Article about: "A macabre directory listing the name, rank and decorations of every SS member is going up for auction decades after it was stolen from Nazi officials by a British spy. The 425-page boo
"A macabre directory listing the name, rank and decorations of every SS member is going up for auction decades after it was stolen from Nazi officials by a British spy.
The 425-page book contains more than 30,000 entries, detailing every fighter in the Nazi Party's paramilitary arm - with feared leader Heinrich Himmler at the top of the list.
It was published on December 1, 1938, just months before the start of the Second World War, and was later stolen by a member of Britain's Special Operations Executive.
The directory is expected to fetch up to £2,000 when it goes under the hammer next month.
The book is set out like a telephone directory, listing the name of each SS member, their decorations and awards, their division, party number, SS number, date of birth and promotion details.
It also contains entries for officers who had died before the book was published, in a tribute to their contribution to the Nazis' twisted cause.
The head, or 'Reichsführer', of the SS was Himmler, widely regarded as the architect of the 'Final Solution' which led to the murder of 11million people in concentration camps.
Other leading Nazis listed in the directory include Adolf Eichmann, number 6448, who was personably reponsible for the murder of 3million Jews.
In 1960, Eichmann was caught in Argentina by Israeli secret service agents and brought back to Israel to be put on trial where he was found guilty and hanged.
Reinhard Heydrich, described by Hitler as 'the man with the iron heart', is number 28 in the book, while Auschwitz boss Rudolf Hoess is listed at number 19,202.
Many of the most notorious leaders of the Third Reich occupied relatively low positions in the SS hierarchy at the time the directory was published, as they did not achieve their senior positions until later.
Hitler does not appear in the book, because he was never a member of the SS despite being leader of the Nazi Party.
The directory was taken by an unnamed British spy who was tasked with infiltrating the German high command.
He smuggled it back to Britain to be examined by the intelligence services, and then kept it as a keepsake - which was only discovered by his family when they were sorting through his belongings after his death a few years ago.
Richard Westwood-Brookes, from Mullock's Auctions in Shropshire, said: 'This book is extremely rare and the story of how it was stolen from under the noses of the Germans is also highly intriguing.
'If you are a researcher of the Third Reich, which many people are, it is worth its weight in gold. It really wouldn't take much for a researcher to trace the people in the book, it could show the missing pieces to someone's puzzle.
'Former members of the SS would have wanted to conceal their identities, but this book will show them for what they once were - this sort of information is priceless in my opinion.
'Most of the men in this book were monsters, people such as Himmler, a man very close to Adolf Hitler, they put people through hell.'
The directory will go up for auction on March 18 at Ludlow Racecourse, with an estimate of between £1,000 and £2,000."
£1000-£2000??? I bet that'll fly past that in the first minute.....
'I do not think we can hope for any better thing now.
We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker of course, and the end cannot be far.
It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more. R. SCOTT.
Last Entry - For God's sake look after our people.'
In memory of Capt. Robert Falcon Scott, Edward Wilson, Henry Bowers, Lawrence Oates and Edgar Evans. South Pole Expedition, 30th March 1912.
Nice to have an original. But of course the info contained therein has been reprinted.
Cheers, Ade.
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The one that is being auctioned (the 1st Dec. 1938 issue) is not among those, however, but it has been reprinted, as have been the SS-DAL's of 1st October 1934, 1st July 1935, 1st Dec. 1936, 1st Oct. 1944 and 9th Nov. 1944, as well as the Waffen-SS DAL of 1st July 1944. (I own copies of all of these reprints, acquired from different sources over the course of a few years.)
The SS-Dienstalterslisten are immensely valuable research tools.
SS Directory up for auction.
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"In all my years as a soldier, I have never seen men fight so hard." - SS Obergruppenfuhrer Wilhelm Bittrich - Arnhem
by big ned
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