Who We Portray

Here you can take a brief look at the various units that Tiger-1 portrays and is currently recuiting for. For Combat, Vehicle Crew and Medical Units please select from the drop down menu's. In line with the development of the group and to include those members’ families who wish to join in with our activities we actively promote the inclusion of partners and children take part. This is not an unusual event in re-enactment as other groups also use this methodoligy to add real depth to the history we recreate. To this end, Tiger 1 Kampfgruppe StahlKrieger has placed a variety of portrayals within our group to specially cater for this.

SS Helferin Corps -- Germany in WW2 was very much a mans world. Women were very much overlooked as part of the war effort and unlike the allies were pretty much discouraged from working in munitions or the military. However, there were women in the services and as the war dragged on the traditional jobs usually taken by men were increasingly farmed out to the women’s service as casualties mounted. Most arms and civilian defence organisations therefore had helpers or Helferinnen of some sort and they generally comprised of women volunteers who were assigned such roles as administrative, supply, FLAK, telecommunications and concentration camp guards. The SS had its own corps of Helferin, although women were not considered actual members of the SS as membership was closed to women. The SS Helferin Corps maintained a simple system of ranks, mainly SS-Helfer, SS-Oberhelfer and SS-Haupthelfer.

German youth was positively forced into the Nazi ideology from birth. The largest organisation of course being the Hitler youth or Hitlerjugend. Boys were conscripted (it was compulsory) at the age of 10 and at its peak, membership was 8.8 million. (Girls had their own organisation called the Bundes Deutscher Mädel or BDM) This was no Boy Scout movement of course but indoctrination to the Nazi ideals and a pre-cursor to military service. As the war reached its terrible end, boys as young as 10 were fighting and sadly dying in the rubble of Hitler’s Germany for a cause already lost. Joining their parents in the group, we have two boys making up this particular portrayal and they too will complement the larger display that the group puts on. They will attend when their parents do and they are not allowed to take part in battles or use weapons. Of course, if you have a daughter in your family this too is no obstacle to total family inclusion. The BDM, or Bund Deutscher Mädel, was a parallel female version but notably subordinate to the male HJ. The BDM used campfire romanticism, summer camps, folklorism, tradition, and sports to educate girls within the National Socialist belief system, and to prepare them for what was the accepted role of a woman in Nazi society: wife, mother, and homemaker. These programs offered to girls often appeared very interesting and seemingly allowed the girls more freedom within society than they had previously known. Prior to the BDM, it was nearly unheard of that girls would travel without their parents, or do such "boyish" things as camping, hiking, and playing sports. As in the HJ, separate sections of the BDM existed, according to the age of participants. Girls between the ages of 10 and 14 years old were members of the Young Girl's League (Jungmädelbund, JM), and girls between the ages of 14 and 18 were members of the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM). As with our Helferinnen and HJ portrayals the inclusion will only be allowed where the type of event allows it.. As with HJ, Children will only be allowed to take part whilst accompanied and supervised by their parents.

If you are a prospective member who likes the sound of getting the wider family involved then please do feel free to contact us in the usual manner. It may be that you are put off doing re-enactment because you cannot involve the family; well, now you have no excuse! Similarly, don’t let the idea of women and children ruining your hobby. Their portrayal and role within our group comes up to our exacting standards and accuracy and they are not merely camp retainers. Providing the event warrants their inclusion and they are in context they will be seen as integral to our group.

' Tiger 1 for me, really enables me to mix with other like minded individuals, and enjoy the hobby to the full ' Tim Parsons