708101
Reinhard Heydrich
Scroll down to see images of the item below the description
Reinhard Eugen Tristan Heydrich, 1904-1942. Nazi SS Obergrüppenführer; head of the Gestapo. Rare early signed book from Heydrich’s personal library, signed Heydrich, with his naval rank, on the front free endpaper.
This is the earliest Heydrich autograph piece that we have ever seen on the market. As a young man, Heydrich served in the German Navy. Beneath his signature in this book, Heydrich has written his naval rank, Leut. z. S., meaning “Leutnant zur See,” or ensign. This signature thus dates from the 21 months between October 1, 1926, when Heydrich was given that rank, and July 1, 1928, when he was promoted to Oberleutnant, or lieutenant junior grade. At this point Heydrich’s signature had not yet taken on the chilling angular form that characterizes his later signatures.
Heydrich was second in importance to only Heinrich Himmler in the Nazi protective squadron, the Schutzstaffel or SS, and was a principal architect of the Nazis’ plan to exterminate the Jews. Since he was assassinated at age 38, his autographic material is rare and is increasingly difficult to find. Most of what is available, too, dates from the late 1930s and early 1940s, in the form of official documents, as Heydrich became more and more important in the Nazi scheme. Those who seek Heydrich material should be careful not to let items pass by.
Heydrich joined the German Navy on March 20, 1922, and served until May 31, 1931, when he was expelled after he declined to marry a young woman whose father, who was on good terms with Admiral Raeder, thought that he should do so as a matter of honor. He joined the Nazi party the day after his expulsion and joined the SS the same year. Looking for work, he interviewed with Nazi Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, who was impressed with his abilities. Eventually Himmler made Heydrich the head of the the Security Service, the Sicherheitsdienst or SD, which was the SS and later the Nazi party intelligence agency, and the Secret State Police, the Geheime Staatspolizei or Gestapo. Later, on Adolf Hitler’s order, Heydrich convened the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, which proposed a plan to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe and the Soviet Union, some 11 million people. “Europe,” Heydrich said, “would be combed of Jews from east to west.” In September 1941, Heydrich was appointed Deputy Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, headquartered in Prague. He was brutally repressive toward the Czech resistance, and he also established a Jewish ghetto at Theresienstadt. On May 27, 1942, a squadron of Czechoslavakian assassins, trained in Britain for the Czech government in exile, attacked Heydrich’s car as it slowed to make a sharp turn on a street in Prague. Heydrich was severely wounded by debris from a grenade explosion, and he died on June 4, 1942. Hitler termed him “irreplaceable.”
Heydrich’s bookplate bearing the SS runes is affixed inside the front cover, showing that this book was part of Heydrich’s large personal book collection, which was broken up after the Czech people raided his library after the end of World War II. The bookplate exactly matches—down to the very stamp used to imprint his name on it—the one in Heydrich’s personal copy of Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf, which we recently sold. Click here to compare the bookplate in that book. We understand that this book was found in an antique store in Prague. Since Heydrich signed this book before he joined the SS, it is apparent that Heydrich, proud of his SS membership, inserted the bookplate later.
This book has an interesting association. It is a copy of Studentenlieder zur Gitarre, or “Student Songs for the Guitar,” by Heinrich Scherrer, published in Leipzig, Germany, in 1922. Scherrer was a famous lute and guitar player, perhaps the most accomplished in Munich in the early 1900s. Heydrich grew up in a musical household and was himself an extremely accomplished violinist. His father, Bruno Richard Heydrich, was an exceptionally gifted composer and musician and the founder of the Halle Conservatory for Music, Theatre, and Teaching.
Heydrich was an enigma. He retained his love of music throughout his life. As a violinist, he could make people cry with the beauty of his play. He excelled in both academics and athletics, particularly fencing, in which he displayed Olympian ability and received several awards. He was also a loving, devoted husband and a doting father to his three children. Yet at the same time, he was ruthless and cold blooded. Those who worked with him—even his boss, Himmler—feared him. One described him as a man with “a cruel, brave and cold intelligence” for whom “truth and goodness had no intrinsic meaning.”
On this book the cover binding is split on the inside at the front, but the binding of the body is pretty tight. The cloth cover is split from the spine on the back and partially from the spine on the front, so that the spine cover is loose. A couple of pages are loose or nearly so. Otherwise the pages are intact in the binding.
The rarity of this early signature makes this an essential piece for any Heydrich collection and, given Heydrich’s role in the Holocaust, a choice one for any Third Reich collection.
We reject Nazism and all that it represented. We nevertheless offer this document because Nazism, although despised, played a large role in the history of the 20th Century.
Click here to see more German World War II items.
Click on thumbnails to enlarge.
|
