Look past the polished ceremony to the emblem on the banner: the Totenkopf, the death's head. The skull-and-crossbones was the signature symbol of the SS, worn on cap and collar, chosen to advertise an order sworn to absolute loyalty and, if commanded, to death. But it carried a far darker meaning than parade-ground bravado. The SS-Totenkopfverbände, the "Death's Head Units," were the formations that guarded and ran the concentration camps, and later the extermination camps of the Holocaust. So the skull that glints on this trumpeter's embroidered banner, amid all the pomp of a party rally, is the same emblem worn by the men who administered mass murder — the true face behind the spectacle.

The figure is a Leibstandarte SS trumpeter at attention in black parade dress, sounding a fanfare from a trumpet hung with the hand-embroidered death's-head banner. Ceremonial musicians like him gave the rallies their blaring, martial soundtrack. He pairs with the collection's SS Side Drummer, marches with the SS Bannerman, and performs before the Nuremberg rally stand. In a parade diorama the musicians supply what a static display can only imply — the noise and pageantry that were the regime's stock in trade.

Model: LAH249 / King & Country / 1/30 (60mm) scale / matte finish / 1 piece set