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This is a 100% original A4 size (21 x 29-½ cm) Third Reich Aktennotiz (file note or memorandum) with an attached press photo sent to, and enthusiastically approved by, Nazi Party Reichsleiter and Gauleiter Baldur von Schirach on 21 November 1941 in Wien (Vienna, the second largest city of Hitler’s Greater Germany).

The Wien-Bild photo was taken on Sunday 9 November 1941 (the 18th anniversary of the unsuccessful Nazi beer hall Putsch in Munich) at the Art Nouveau Konzerthaus or concert hall on Lothringerstraße 20 in Vienna which was decorated for the Heldengedenkfeier or Nazi Hero Memorial Service. The memorial started at 11 o’clock in the morning in the large hall of the Konzerthaus and the photo taken during the event shows Nazi dignitaries flanking an enormous Reichskriegsflagge below a huge illuminated Iron Cross with swastika in the middle.

In the text of the Aktennotiz, the sender - a man named Hausmann - expresses his opinion that the decorations in the hall were festive and appropriate which contributed to the success of the event. Reichsleiter von Schirach wholeheartedly agreed as he marked the memo with his fountain pen with green ink with the words Sehr Gut! or “very good!” above his initials BvS.

We do not know who Mr. Hausmann was, but he wrote to Reichsleiter/Gauleiter von Schirach as Dir, the informal “you” instead of the more common, formal Sie, it is clear they knew each other well and on an informal basis. This is noteworthy as Baldur von Schirach was the highest ranking Nazi in NSDAP Gau Wien and the son-in-law of Heinrich Hoffmann, Adolf Hitler’s personal photographer.

Reichsjugendführer (Head of the Hitler Youth) since 1931, Von Schirach succeeded Josef Bürckel on 8 August 1940 as Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter of Reichsgau Vienna, as well as Reich Defense Commissioner of Wehrkreis (Military District) XVII, powerful posts in which he remained until the end of the war.

At the Nürnberg Trials in 1946, Baldur von Schirach (shown in the reference photo right) was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to twenty years. He died in 1974.

The 5-1/8 x 7-1/8 inch photo was stapled to the 8-1/4 x 11-3/4 inch memorandum and then punched for filing. Both pieces of this set (letter & photo) are guaranteed to be 100% original to each other and to Third Reich Germany. This is a rare opportunity to buy an authentic Von Schirach document at a reasonable price. Please read the text below explaining the origins of this rare historical document.