Here is a book presented to Hitler by Hans Frank, bearing a handwritten dedication, that reads:
To the Führer
with loyal devotion
and undying gratitude
New Year 1939
Hans Frank
(Dem Führer
in treuer Ergebenheit
und unvergänglicher Dankbarkeit
Neujahr 1939
Hans Frank)
It is written in ink on a kind of smaller standalone fly leaf page. I cannot tell whether it was always like this, or it simply came loose over the years. Regardless, the paper matches the book 100%.
The book came from the estate of Charles Gerthoffer – a French prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials. It was most likely removed from Hitler’s Berghof library by a member of the French 2nd Armored Division on or around May 4, 1945.
Hans Frank (1900–1946) joined the Nazi Party early on and rose through the ranks to serve as the Governor-General of occupied Poland from 1939 to 1945. He was also Hitler’s lawyer and played a key role in devising and implementing his racial policies.
Frank’s tenure as Governor-General of occupied Poland was marked by widespread atrocities, including the persecution and extermination of Jews, the use of forced labor, and the suppression of Polish culture.
However, justice would soon catch up with him. After the war, Frank was tried at the Nuremberg trials, and executed in 1946.
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Charles Gerthoffer
Here is a rare seating plan with matching menu and invite for an official state dinner hosted in Berlin on May 21 1939 – just months before Germany’s invasion of Poland, and the start of WW2. It was held in honor of Italy’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Graf Ciano di Cortellazo.
This was clearly an occasion of high importance, as many key players of the Third Reich are present, including Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring, Sepp Dietrich, Heinrich Himmler and Max Wünsche.
$1,600
Very nice example of a rare seating plan for a formal dinner with der Führer on 1 June 1939. Alongside the usual Party bigwigs – including Göring, Himmler, Goebbels, Ribbentrop and Keitel – is none other than SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich. Nicknamed the Butcher of Prague, Heydrich would be assassinated almost three years to the day later, on 27 May 1942 by British-trained Czech commandoes – as part of Operation Anthropoid.
$1,300
