The Mysterious Case of the Hitler Letters

Last month I received an extraordinary long distance call from a man in another state who spoke in a rich German accent and identified himself, among other things, as a former member of the Hitler Youth! My caller said he had obtained from a relative in Germany, five handwritten letters from Hitler to three separate very prominent Nazis... and Eva Braun! (At this point I need to explain: Because of my personal opinion expressed below, I'm going to give my call the name "Rudolf", not his real name, and will refrain from identifying the contents of the letters, which were quite 'historic' in nature. (You'll see why below.) Naturally I was thrilled and flattered and I asked Rudolf to mail me copies of the letters, which he did.

I am NOT a handwriting expert. But like many of you, I have Charles Hamilton's book "Leaders and Personalities of the Third Reich" which contains numerous examples of Hitler's handwriting, and particularly his signature which degenerated into a downward illegible spiral as his end approached. I also have many photos in other books of various documents Hitler signed.Oh, how I wanted those letters to be real! But, in my opinion, they are not. I approached this project with what I believe to be a completely open mind. I studied the letters and the comparisons for a number of hours, then I invited a local well—known collector friend to study them with me, and with magnifying glass in hand we carefully examined ‘the letters (remember, these were photocopies) letter by letter, word by word, signature by signature. My friend's verdict agreed with mine. I have written Rudolf and told him my opinion (which, of course, may not be correct... and I've told him that also). I have suggested who else he should contact; he believes there are authorities in Germany who can help. What is wrong with the letters?

Well, first of all, they mentioned very well-known events which would have made them, if they were real, of the highest value. Frankly, the odds of 4 or 5 historic letters being assembled in one place (remember they were allegedly written to different people over several years) is very great. Possible, but not too likely. And, alas, the handwriting and signatures just didn't match what we had with which to compare them. Of course, there exists the possibility, as I told Rudolf that I am dead wrong about the handwriting.

The purpose of this article is not to castigate Rudolf. Frankly, I want to see anything a collector thinks is real. Maybe it is! And I happen to believe, after two long distance phone talks with Rudolf, that he is telling the truth. I am convinced he was a member of the Hitler Youth. His description of himself as a terrified 16 year old boy with a panzerfaust on his shoulder, being
ordered in April of 1945 by a kind—hearted leader to "drop it and run like hell for home" through both Nazi and French lines, is horrifyingly real. No, and I don't want to further argue the authenticity of the letters. If they are real, I've passed up the most important papers of the Third Reich I'll ever see.

The purpose of this article is to point out that, as we all know, forgeries and fakes of many Third Reich items are circling the globe. If you haven't seen one, you will; if you haven't bought one, you could. First, how can we identify them, and second, what can we do about them? The first answer is very difficult. All of us are fed up with the pseudo- know—it-alls who pick up a Knight's Cross and throw it back down on a table at a show with the comment "It's a fake!" Well, is it? And who says it is? Is he qualified? Unless we are experts, when asked an opinion, I believe we should state that the opinion we give is a qualified one, is only our opinion, and is based only on our own personal research and experience. Meanwhile, we can arm ourselves with knowledge. We are not as well—read as we should be. If we are in the 'German militaria' hobby we should read every history book we can. I am constantly appalled by the ’gun show mentality' of the 'collector' who will tell you that World War II started with 'the assassination or Rohm or that D—Day was December 7, l941 . In addition to the history books we can read and study the authoritative books and articles written by people like John Angolia, Hugh Page Taylor, Roger Bender, Tom Johnson and many others, who know what they are writing about. Also, we can quit trying to get rich quick. My mother told me there was no free lunch. In my rapidly advancing older age I still have trouble believing it. Chances are slim of my finding a Feldherrnhalle dagger in the woodwork for $50, or Hitler's letters of the highest importance that are mysteriously just now surfacing 43 years later. Perhaps the most apropos advice of all is this: It's in Latin incidentally, not German. "caveat emptor".

Mickey Huffman is a contributor to DG, his opinions and conclusions are his own. A collector for 10 years, and a long—time student of WWII, he is also president of the North Texas Militaria Collectors Association.

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I'll jump in and add some fuel to the fire with these comments about Mickey's article. I haven't seen the letters Mickey talks about so I can't form any opinion of them. I have however, heard that there have been quite a few rare documents and letters recently stolen from the Berlin Document Center and that many would be just the type of thing Mickey describes. Also, I've heard through the grapevine, that the FBI has recently visited and confiscated some of these documents and letters from dealers right here in the U.S.. If anyone would have a collection like Mickey describes it would be the Berlin Document Center. On the other hand... Hitler was not fond of writing. He dictated almost everything, even ’Mein Kampf’ when he was in prison. The chances of finding hand written letters by him are extremely remote to say the least. So, I would say Mickey's decision was probably the correct one. Bob Treend, 1988

Mickey Huffman, "The Mysterious Case of the Hitler Letters", Der Gauleiter, 1988