Oops! Wal-Mart t-shirt with Nazi insignia

I do love the alternative-style graphic t-shirts. The ones that look weathered and feature vintage-style (ie. OLD and appearing to be survivors from your grade-school years) are very popular at stores like Old Navy and Hot Topic.

My favorite is a softball-jersey-style t-shirt in green and white that has “Wiffleball Champions 1978, New York City Intramural League” in funky old 70’s fonts across the front.

Once, at a family function, I spent an hour trying to explain the shirt to my grandmother that:

1. No, I didn’t play in that league (I was only 2)
2. No, I didn’t know anyone who did.
3. It’s not a REAL league.
4. I can throw one mean wiffle-curveball.

Mega-retailer Wal-Mart has been selling a variety of shirts like these to capitalize on the trend, and a glance at the low-price $9.44 t- shirt pictured at right might not cause any alarm at first.

Unless, you’re a World War II history buff.

Thanks to the blog Bent Corner for this discovery. More info from them:

The Death’s Head symbol was worn by the members of the German Nazi SS. The Totenkopf on the Wal-Mart t-shirt looks very similar to the divisional insignia of the 3rd SS Division Totenkopf. As you can see, It’s almost an exact copy.

Neo-Nazi’s sometimes use the Totenkopf image because it is not as easily identifiable as other Nazi symbols such as the swastika. You might see one of these tattooed on someone’s arm while standing in line at Burger King and think it’s just an poorly done pirate skull. It’s not.

As the blog continues to point out, and I agree, it’s highly unlikely Wal-Mart was aware of this t-shirt insignia’s linkage to hate groups.

But I’m sure they won’t be going back to that graphic artist anytime soon.