Lot 153

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Description:

OSWALD POHL
(1892 - 1951) Head of the Economic Office of the SS and ultimate overseer of the concentration camp system. It was Pohl who turned his victims' dental gold, eyeglasses, hair, etc. into cash for the SS, using the infamous "Max Heiliger" Swiss accounts. Captured and executed in 1951. Fine association typed D.S., 2pp. folio, Berlin, Sep. 3, 1944, a request that the notorious FRIEDRICH "FRITZ" HARTJENSTEIN be promoted to the rank of SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer. This "Personal-Antrag" is sent to the SS Personnel Headquarters from Oranienburg, Aug. 22, 1944, and is signed at bottom by an unidentified SS Gruppenfuhrer, perhaps Inspector of Concentration Camps Richard Glucks. Hartjenstein is described as a "Camp Commandant", and his earlier service record is described. It concludes: "...in May 1944, he took over the Concentration Camp [Natzwiler] as commander. He made it a model camp and it continues to expand and organize the establishment of a larger working stock [slave labor]. Harjenstein is for my service area particularly suitable. I recommend his promotion to SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer...". On the verso, Pohl boldly signs his approval of the promotion. Beneath appear yet more details concerning Hartjensteing, including his children's birthdates, his service record including dates of service at Auschwitz and Natzwiler, his military education, dates of promotion, etc. Stained at margins, with one large stain at right costing a few words of text, else very good. FRIEDRICH HARTJENSTEIN (1905-1954) began his SS work at Sachsenhausen in 1938. The following year he was transferred to Niederhagen and in 1941 he served for a year with the 3rd SS Division Totenkopf, a Waffen SS combat division. In 1942, he was appointed the commandant of Birkenau. This was the main camp at Auschwitz which contained the extermination facilities and crematoria. In 1944 Hartjenstein was appointed commandant of Natzweiler concentration camp in France. In 1945 he went to work at Flossenburg concentration camp. He would die while awaiting execution by the French. Natweiler, a labor and punishment camp at which 25,000 people suffered and died, was evacuated only a few weeks after Hartjenstein received his promotion.

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July 21, 2011 11:30 AM EDT
Stamford, CT, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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