667. ERNST KALTENBRUNNER RECOMMENDS HEIRICH "GESTAPO" MULLER FOR A HIGH AWARD-ERNST KALTENBRUNNER (1903-1946) Chief of the S.D. who replaced Heydrich, he was a rabid anti-Semite who greatly increased efforts to round-up Jews, and also urged the murder of parachutists. Executed at Nuremberg. Important, fine association typed D.S. "Kaltenbrunner", 4pp. large 4to., Berlin, October, 5, 1944, an official "Vorschlag", or SS document recommending Muller for the Third Reich's highest award to a non-military individual, the Knight's Cross to the War Merit Cross with Swords. This would be Mueller's highest award. The document extols Muller's contributions to Germany, in part: "...SS-Gruppenfuhrer and Generalleutnant of Police Muller, under...SS-Undergruppenfuhrer [Reinhard] Heydrich...[was able] to build up the present day Secret Police [Gestapo] into a powerful instrument of leadership from the few qualified assets taken over upon the assumption of power from the completely unpolitical criminal police...[it] gives us the constant assurance that a continuing stream of information will be provided about all attempted illegal activities...Muller, through lightning-fast action, has thwarted serious sabotage and espionage successes by enemies of the Reich...by cleverly changing the tactics and methods in fighting the opposition...[also] in the surveillance of intelligence collection activities by the enemy...Through the timely neutralization of communist groups in important armament plants and other military-industrial centers, serious sabotage incidents against the Reich were avoided...it was possible to avoid an expansion of enemy efforts among the foreign workers in the Reich...[the Gestapo] also deserves much of the credit for the rapid crushing, apprehension and eradication of the traitors of the 20 July 1944 plot and their followers...over the past ten years, Muller, through his efforts in fighting the enemy...created the prerequisites which enabled our leadership to carry out armament tasks, the war-related necessities of administration, and...orderly course of all public life...". File holes at left and small, clean tears at bottom margin affect nothing, else very good condition with a bold signature. The document is stamped as being received at Himmler's office on November 3, 1944 - two days later, Muller was awarded the prestigious medal. HEINRICH MULLER (1900-1945?) was head of the Gestapo, the political police of Nazi Germany, and played a leading role in the planning and execution of the Holocaust. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Reinhard Heydrich as head of the Security Service (SD) recruited Müller and his staff into his organization. He joined the SS in 1934 and quickly rose through its ranks. As Gestapo chief, Müller played a leading role in the detection and suppression of all forms of resistance to the Nazi regime. Under his leadership, the Gestapo succeeded in infiltrating and to a large extent destroying the underground networks of the Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party by the end of 1935. Adolf Eichmann, who headed the Gestapo's Office of Resettlement and then its Office of Jewish Affairs, was Müller's subordinate, and Reinhard Heydrich was Müller's direct superior until his assassination in 1942. After the assassination attempt against Adolf Hitler on 20 July 1944, Müller was placed in charge of the arrest and interrogation of all those suspected of involvement in the resistance. Over 5,000 people were arrested and about 200 executed. In April 1945 he was among the last group of Nazi loyalists assembled in the Führerbunker in central Berlin as the Red Army fought its way into the city. One of his last tasks was the arrest and execution of Hermann Fegelein. Muller was last seen leaving the Führerbunker on April 29, 1945 and remains one of the few senior figures of the Nazi regime who was never captured or confirmed to have died. An outstanding association of two of the Third Reich's most dangerous individuals. $3,000 - 4,000