Description:

KARL DONITZ
(1891 - 1980) German admiral who headed the U-Boat arm of the German Navy, later succeeded Hitler as Fuehrer after Hitler's suicide. Fine content D.S. "Donitz 24.8.74", 1p. legal folio, an ornate calligraphy copy of the "Final Order" to the Wehrmacht issued by Donitz as German Reichsprasident on May 9, 1945. In part: "...By command of Admiral Donitz the Armed Forces have given up the hopeless struggle. A heroic fight that has lasted for nearly six years thus comes to an end ... the German Armed Forces have succumbed to overwhelming superior strength...Every German soldier, sailor and airman can therefore lay aside his arms with justifiable pride and turn to the task of ensuring the everlasting life of our nation...To show obedience, discipline and absolute loyalty to our Fatherland, bleeding from innumerable wounds, is the sacred duty our dead impose upon us all… ". The order's controversial language was defended by Donitz until his death: "I thought then, and I still think, that those words are both appropriate and just.". Fine.

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December 8, 2015 10:30 AM EST
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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