I stopped at Walmart today after work. As I was walking past the men’s clothing area, something strange caught my eye. Over on the giant wall of t-shirts, one of them got my attention. It featured a design that looked like something related to the Nazis from World War Two. Specifically, the Totenkopf or “Death’s Head.”
I took a picture of it with my camera phone:
The Totenkopf
Members of the German Nazi SS wore the Death’s Head symbol. The Totenkopf on the Walmart t-shirt looked very similar to the divisional insignia of the 3rd SS Division Totenkopf.
As you can see, the two are almost identical:
Neo-Nazis love the Totenkopf
Neo-Nazis sometimes use the Totenkopf image because it is not as easily identifiable as other Nazi symbols, such as the swastika. You might see someone standing in line at Burger King, and someone ahead of you in line might have one of these tattooed on their arm. You might think it’s just a poorly drawn pirate skull.
Did Walmart mean to sell a Nazi skull t-shirt?
Is Walmart purposely trying to sell clothing with Nazi symbols on it? I highly doubt it. They won’t even sell music CDs with bad words on them. I doubt someone at Walmart corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, gave the green light to sell clothing with Nazi symbols on it.
Whoever designed this shirt might have none of the skull’s historical significance, but I doubt Walmart knew when they decided to sell the t-shirts.