(1896 - 1975) SS Obergruppenfuhrer, Chief of Staff for the Waffen-SS and head of the SS Main Office, tried for POW death marches and convicted in 1949 for his role in the genocide of European Jews and sentenced to 25 years in prison. His sentence was mitigated by the fact that he aided prominent prisoners to escape. Good content A.L.S. on his personal letterhead, 2pp. 4to., Gerstetten, July 30, 1971, in German. Excellent content on the SS, in part: '...My dear van Mastrigt, I have not read Greeler's book - books which try to be historically accurate or, at least, of some value, cannot be written, as long as only part of the files have been released by the Americans. It is not true that we [the SS] were poorly represented in the working class sectors. Just in the Armed SS, some 70% came from the worker, smallholder and handicraft sectors. The position at the Feldherrnhalle in 1923 is anyway not significant. It is also true that, after 1933, many sections of the steady middle classes crowded into the ordinary SS! And further, that in the Waffen-SS, at the beginning anyway, there were only workers and smallholders. Rohr's book is to a large degree accurate - at least, so far as I could judge. Dr. Klientmann's book is not worth reading - I realize how people can be taken in by so many clumsy falsehoods. Whether in the Waffen-SS it was a matter of 2 people only, or whether anyone was connected with the 20.7.1944 [Bomb Plot], I cannot say definitely. The head of the criminal police at the Reich Security HQ - [SS-Gruppenfuhrer Arthur] Nebe - was in it. He's certainly indisputable! He was seized and shot in Jan./Feb.1945. I no longer know anyone who wore the diamonds; my friends have joined the great army...' Fine condition.