Correspondence with Alexander, Hanns
Extent and Medium
2 letters
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
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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
- Koch, Ilse
- Alexander, Hanns
Places
- Third Reich [1933-1945]