1937 SS Slovakia Mauser

Archived-NOT FOR SALE
1937 Mauser S/42 Slovakian SS

Slovak Nazi 1937 Mauser Luger with Death Head Proof

This Lugers was manufactured by Mauser-Werke in Oberndorf. To conceal production from the Allies a series of alphabetical dates and numbers were assigned as code on the toggle S/42 (Mauser) was used from 1934 until 1939. This is a 9mm, 1937 dated Mauser S/42 coded Parabellum with all matching parts. In addition to the standard Mauser marking the Luger has the national symbol of Slovakia stamped on the right side and rear toggle and the SS (Schutzstaffel) Totenkopf attributed to the SS Concentration Camp Guards. (911)

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This Parabellum is 9mm, with a 4" barrel, a dovetailed inverted front sight and a "V" notch rear sight on the rear toggle link. Serial number placement is in the military ("exposed") style. The thumb safety is marked "Gesichert" and extractor "Geladen." The first toggle link is marked with the Mauser Code S/42 monogram, the grips are serial numbered to the gun. There is a stock lug, the trigger, the locking lug and thumb safety are blued, as expected of the 1937 Mauser Code S/42. This example has all matching numbers. The barrel is numbered and proofed and matches the frame.

In 1938 the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, and Italy were trying to avoid another war with Germany and were willing to negotiate with Hitler. The result of their negotiations, the Munich Pact, forced the government of Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland, an area inhabited largely by Germans, to Germany. Fearing that the federal government would not be able to protect Slovak interests, the Slovak leadership nominated an autonomous provincial government and approved a new constitution, creating the short-lived Second Republic of Czechoslovakia. Faced with the threat of being divided between Germany, Poland, and Hungary, the Slovak government decided to withdraw from the federation and declare its independence. On Oct. 6, 1937, an autonomous government was established in Slovakia, at that point still a part of Czechoslovakia. On the 28th of the month, this government issued a decree that, among other things, established the Hlinka Guards, named after Father Hlinka, as the official Slovak "defense organization." On March 14, 1939, the first independent Slovak Republic was established, and Dr. Jozef Tiso was chosen as head of government



Illustrated above is the breach block and 1st and 2nd toggle. You can see the serial number on the breach block with the mid-series Army acceptance stamp and the serial number on the firing pin. Above the rear main axel pin is also serial numbered to the gun, a practice begun in 1933.

	Here we can see that both grips are serial numbered to the gun. Serial number placement is in the military ("exposed") style. The serial number appears on the front of the frame, on the side of the locking bolt, on the trigger, on the bottom of the barrel, the side plate, the left side of the receiver, the safety bar, the sear bar, the rear connecting pin, the grips, the toggles, the magazine and on the extractor. All Matching.

Here you can see the dated chamber, the matching serial number on the extractor, the first and second toggle and the top of the thumb safety. the deep blue finish on this gun was from the original hot deep hot salt blue finish process and with no strawing of the small parts as was customary until 1937.
	The Hlinka Guard was designed as the state police (Pohotovostné oddiely Hlinkovej gardy - POHG) and modeled after the German Allgemeine-SS. This group was the Freiwillige Shutzstaffel which created its own active corps, the Einsatztruppen or ET, which was armed, trained, and provided with uniforms by the German SS in the Ostmark (Austria) in March 1940. The FS numbered 5,622 spread through 126 different units in the country by 1942. This number had risen to 7,500 with its own flying, motorized, and cavalry subunits. They played roles in various operations such as the campaign in Poland and in forming effective anti-partisan formations. They fought heroically on the Eastern Front sustained great losses both in infantry and air-force personnel.
The Hlinka Guard, faithful adherents to the National Socialist ideals and among these stalwarts were the elite storm troops or P.O.H.G., a specially selected unit of the fittest and most dedicated young guardsmen formed in May 1941, and sent to Germany for instruction by the SS. Rather more devoted to the cause of Adolf Hitler and the struggle against Bolshevism were those citizens of Slovakia who were of German ethnic stock (Volksdeutscher). Most of the citizens of Slovakia (128,345) were registered as Germans.

	EARLY SLOVAKIAN EAGLE HAT BADGE The national symbol of the double cross is the religious representation of Saints Cyril & Methodius Greek missionaries, brothers, called Apostles to the Slavs and fathers of Slavonic literature. At the invitation of Prince Rostislav, who sought missionaries able to preach in the Slavonic vernacular and thereby check German influence in Moravia. Their immediate success aroused the hostility of the German rulers and ecclesiastics. Their orthodoxy was established, and the use of Slavonic in the liturgy was approved. Cyril died while in Rome, but Methodius, consecrated by the pope, returned to Moravia and was made archbishop of Sirmium. His last years were spent translating the Bible and ecclesiastical books into Slavonic. The Cyrillic alphabet used in those respective countries today, traditionally ascribed to St. Cyril, was probably the work of his followers. It was based probably by Cyril himself upon the glagolithic alphabet, which is still used by certain Croatian and Montenegrin Catholics.

Dr. Jozef Tito and von Ribbentrop Berlin 1940

Above: Dr. Jozef Tiso wears a metal version of the hat badge in his visit to Berlin in 1940 and is accompanied by the Reich Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop. In August 1940 SS-Haupsturmfuhrer Dieter Wisliceny, Eichmann's representative from the Reich Security Main Office, arrived in Bratislava as an adviser on Jewish affairs. The Hlinka Guard and the Freiwillige Schutzstaffel (Slovak volunteers in the SS) were reorganized on the model of the SS. . FS Slovak SS men were used as concentration-camp guards in late 1943 and in 1944.



Both the front of the frame, under the barrel and the magazine are all like serial numbers in the famous "v" series.

	German speaking Slovakian soldiers being decorated. Man near the camera wears the shield type brassard while the others wear the round swastika.

Proof marks are the generally found acceptance proofs found on the barrel, the left side of the breechblock, and the right side of the receiver. Along with the early Mauser and military acceptance stamp is the Slovakian symbol identifying this gun along with the SS Totenkopf symbol. Also the symbol of the SS Totenkopf Panzer division which is infamous due to its insignia and the fact that most of the initial enlisted men were Totenkopfverbände-SS concentration camp guards. *SS-Totenkopfverbände* (SS-TV) was a German Nazi formation of concentration camps guards. Created before the war, the SS-TV was a part of the Nazi military organization Schutzstaffel** (SS). There were many Slovak SS members that were integrated into the various Waffen SS units at the time of the invasion of Russia. Many others served as concentration camp guards.

	The Slovakian proof is also found on the rear of the receiver.

Whether this Parabellum was liberated at an infamous concentration camp of Auschwitz or Mauthausen where we know the Totenkopfverbände were stationed or it may have belonged to a Slovakian soldier of the SS Totenkopf Panzer division that fought valiantly in Russia. The remnants of the *Totenkopf* executed a fighting withdrawal into Czechoslovakia but by Early May were decimated. They were however within reach of the American forces, to whom the division officially surrendered on 9 May. The Americans promptly handed *Totenkopf* back to the Soviets, and many *Totenkopf* soldiers died in Soviet Gulags. In any case it is a rare historical gun of which we have never seen in our 35 years of collecting Lugers.