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. ADOLF HITLER AND ALBERT SPEER APPOINT EDMUND GEILENBERG TO REVIVE GERMANY'S OIL PRODUCTION A historically-important document signed with an unusual combination of signatures: Adolf Hitler and Minister of Armaments ALBERT SPEER (1905-1981), Nazi architect and Minister of Armaments and War Production, convicted of war crimes at Nuremburg. Hitler appoints EDMUND GEILENBERG, the creator of the 1944 ‘Geilenberg Programme' designed to revive Germany's failing oil production. Typed D.S. 1p. legal folio, ‘Fuhrerhauptquartier', May 30, 1944, it reads, in part: ‘...On the basis of my decree of May 30, 1944, I appoint Herrn Edmund Geilenberg as General Commissioner for Immediate Measures with the Third Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production…'. Boldly signed by Hitler at conclusion, with Speer adding his signature beneath. EDMUND GEILENBERG (1906-1964) was an important and capable asset to German war production in his position under Speer, and was awarded the Knight's Cross of the War Merit Cross for his efforts to boost ammunition production. Despite having a massive synthetic oil production program, difficulties in producing enough oil for military use plagued Germany throughout the war, and is thought by some historians to be a major contributor to the downfall of the Third Reich. As early as 1941, Gen. Walther Warlimont wrote in his ‘War Potential of 1942' report to Hitler that: ‘...oil supply will be one of the weakest points of our economy; it may well influence the operational capabilities of all three Services, the armaments industry, and deliveries to our allies'. By 1944, Germany's fuel program was in dire straits. In April, 1944, the Allies bombed Ploesti, Romania, where facilities and those immediately around it supplied 25% of Axis oil. In May 1944, after the initial Eighth Air Force raid on Germany's synthetic oil plant on May 12, Albert Speer told Hitler that ‘the enemy has struck us at one of our weakest points. If they persist at it this time, we will soon no longer have any fuel production worth mentioning' (cf. ‘Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs'.) He would further add: ‘it would be pointless to have tanks if we could not produce enough fuel'. Speer also notified Hitler that the production of aviation fuel for May, 1944, decreased for the first time, falling 14,000 tons short of planned Luftwaffe consumption. Then another blow hit Germany's oil production just two weeks later, when, on May 28 – two days before our document – 410 of the Eighth's bombers attacked seven synthetic plants. In response, Hitler assigned additional assets to defend the oil installations. However, the Allied attacks continued to devastate Germany's fuel industry, with oil production dropping from 186,000 tons a month to 81,000 tons in May alone. Hitler appointed Geilenberg at this critical time when the continued failure in production halted military training and action, and with the new awareness that the Allies were engaged in a sustained effort to destroy Germany's oil producing capabilities. In among his many attempts to revive fuel production, Geilenberg built underground facilities for oil production near Mittelwerk and thus out of Allied bombers' reach, as well as new facilities in Austria. In July, 1944, Geilenberg also initiated ‘Operation Desert', known as the ‘Geilenberg Programme', which sought to create ten shale extraction plants in Wurttemberg, Germany. Some 15,000 prisoners from seven nearby concentration camps were used as workers for building the plants. Despite Geilenberg's efforts, only four of the ten plants became operational. Germany continued to fight a losing battle in the oil arena: over the summer months, twenty-four Allied missions simultaneously focused on the Romanian refineries, bringing production to a halt in late August. Geilenberg was held directly responsible for the death of 4,000 concentration camp prisoners, and was tried at Nuremberg August 12 and 14, 1947. The document is additionally signed by HANS H. LAMMERS (1879-1962) Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery, ordered arrested by Hitler in the final days, and ultimately sentenced to twenty years imprisonment for war crimes. Fine condition.

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April 25, 2024 10:00 AM EDT
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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