My grandfather was an ethnic German born and raised in Yugoslavia. He voluntarily joined the German army during WWII, but claimed he was only Waffen SS. He and his family emigrated to the US after WWII. Whenever anyone (i.e. doctors, nurses) would inquire about the SS tattoo on the inside of his upper arm, he woukd tell them it was a blood type tattoo and that all soldiers got them.
I don't know a lot about his history in the nazi army - only that he served some of his time in Finland and eventually surrendered in France. He did his time in a US run POW camp until after the war ended and he was released.
He also claimed no one knew about the genocide against the jews and the concentration camps until after the war was over.
I have always wondered if there was more to his involvement in the SS than he admitted to. Does his story hold water from an historical perspective?
Just to clarify, the tattoo was of an "SS" in the style of the Nazi party, fairly small- maybe an inch and a half high, perhaps smaller. The tattoo did not actually state a blood type.
You can read "SS blood group tattoo" on Wikipedia.
The tattoo consisted of the soldier’s blood type letter, either A, B, AB or O.
The German Wikipedia text states that the soldiers knew exactly that this tattoo would identify them as SS and lead to them being treated differently so many tried to remove it by shooting themselves in the arm or things similiar to that.
The tattoo did not actually state a blood type.
Maybe his way of covering it up was by getting a different tattoo at the same place?
here are some photos:
