- Collection Overview
- Collection Description & Creator Information
- Access & Use
- Collection History
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Hossbach, Oberst, 1938
Collection Overview
Collection Description & Creator Information
- Description:
The collection contains letters (1912-1940) to and from Hitler and correspondence files (1915-1945) of various members of the NSDAP (Nationalsozialistiche Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei), including Hitler's adjutants Wilhelm Bruchner and Fritz Wiedemann, as well as Hans Frank, Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels, the Hohenzollern family, and Rudolf Hess. Original Hitler material consists primarily of birthday wishes, New Year's wishes, and such. Other letters and documents concern Nazi Jewish policy, the concentration camps at Dachau and Buchenwald, military issues, and the Joe Louis/Max Schmeling boxing match (1939). Also present are photographs of Hitler, Hermann Goring, and other officers at the front and in posed portraits, celebrity portraits, ration stamps, Nazi arm bands, a race identification kit, passports, bonds, military identification cards, postcards, Hitler Jugend identification booklets, and a recording of a speech by Paul von Hindenburg (1932). Copies of Hitler's will, political testament, and papers relating to his marriage to Eva Braun are also included. Many of the letters and documents are accompanied by English translations. Most of the Nazi officers present at the Nuremburg Trials are featured in the collection.
An addition to the collection consists of three photograph albums prepared for Hermann Goring by Lutz Heck. The albums contain 183 black and white photographs primarily reflecting Goring's interest in hunting as Commissioner of Woods and Forests. The first album, "Saujagd in Springe, 14 Dezember 1934," contains 84 photographs of Goring and others, boar, lodges, antelope, hunting dogs, etc.; the second, "Roth 1937," contains 56 photographs of Goring and others in hunting parties, at Konigssee and of dogs, boar, etc.; the third, "Rominten 1940," contains 43 photographs of Goring, Werner Molders, Erhard Milch, his daughter Edda, and others, as well as stags, boar and other hunting scenes. Also present are three published books with the ex libris of Adolf Hitler: Meine Kriegserinnerungen 1914-1918 (Berlin: E. S. Mittler, 1919) by Erich Ludendorff, Kamerad Hund; ein Buch fur Tierfreunde (Berlin: Safari-Verlag, 1934) by Alfred Muhr, and Die Armee des Konigreichs Westfalen, 1807-1813 (Berlin, C. Leddihn, 1935) by Fritz Lunsmann.
Originally housed in six boxes, the Hitler collection is now contained in five. Photocopies of original documents were filed separately, along with summary translations. The copies were discarded and translations were placed with the originals. Most documents have translations, some more accurate than others; hand-written correspondence remains for the most part untranslated as the script is a difficult cursive fraktur.
Collection History
- Archival Appraisal Information:
No appraisal information is available.
Access & Use
- Access Restrictions:
Collection is open for research use.
- Conditions for Reproduction and Use:
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. No further photoduplication of copies of material in the collection can be made when Princeton University Library does not own the original. Inquiries regarding publishing material from the collection should be directed to RBSC Public Services staff through the Ask Us! form. The library has no information on the status of literary rights in the collection and researchers are responsible for determining any questions of copyright.
- Credit this material:
Hossbach, Oberst; Adolf Hitler Collection, C0735, Manuscripts Division, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library
- Location:
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Firestone LibraryOne Washington RoadPrinceton, NJ 08544, USA
- Storage Note:
- Firestone Library (mss): Box 1