ALBERT KESSELRING
(1885 - 1960) Field Marshal in the Luftwaffe and at Nuremburg was tried for war crimes. Death sentence commuted due to ill health. An acerbic T.L.S. with holograph emendations on his personal letterhead, 2pp., 8vo, Bad Wiessee Sud, May 7, 1956, in German to Comrade Buchwald regarding internal matters of the neo-Nazi group, Bund der Frontsoldaten (Steel Helmet, League of Frontline Soldiers) at Lubeck. In part: "...I am somewhat taken aback that you fundamentally ascribe blame to the others. Recently I have begun to make use of an adage...'Whoever has not erred in war has experienced little.' What is valid for war is equally valid in other spheres of human life. Whoever, like yourself especially, knows that being human is to err, can certainly be a little more reserved in his judgment of the errors of others...". Kesselring refers to Buchwald's dissatisfaction with the Stahlhelm's handling of some personnel issues, the Stahlhelm being an organization Kesselring was elected to head while still in prison for war crimes. Yet, the wording highlights the psychology of a man unrepentant for Nazi war crimes and for personally ordering the butchering of 800 Italian civilians in the 1944 Marzabotto Massacre. Boldly signed "Kesselring". Slight foxing at corners with a moderate middle fold and a bit of edge tears thereon, very good .