March 17, 2020 - Droog Magazine periodical for investigative journalism

The Hitler Forgery Industry

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A 'Dönitz' baton in Kent

 
Fake letter betrays forgery


Introduction |  Provenance | The Letter

Conclusion | Sources

2019 | 2020 | Auctions | Press

By Jaap van den Born and Bart FM Droog

The strange business of selling fakes, forgeries and other concoctions attributed to Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) and other Nazi criminals

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Introduction

On December 10, 2019, a 'replica Nazi admirals baton' was auctioned by C&T Auctions in Kent (UK). According to the Daily Mail it was bought by a British militaria collector for £24,800 (hammer price £20,000  plus £4,800 auction house fees).

When confronted with photos of this item, several Nazi militaria experts from America and Europe told us that this baton looked like a rather low quality and recently made replica. 

One of them remarked, about the blue material that should be high quality blue velvet: "What's the blue stuff? A piece of granny's bathroom rug? Such a huge seam running down the baton?" Which is rather strange indeed, as this baton was supposedly made by a very skilled jewelry maker. 

Who made this thing then? We don't know. We do know that low quality replicas can be bought quite easily, for instance at the Italian based webshop War Militaria, for  €550 (= £499), taxes included:

So, why would any collector pay almost £25,000 for an item that elsewhere is explicitly sold as a replica for less then £500? And such a miserable one for that? The answer is simple:  because of the alleged provenance.

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The provenance

According to the auction house grand admiral Dönitz, appointed by Hitler as his successor shortly before he committed suicide, had a ceremonial baton. This was taken from Dönitz as war booty by men of the British Army, when he was taken prisoner in late May 1945. It ended up in the Shropshire Regimental Museum, where it is on exhibition to this very day. This part of the story is true -no doubt about it.

What's also true is that Dönitz was sentenced by the Nuremberg trial to ten years imprisonment for his crimes against peace and war crimes. A remarkable light sentence - for as supreme commander of the German U-Boot fleet Dönitz was directly responsible for the relentless sinking of neutral vessels, which started in September 1939. He also forbade his crews to aid survivors of torpedoed ships, resulting in their imminent death. Anyhow - Dönitz was released in October 1956. He died in 1980.

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The provenance - according to the letter and C&T

C&T Auctions stated: "Accompanying the baton is a typed letter signed by Donitz, dated 1973, gifting the item to Mathias von Werthern, the letter which is written in German translates as follows,

“Due to the loss of my Grand Admiral Staff, I received from my closest comrades as a gift a post-war production of my staff as compensation, which gave me great pleasure. As a sign of my great gratitude for the great help in carrying out my projects. I leave this bar to Mr. Mathias von Werthern as a sign of my great esteem and as a souvenir.”

We believe that Mr von Werthern assisted Karl Donitz in writing his biography."

So, if we are to believe the auctioneers the letter is authentic. They don't make any reservations about it. The reservations are given only about this Mr. von Werthern, about whom the auctioneers state 'we believe.'

So, if  the letter is indeed written and signed by Dönitz, then this replica baton must be an authentic replica, owned by Dönitz from somewhere between his release in 1956 until he gave it away in 1973. And because of this provenance, linking the item directly to a war criminal, some collectors are willing to pay quite a fortune for it.

But is this letter authentic?

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The letter - an investigation


 
This letter raises immediately some questions.

Question: Did the actual Dönitz use stationery for his letters or not?
Answer: He did. In the 1970's Dönitz corresponded a lot, always using stationery, with this heading:

 
Shown here is a facsimile of a letter Dönitz sent to neo- Nazi terrorist Manfred Roeder, who in 1975 wanted to proclaim a Nazi government in exile, with Döniz as Reichspresident . Dönitz politely refused. It was printed in a booklet Roeder published in 1979. The authenticity of this letter is confirmed by many sources.


See also this higher quality reproduction of an authentic Döenitz's stationery. 

Question: How do the written ciphers on this letter compare with ciphers the real Dönitz wrote?

Answer: They are totally different.

On the left the written date in the letter accompanying the 'Dönitz' baton. On the right dates written by the genuine admiral (ret.) Karl Dönitz. Even a layman can spot the differences; the ciphers on the left are standing more or less upright, those on the right, the authentic ones, are bending much more to the right. Look especially at the 1's, the 3's and the 7's. Forgers usually pay little attention to  the ciphers, so comparing written ciphers in a questionable document with ciphers in authentic texts is in many cases the most easy way to identify forged written material.  

Question: How does the signature on this letter compare with signatures the real Dönitz placed on authentic letters and cards dating from 1973-1979?
Answer: They are totally different.

On the left the signature in the baton-letter, on the right authentic signatures, made by Dönitz in 1973-1974. 

In this image the difference between the signatures in the letter and an authentic one (from 1974) is clearly visible.

When comparing signatures, it is important to use comparison material from the same period, as the signature of a person changes as he ages, as can be seen on the following comparison of authentic Dönitz's signatures.

Question: How does the written 'Ihr' (in English: 'Yours'), before the signature  compare with authentic 'Ihrs' written by the real Dönitz?
Answer: They are totally different. We found several 'Ihr's written by Dönitz - and no match with the version in the baton letter.

