Description:

ADOLF HITLER (1889 - 1945) Fuhrer of Germany and Nazi Party leader, Hitler's bloody rise to power, his military seizure of most of Europe and North Africa and his genocidal racial policies culminated in suicide in his Berlin bunker as Russian troops approached. Historic content typed D.S., 2pp. 4to., "Fuhrerheadquarters", July 22, 1941, a "SECRET COMMAND" which eventually would remove occupation duties from the German army and place them in the hands of HINRICH LOHSE, essentially sealing the fate of Jews in northeast Poland, the Baltic states, and part of the Soviet Union. The document reads, in part: "...On 1 August at 12 noon, the following areas are leaving the army's operational area...the area around Vilnius...the area around Bialystock, bordered by the Niemen, from the southeastern tip of Ostprussia to Mosty...the area of Lviv, bounded on the northeast by the old border of Galicia...the civil administration of the Vilnius region be assumed...under the Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories...the civil administration in the area about Bialystok...will be the responsibility of the Oberpresident of Ostprussia...The exercise of military sovereignty [shall remain intact]..." Boldly signed by Hitler in black ink at conclusion, with a red "K" also placed at bottom by WILHELM KEITEL (1882-1946) German field marshall and army chief of staff under Adolf Hitler. Marginal file and staple holes, else fine condition. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union, vast areas were conquered to Germany's east. At first, these areas remained under military occupation, but the military situation soon called for a more permanent form of administration. In July 1941, the civil administration was declared in much of the occupied territories before one had materialized in the field. A power vacuum emerged which the SS initially (and brutally) filled with its SS and Police Leadership Structure. Five days before this document was signed, HINRICH LOHSE (1896-1964) was appointed Reichskommissar for the Ostland. In this position, he was responsible for the implementation of Nazi Germanization policies which included the killing of almost all Jews, Romani people and Communists and the oppression of the local population. Lohse was not directly responsible for the murderous actions of police forces and Einsatzgruppen who were under the control of SS-Brigadeführer Walter Stahlecker and SS General Friedrich Jeckeln, but his civil policies which removed and concentrated Jews and other "undesirables" greatly facilitated their liquidation by the SS.

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November 19, 2019 10:00 AM EST
Chesapeake City, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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