Autographs from the NS era
As in our last auction 65, we also can offer in this auction sale some special autographs from the NS period, among them several of interesting, in part even explosive contents. On the side of the resistance, there are documents of Graf Stauffenberg and Harro-Schulze-Boysen, by the latter even an obviously encrypted letter addressed to his friend, the resistance fighter Kurt Schumacher.
The representatives of the NS regime here mentioned belong almost all to the top level, starting with Hitler, being auctioned his probably last written document, a job reference for the cleaning woman in Hitler’s bunker, issued on the 29th of April 1945. There is a questionnaire issued personally by Heydrich for the SS administration, from Himmler a signature on a promotion document issued by Kaltenbrunner, from Robert Ley a letter of complaint to Martin Bormann, from Konstantin Hierl a letter of thanks to Bormann and a document concerning the “special commission 20th of July” signed by “Gestapo Müller”.
Of particular explosive nature are two memos by Eichmann, one issued shortly before, the other soon after the “Anschluss” of Austria. Both relate to the action against the Austrian Jews, the document issued before the “Anschluss” anticipated the annexation already one month prior to its execution.
Of particularly historical interest is a letter by the KZ commander Koch regarding the naming of Buchenwald. We have explosive statements made by the SS commander Oskar Dirlewanger in a letter addressed to the commander of KZ Sachsenhausen Anton Kaindl, reporting on the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising.
The autographs were checked by us and external experts for authenticity and adjudged as genuine. There are differing opinions only with regard to the dedication of Hitler’s autograph. While all recognized the document and also Hitler’s signature as authentic, some opinions differed on being the dedication text not handwritten by Hitler, but only initialled by him.
