(SS Brief mit Unterschrift). A rare signed letter SS-Standartenführer Rudolf Brandt, dated 7 November 1944 and addressed to Dr. Arnold Ruge of Karlsruhe, the letter is in reply to an inquiry from Rugge concerning the opening and closing of bookshops, with Brandt informing him that this is not the purview of the Reichsführer-SS (Himmler) and that he will appropriately forward the question to Reichsminister Josef Goebbels’ Propaganda Ministry, closing with Brandt’s handwritten signature, measuring 150 mm (w) x 210 mm (h), in extremely fine condition.
Footnote: Rudolf Brandt was born on 2 June 1909 in Frankfurt an der Oder, the son of a railway worker. After joining the NSDAP in 1932, he was awarded a doctorate of law from Jena University in July 1933, before finally joining the SS in October of the same year. Noted as a particularly studious and well-read individual, Brandt was selected by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler for his personal staff. Rising to SS-Standartenführer by 1936, he became Himmler’s Chief of Personal Staff, handling most of his personal correspondence. In this capacity, Brandt had full knowledge of, and was complicit in, the assembly of the infamous Jewish skeleton collection. Specifically, a letter to Himmler filtered by Brandt, describing in detail the criteria and methods for selecting and processing subjects for the exhibit, was presented as primary evidence in the Nuremberg Doctors Trial of 1948. It was appropriately at this trial that Brandt was convicted of three counts of crimes against humanity and executed on 2 June of that year.