Does anybody know a translation to this term, "Schutzhaftstaffel", or has anyone seen it before?

Thanks in advance, I'm new to this forum.

Ranger welcome to the forum...

That means the SS.. Try a search on Hitlers SS and you get tons of info. The biggest criminal organization in the world. A branch of the SS murdered over 6 million Jews!! Do some searches!!

The SS was shortened from "Schutzstaffel" (Protection Squad/group) from when they were formed as Hitler's personal guard. There was a group in the SS called the "Schutzhaftstaffel" (protective custody squad/group). Protective Custody as provided by this group was basically being thrown into a concentration camp. As least, this is my understanding of the words "Schutzstaffel" and "Schutzhaftstaffel".

Thanks for the reply Gaspare. I know a lot about the SS, I started collecting third Reich pieces in 1977, moved on to other things by 1983, still have the collection though. Schutzstaffel is the common term for the SS that I've always seen, but I've only seen Schutzhaftstaffel once. I put the post up in a hurry this morning, should have given more contextual information. The full text containing the term is "Schutzhaftstaffel 7 Mauthausen". The Mauthausen concentration camp is of course notorious. The insertion of "haft" into the middle is what puzzles me. Some definitions of "haft" that I have found are custody, detention, arrest and imprisonment. Considering the balance of the text, the implication is that it refers to SS concentration camp guards at Mauthausen. I have seen "Schutzhaft" defined as protective custody but never all of it together as "Schutzhaftstaffel". Ideally, someone else out there might have seen the term used somewhere with regard to concentration camp personnel. This inscription is on an SS piece that I have in my collection that I'd like to leave out of the discussion at this point or it will end up being the focus. I'll put pictures up when I get a little further along and on the appropriate forum.

This website and collection of forums is a gold mine of information. When I started collecting, there were a few books, but nothing like this. It was real seat of the pants stuff and you got burned a lot by reproductions. The internet has changed everything. I'm revisiting my old collection and I'll be posting a lot of pieces that I have questions about to the appropriate forums. The forums here have helped identify a number of reproduction pieces in my collection, some not a surprise, other very surprising. But there are many that I can't nail down for sure without some member input. Any ideas on this Mauthausen designation will be greatly appreciated. Believe it of not, Mauthausen has a facebook page, I just haven't been able to bring myself to use it to contact the camp museum, seems more than a bit odd to me. Six million plus dead and there is a facebook page for what was one of the biggest camps in the system. I guess I'm getting old.

And thank you as well Vern, glad to hear that someone else has at least heard the term. I think I'm going to be doing a lot of research on this before I'm done.