Nazi Germany
In Nazi Germany, the equivalent of a service number was known as a "membership number" which were issued by various Nazi groups based on when a person had initially joined. Nazi membership numbers were also preceded by the name of the organization to which the number applied. For instance, a person who was both a member of the SS and Nazi Party would state their numbers (as an example) "NSDAP #15337 und SS #4436". Membership numbers were considered extremely important in the Nazi system and to hold a low membership number was almost more important than what rank an individual presently had been granted.
The Wehrmacht did not use service numbers in the same sense as their western military counterparts. Soldiers were inducted in their home districts, and identity recorded in a master roster book. A position in the roster book served as a unique identifier; this number was recorded in the soldier's paybook, and was stamped on the soldier's "Erkennungsmarke" (identity disc, or "dogtag").
Read more about this topic: Service Number
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