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Nazi SS Soldier Letter from the Mauthausen-Gusen Concentration Camp
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Noting that he did ”not have to do any guard duty or other services,”
a soldier writes that he is ”really . . . leading a marvelous life" at the brutal camp
Scarce autograph letter signed, Erich Nöllgern, two pages (recto and verso), 6½" x 4", Mauthausen, Austria, September 19, 1940. In German, with translation.
This is a very uncommon relic—a letter from a Nazi SS concentration camp staff soldier. The soldier has written his rank, using the runic B, beneath his signature. Although friends and relatives often preserved the letters of concentration camp prisoners, after World War II the friends and relatives of camp guards and officials typically destroyed evidence of their connection with Nazi crimes. Hence the scarcity of this letter.
The soldier writes to a young lady, “Fräulein Gerda,” in Graz, Austria. He notes his satisfaction that he did ”not have to do any guard duty or other services” at the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, which was among the most brutal and severe of the concentration camps, and notes that he is "leading a marvelous life here." He writes, in full: ”You're probably very angry at me because I haven't let you hear from me, but here I have to change myself [in life] and my thoughts are directed toward other goals. I personally am very well here because I do not have to do any guard duty or other services. I have been sent to camp headquarters among the drivers. I really am leading a marvelous life here, but nevertheless I always have to think about you and your mother because you are really very nice to me. Unfortunately it wasn't given to me to remain in beautiful Graz. Maria has also written to me. She is now at her mother's home because she had differences with her uncle. / Has Fritz also written to you? Please let me know his address so that I can also write sometime to him. How did you like the farewell evening at the ‘Hezzel,’ how did it sit with you? I will apply for furlough on some Sunday and come to Graz. Would you like that? / The next time I will write more. I send you my greetings, and also to your mother. / Have you seen K.-Heinz Diedrich?—Yes!?—”
Established in 1938, Mauthausen-Gusen was actually a group of 49 camps located around Mauthausen, a small town about 20 kilometers east of Linz, in Upper Austria. Prisoners housed in overcrowded quarters suffered from malnutrition and from constant abuse and beatings by guards. At Mauthausen-Gusen, too, the Germans implemented their policy of extermination through labor. Among other things, prisoners, at slave labor, were forced to carry roughly hewn granite blocks weighing up to 50 kilograms, or 110 pounds, from a quarry up the infamous 186 “Stairs of Death." Guards would often force them to race up the stairs with the stones. Those who were too exhausted to continue were usually executed. From 1940, Mauthausen-Gusen was one of the few camps in the West to use a gas chamber regularly, first a mobile one and, by December 1941, a permanent one that could exterminate about 120 prisoners at once.
This letter is on postcard-sized stationery. It has a small stain and traces of foreign material on one end of the reverse, slightly affecting the soldier's last name and the notation of his rank. It is in very fine condition and absent the stain would be extra fine.
Unframed.
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