German army uniforms have been mistakenly issued with ‘SS’ size labels after a 'production problem'

The German federal Ministry of Defence recently sent around €2.3 billion worth of combat equipment such as helmets, sleeping bags and waterproof jackets to its troops. 

The ministry subsequently ordered soldiers to remove the labels from some jackets due to them containing the initials “SS”, thought to be an acronym for the size: “small, short”.

The initials are associated with the SS (Schutzstaffel), the Nazi-era paramilitary organisation that enforced the Third Reich's oppressive racial policies and was one of the key authorities involved in the slaughter of up to 6 million Jews and other minorities in the Holocaust.

German law forbids the display of any of the banned group’s iconography, with the combination of “S” and “S” even being forbidden from car number plates in all of the country's states.

The ministry says they are not aware of how many items were impacted by the error but assured that it was not widespread.

Speaking to The Times newspaper on Monday, the ministry said it was “a production problem.

“It’s a very small number of jackets and we are looking into it all. As soon as we were made aware of what had happened we issued an announcement that they should get rid of these labels in some way.

“Right now we are in contact with the manufacturer to investigate what happened. We know that it looks very strange to the public, so it became something we had to deal with immediately. We are investigating and as soon as we have clear results we will think about what to do then,” they continued.