1St Waffen-SS Adolf Hitler Leibstandarte Cuff Title

The Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH) was Adolf Hitler's personal bodyguard. Initially the size of a regiment, the LSSAH eventually grew into an elite divisional-sized unit. The term Leibstandarte was derived partly from Leibgarde "Life Guard" – a somewhat archaic German expression for the personal bodyguard of a military leader - and Standarte: the Schutzstaffel (SS) or Sturmabteilung (SA) term for a regiment-sized unit.


The LSSAH independently participated in combat during the invasion of Poland, and was amalgamated into the Waffen-SS together with the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT) and the combat units of the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV) prior to Operation Barbarossa in 1941. By the end of World War II it had been increased in size from a regiment to a Panzer division. The Leibstandarte division's symbol was a skeleton key, in honour of its first commander, Josef "Sepp" Dietrich (Dietrich is German for skeleton key or lock pick), and it was retained and modified to later serve as the symbol for I SS Panzer Corps.