Hitler letters reveal spirit of time

LETTERS written to Adolf Hitler in the 1920s and 1930s are being published in a book by a German historian this week.

One of the 300 featured is carefully printed in a child’s hand and says: “I love you so much. Write me — please. Many greetings. Your Gina.”

The 1935 letter was among 20,000 examined in Russian archives by German historian Henrik Eberle for his book Briefe An Hitler (Letters to Hitler).

The letters give a unique glimpse into the minds of ordinary Germans during the Nazi era, from party sycophants and citizens under the spell of the Fuehrer, to opponents and Jews suffering under the regime.

Mr Eberle, who teaches at the Martin Luther University in Halle, stumbled across the letters when researching his 2005 book The Hitler Book — and knew he had come across a treasure trove.

“It is important to show the whole picture,” Mr Eberle said. “There are totally normal people’s feelings and then there are also the thoughts of the prominent people.”

The Nazis were meticulous about keeping records, and the letters had been carefully stored in Berlin archives. They were seized by the Soviet Army as part of the spoils of war, and have sat in Moscow for more than six decades.

The letters illuminate the German zeitgeist from 1925 — the year that Hitler published the autobiographical Mein Kampf detailing his ideology and ambitions — to 1945, when he ended his own life in a Berlin bunker.

A few from people deemed dangerous were forwarded to the Gestapo for investigation.

In 1945, it seems that most were either too preoccupied with events or fed up with the Nazis to write any more. Where Hitler received between 10,000 to 20,000 birthday cards in 1938, Mr Eberle said, in 1945 he got less than 100.