record
Further particulars
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Bandit-warfare Badge is associated with Nazi Germany and German Reich. Recorded from 1944.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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