I am writing a story and a very minor side character is going to be a German Captain, and I need to know about their uniforms. There were some German soldiers that must NOT have been Anti Semitic. There must have been some German soldiers who disagreed with Hitler and the Nazi party, but enlisted out of fear. I’m guessing there were also plenty of men in the German army who had already been in the military before Hitler came to power, and they didn’t want to quit, despite Hitler’s rise to power.
So if a person in the German army was not anti semantic, but was also in the officer rank of a Captain, would he be wearing a swastika? Was a swastika a universal symbol in German insignia, or was it only for the SS? Was all of the German military considered the SS? Who were the people that wore the red bands with the swastika’s on their arms? Lots of questions, I know. Thanks for any help!
Hi there - we're happy to approve your question related to your novel, and we are happy for people to answer. However, we should warn you that many flairs have become reluctant to answer questions for aspiring novelists, based on past experience: some aspiring novelists have a tendency to try to pump historians for trivia while ignoring the bigger points they were making, while others have a tendency to argue with historians when the historical reality does not line up with what's needed for a particular scene or characterization. Please respect the answers of people who have generously given you their time, even if it's not always what you want to hear.
Additionally, as amazing as our flair panel is, we should also point out that /r/AskHistorians is not a professional historical consultation service. If you're asking a question here because you need vital research for a future commercial product such as a historical novel, you may be better off engaging a historical consultant at a fair hourly rate to answer these questions for you. We don't know what the going rate for consultancy work would be in your locality, but it may be worth looking into that if you have in-depth or highly plot-reliant questions for this project. Some /r/AskHistorians flairs could be receptive to working as a consultant in this way. However, if you wish for a flair here to do this work for you, you will need to organize this with them yourselves.