Uniforms and insignia of the Schutzstaffel shoulderboards on both sides. In March 1936, the camp "service" was formally established as the third branch of the SS, the "Totenkopfverbände" or skull units. At about this same time, for similar reasons, the military SS formations (the "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler" and the "SS-Verfügungstruppe") adopted a service uniform in what was termed "earth-grey" ("erdgrau"). This also was based on the black uniform, but without the red "Hakenkreuz" armband, its place on the left sleeve being taken by an eagle-and-swastika patch, and worn with trousers and shoes or calf-high jackboots. In June 1938 this uniform was authorized for full-time "Allgemeine-SS"
Auschwitz: The Nazis and 'The Final Solution' rarely seen contemporary colour and monochrome film from archives, interviews with survivors such as Dario Gabbai and former Nazis such as Oskar Gröning, computer-generated reconstructions of long-demolished buildings as well as detailed, historically accurate re-enactments of meetings and other events. These are linked by modern footage of locations in and around the site of the Auschwitz camp. Laurence Rees stressed that the re-enactments were not dramatisations but exclusively based on documented sources: There is no screenwriter… Every single word that is spoken is double — and in some cases triple — sourced from historical records. This reflects the conception of