Holocaust Auction June 2023
Lot 672:
Nazi SS Gestapo Chief Benno Martin Signed letter to his wife. This was written during his time as a POW. This letter along with others were found in his former home in Nuremburg recently during a house cleaning. Benno Martin (Kaiserslautern 12 February 1893 – 2 July 1975 Munich) was a Gestapo chief, SS-Obergruppenführer, General of the Waffen-SS and Police and Higher SS leader (Polizei und Höherer SS) in Nuremberg. He was also a member of the Nazi party, joining in 1933, (NSDAP no. 2-714-474) a year before joining the SS (SS no. 187-117) in Nazi era Germany.Martin fought in the German Imperial Army in the First World War, in which he was awarded the Iron Cross first and second class. After Germany’s defeat, he joined the Freikorps in 1919. He obtained his Juris doctorate after the war, and then joined the police department in Nuremberg in 1923. In the Nuremburg Police Department, Martin rose through the ranks to Chief of Police in Nuremberg. He was indicted and tried for complicity in the deportation of Franconian Jews to Auschwitz but was acquitted of the charges.
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