A rare pistol with a dark past

Development of a more modern semi-automatic pistol began in the early 1920s to help meet these needs. After a series of trials and errors with earlier models that were found to have a number of flaws, production of the Czechoslovakian VZ24 pistol began at the Brno arsenal in 1924. Due to continued minor technical issues and the thorough retesting that followed each correction, the firearms were turned out at a sluggish pace with orders haphazardly delivered to the Czech army from 1925 to 1931. By 1938, approximately 175,000 vz24’s were finished and distributed to the Czech forces, with additional small quantities being sold to the forces of Lithuania and Poland. Ownership of all firearms in Czechoslovakia would later suddenly change as the German seizure of the country, and the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, took place in 1939. 

The National Socialists’ “Schutzstaffel” (SS) had helped Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party gain and maintain its power over the German people since its inception as a small guard unit in 1925. The clandestine re-equipping of the German Wehrmacht left little resources for the arming of political paramilitary groups, such as the SS, who were issued secondary weapons until the organization’s size, importance and responsibilities grew both in and out of the Third Reich homeland. By the time of the Czechoslovakian takeover in 1939, the SS, by then tasked with the control and eventual elimination of segments within the conquered peoples, gained much needed sidearms, including the VZ24s that had belonged to the Czech military and police forces. 

The Germans designated their newly acquired weapons as the “Pistole 24”. These highly serviceable 380 ACP pistols were light, sturdy and reasonably accurate, meeting the needs of the SS occupiers’ brutal work as they carried out the destruction of Jews, Slavs, Communists, intellectuals and others in what would later be termed the “final solution”.

Because the marking of captured Czech equipment and arms was generally deemed unnecessary, sidearms marked with the SS insignia are quite rare survivors of the period. The accompanying CZ24, serial number 171719, is proofed on the right frame side with an SS “Totenkopf” (Death’s Head) and “SS-P139” (Internal office accounting number pistol 139). It was carried in a compact Czech flap holster, well-constructed in a dark brown leather with heavy stitching. As with the pistol, the holster is deeply stamped with the dreaded Totenkopf on the reverse. Because of the type of pistol and its holster, and the rarity of their markings, this rig was no doubt issued to an SS security officer or member of the “Sicherheitsdienst” (SD - SS security force that was largely responsible for carrying out the murders of millions across Europe).

If so, it was a grisly tool that caused death to many innocents in the National Socialist’s world of terror and total domination.  

(The author would like to thank Mark Pulaski for sharing images of his rare pistol and holster with the collecting community).    

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