Lot 318
ADOLF HITLER, THE NAZI HIERARCHY, SS, AND SA AND THE PASSION PLAY AT OBERAMMERGAU, 1934
Oberammergau is a municipality in Bavaria, Germany, famous for its production of a passion play which it has undertaken since 1634. It is considered a sacred duty and is the result of a vow made by the inhabitants of the village that if God spared them from the effects of the bubonic plague then sweeping the region they would perform a passion play every ten years. We have obtained a most important guest book from the Hotel Wittelsbach in Oberammergau dating from 1930 to 1940 which was reserved for the signatures of only its most important guests. The blue leather-covered book a gilt title in German: "Our Guests", with gilt trimmed edges and forages to the 200 pages composing the book. Of those pages, 42 are signed and contain nearly 400 signatures, the majority of which include some of the most important political and military figures of the Third Reich. On August 13, 1934, ADOLF HITLER and a large entourage visited the town to attend the 300th anniversary of the passion play, and has signed and dated a page devoted to him just above a photo of him addressing a large crowd from the hotel's balcony. There is an additional postcard photo of Hitler in his car in front of the hotel acknowledging the crowd offering him a Nazi salute). Six days later the book was signed by WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST, as well as his movie-star wife MARION DAVIES and U.S. Ambassador to Germany WILLIAM E. DODD as the trio were en route to Berlin to meet with Hitler to deliver American Jews' concerns about German policies toward their people. Reflecting Hitler's real thought on the Jews is a signed inscription by viral anti-Semite JULIUS STREICHER: "Without a solution to the Jewish question, no salvation for the German People!". On another page he places a second signed quote: "Who knows the Jew knows the Devil". Others who have signed this guest book include: British Prime Minister RAMSEY MACDONALD, Bavarian President LUDWIG SIEBERT,, MARTIN BORMANN, VICTOR LUTZE, FRANZ VON EPP, EMIL MAURICE, DR. ROBERT LEY, official photographer HEINRICH HOFFMANN, LENI RIEFENSTAHL, OTTO MEISSNER, WILHELM BRUCKNER, DR. FRITZ TODT, JULIUS SCHAUB, DR. KARL BRANDT, HANS VON TSCHAMMER UND OSTEN, OTTO DIETRICH, JULIUS DORPMULLER, propagandist HERMANN ESSER, Gauleiters ADOLF WAGNER, OTTO HERZOG , S.A. officer DIETRICH VON JAGOW ,Ambassador to Croatia and war criminal SIEGFRIED KASCHE , S.A. Obergruppenfuhrer ADOLF KOB , German diplomat HANNS LUDIN, strangled to death for war crimes, German Consul to Jerusalem WALTER DOHLE , Ambassador to Bulgaria HERBERT VON RICHTOFFEN, LEO WEINMANTEL , the 1936 German Olympic skating team and 1934 champion ski team, the 1932 oil baron HARRY F. SINCLAIR, actor HAROLD LLOYD, JOA WUST, MAX SCHMELLING, PRINCE GEORGE OF GREECE AND DENMARK (twice), and a host of lesser European nobility. Of great importance are the more than fifty signatures of high-ranking S.A. and future S.S. officers who accompanied many of the members of the Nazi hierarchy during their stays at the Wittelsbach. Among them are: HERBERT FUST, KURT LASCH, OTTO SCHRAMME, ADOLF BECKERLE, KARL LITZMANN, HERMANN RECHNEY, HEINRICH BENNECKE, SIEGFRIED KASCHE, HEINZ-GUENTHER VON OBERNITZ, MAX JUETTNER, WILHELM HELFER, ARTHUR RAKOBRANDT, HEINRICH BOEMKER and others with the surnames MAPPES, HESS, SCHONBORN, BECKERLE, MEYER-QUADE, BOHNKER, MANTHEY, FRIEDRICH, GUNTHER, HOFMANN and many others. Finally, there is the infamous SISTER PIA (Eleonore Bauer) who tended the wounded during the Beer Hall Putsch, was a close friend to Hitler and Himmler, and freely stole food from the prisoners at Dachau. She signs her name beneath her quote: "For my Fuhrer, for my Fatherland". This album deserves intense research by a Germanophone in order to make out the many other unidentified signatures within. A very rare collection of Hitler's hierarchy in the days following his ascendancy to power, and impossible to assemble today. Ex: Ben Swearingen, Donald Boyle.
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