Letter from Theodor Eicke

Authors

Object ID

2012.1.379

Object Name

Letter

Date

4-1-1940

Files

Content Warning

The Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection consists of images, documents, and artifacts related to the Holocaust. The collection contains materials that depict a number of topics that may be difficult for viewers to engage with, including: antisemitic descriptions, caricatures, and representation of Jewish people; Nazi imagery and ideology; descriptions and images of German ghettos; graphic images of the violence of the Holocaust; and the creation of the State of Israel. For more information, see our policy page.

Description

Tan paper with typewritten messages on either side, bearing several signatures.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

Theodor Eicke (1892-1943) was a German Military Officer, Commander of the SS Division Totenkopf of the Waffen-SS and one of the key figures in the establishment of concentration camps in Nazi Germany. Eicke was involved in the execution of SA chief Ernst Rohm during the purge known as the "Night of the Long Knives". As a division commander of the SS Totenkopf, Eicke writes in 1940 to Berlin concerning a notorious SS Obersturmfuhrer Friedrich Fritz Hartjenstein. Eicke discusses a transfer of Hartjenstein, indicating that there was no room for an officer of his rank in his (Eicke's) division. Hartjenstein would join Eicke's Totenkopf division later in 1941. As commandant of the Dachau concentration camp and inspector of concentration camps in general, Eicke was a stern disciplinarian who set - for the SS who ran the camps - merciless standards for managing the prisoners. He was killed in 1943 when his aircraft was shot down in the Soviet Union.

Dimensions

11 3/4 x 8 1/4"

Keywords

German Military, Officer Commander of the SS-Divison, Totenkopf of the Waffen-SS, Berlin, Theodor Eicke, Michael Lippert

Subcollection

Concentration

Recommended Citation

"Letter from Theodor Eicke" (1940). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2012.1.379.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1067