Correspondence with Alexander, Hanns

Identifier
WL3000/9/1/54
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 109358
Dates
10 May 1960 - 10 Jun 1960
Level of Description
Collection
Languages
  • English
Source
EHRI Partner

Biographical History

Hanns Alexander (1917-2006) was a British merchant of Jewish-German descent. His family had fled to England in the mid-1930s. With the beginning of the war Hanns joined the Royal Army. As a member of its War Crimes Investigation Team he tracked down and arrested Gustav Simon (1945) as well as Rudolf Höss (1946). Later Alexander worked as a banker in London.

See Harding, Th., Hanns and Rudolf: The German Jew and the hunt for the Kommandant of Auschwitz, London, William Heinemann, 2013.

Scope and Content

Correspondence regarding the donation of a piece of tattooed human skin to The Wiener Library. According to Alexander, who had obtained it from the minister of justice of Luxemburg in 1945, the piece was one of four items used by a Ms. Koch to produce a lampshade in Dachau concentration camp.

Conditions Governing Reproduction

This material has been digitised. Readers should book a reading room terminal to access it.

Note(s)

  • The production of lampshades from human skin refers presumably to Buchenwald concentration camp rather than Dachau. Additionally, the name 'Koch' refers most likely to Ilse Koch, wife of the first commandant of Buchenwald.

People

Places

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.