Opinions on this Michael Wittmann letter

[StefanM]

Stefan, I will request closeups of the front and back of the letterhead section from the seller. I think he will be willing to provide them. I will ask for strong side lighting as well. I will post them here.

This will be interesting to see. Thank you very much for your help!

Alan, I don't collect in this specific area but am interested in other documents of the period related to KL and forced labour.

This small run of essentially private purchase letterhead printings should be printed using the letterpress process as this was the most common printing process for such short run printings of letterheads, brochures, leaflets etc of that period unlike today when almost everything is litho printed — even short run batches of single colour letterheads. Today, letterpress is really only used by "art" or "craft" print shops and usually for short poetry books or hand crafted and printed art books so that these printings are artworks in themselves.

Hopefully the macro shots will help identify the printing process used for this document, look forward to seeing more photos when they are available. If the letterhead is litho printed I would not purchase for the reasons outlined.

[StefanM]

Alan, hi,
Did the seller send you further images to review?

[mailalan]

He actually sent me two scans of documents from the SS-personalhauptamt showing that Wittmann did have such stationary. He also agreed to a full refund if I was not satisfied with the originality of the document. So I went ahead and purchased this and two other documents from him. I will post pictures when it arrives. Below are the scans from the SS-personalhauptamt.

Alan

[Paul D]

Interesting does he also have these other documents in his possession ?

[mailalan]

No, that was my first question. But he does not possess the documents shown in the scans.

[StefanM]

Hi Alan, Any update? Did you receive the document?

[Scout]

Look forward to hearing the outcome of this as well.

[mailalan]

I did receive the document this weekend along with three others I bought from the seller but I have not had a chance to take pictures yet. In comparing it with other documents in my collection I have to say that I do believe it is genuine. The look and feel of the paper, the appearance of the type and the overall impression of the document lead me to believe that it is what it is purported to be. But I will take pictures and post here for opinions. My feeling is also bolstered by the other three document groups I bought from the seller which I believe are clearly original.

[mailalan]

Here are some photos of the document, the best I could get with my old camera.

The signature:


The letterhead:


The back of the document:


Right side of letterhead:


The front of the document:



I would still like to have it forensically examined as much as possible without damaging it. But my feeling is that it is original.

Alan

[Paul D]

Alan as you aware from discussions elsewhere doubt has been cast as to the originality of this document and signature , opinions have been given that the tone of the langauge and manner of unit identification , font Latin and Blockschrift etc is incorrect for a document such as this and it is unlikely that a junior grade Officer even one who had received high awards would have their own personal headed notepaper.

I would tread with care here as it would appear that the only known examples of this document have been produced by the same dealer unless a similar document can be produced from a totally seperate source which can be 100 % originated .... i don't think in this case that it is safe to assume that because Wittmann was relatively famous he would have his own notepaper.