Question: In the letter 'Dönitz' states that he was given this baton by his closest comrades ("von meinen engsten Kameraden"). Who were they?
Answer: Unknown.

Question: In the letter 'Dönitz' thanks Mr. Mathias von Werthern for his help in executing his projects. Who was this Herr von Werthern?
Answer: No information can be found about this Mathias von Werthern, except in this letter, that surfaced in 2019.

Question: What were the projects 'Dönitz' mentioned?
Answer: Unknown.  It seems that whoever typed the sentence in which these projects were mentioned intended to add the names of these projects in handwritten form, as there's a curious blank space after 'Projekte'.

The translation given by  C&Tis misleading:

"As a sign of my great gratitude for the great help in carrying out my projects. I leave this bar to Mr. Mathias von Werthern."

It should have been: "As a sign of my great gratitude for the great help in carrying out my projects  .... .... ....

I leave this bar to Mr. Mathias von Werthern."

With the .... .... .... representing the missing words.

Question: According to the auction house Von Werthern assisted Karl Dönitz in writing his biography. Which book might that be?
Answer: Dönitz wrote, according to the German National Library,  these books:

• Die Fahrten der “Breslau” im Schwarzen Meer, 1917.

• Kreuzerfahrten der Goeben und Breslau (with co-author Theodor Kraus), 1933.

• Die U-Bootswaffe, 1939.

• Zehn Jahre und zwanzig Tage, 1958 (memoirs, appeared in English translation as: 10 Years and 20 Days).

• Mein wechselvolles leben, 1968 (second revised edition was published in 1998, titled Mein soldatisches Leben. Autobiografie).

• Deutsche Strategie zur See im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Die Antworten d. Grossadmirals auf 40 Fragen, 1970 (written in German, but appeared first in a French translation (by Bernard George) as La Guerre en 40 questions, 1969.

The 1958 and 1968 books are autobiographies. The 1968 and 1970 books, the most likely candidates for the 'projects'  mentioned in the letter, are digitalized by Google. In these two works no 'Mathias von Werthern' is mentioned. If this person had really been of such great help, Dönitz surely would have thanked him in these works. Dönitz didn't do so. That fact plus the fact that no trace of this Von Werthern can be found anywhere except in this letter, suggests that this Mathias von Werthern never existed at all.

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Conclusion

The letter accompanying the baton is almost certainly a forgery. Only physical forensic research can give 100% certainty, but given all factors such additional research would be a waste of time. Such research is also impossible, as the present whereabouts of this letter are unknown. 

According to us the idea behind this fake letter was very clever and insolent. By claiming that a low quality replica with limited value was a post war replica specially made for Dönitz, greedy collectors would be blinded for all obvious signals that the baton was never owned by Dönitz, let alone specially made for him.

The trick worked: exactly such a greedy collector paid almost £25,000 for this rubbish. Shame  on him. Shame on Matthew Tredwen, the 'specialist' from C&T Auctions, who didn't spot all the forgery characteristics surrounding the baton and letter. And  shame on Daily Mail reporter Amelia Wynne, who swallowed the concoctions without any criticism.

Amelia Wynne, the chief editor of the The Daily Mail and Mr. Tredwen were given the opportunity to react to our findings. They choose not to do so.

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Sources

Amelia Wynne. Replica ceremonial baton made for Adolf Hitler's successor Grand Admiral Karl Donitz sells for nearly £25,000 at auction (but original that was swiped as a souvenir by a British soldier is worth up to 10 times its value). Daily Mail, London, 23-12-2019.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7821893/Replica-ceremonial-baton-Adolf-Hitlers-successor-sells-nearly-25-000-auction.html

C&T Auctioneers and Valuers Ltd, Kenardington, Kent (UK)

https://www.candtauctions.co.uk/

Lot #126. Books, Ephemera & Photographs Auction. C&T Auctioneers and ValuersLtd. 10 Dec 2019. The Saleroom.com [seen 13-03-2020].

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/candt-auctioneers/catalogue-id-srct10118/lot-1932538c-b0d6-4140-a3b0-ab0a0160af31

W.C. Stump. The Karl Dönitz baton – just how many were there? Part 1. W.C. Stump Militaria Blogspot, [2011].

http://wcstumpmilitaria.blogspot.com/2011/11/karl-donitz-baton-just-how-many-were.html

Replica Dönitz baton.Militaria (Italian webshop)

https://www.warmilitaria.it/en/field-marshal-batons/1836-grossadmiral-karl-doenitz-baton.html

Catalogue German National Library (deutsche Nationalbibliothek), Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig.

https://portal.dnb.de/

Nuremberg trial – Karl Doenitz. Trial International. Geneva, 2016.

https://trialinternational.org/latest-post/karl-doenitz/

Manfred Roeder. Ein Kampf ums Reich. Eine Dokumentation und politische Streitschrift um die Nachfolge des Reiches. Freiheitsbewegung Deutsches Reich, Schwarzenborn/Knüll, Haus Richberg,[1979].
This work contains several facsimiles of authentic Dönitz letters.

http://www.rsv.daten-web.de/Germanien/Eine_Dokumentation_und_politische_Streitschrift.pdf

Hitlerjunge mit Tränensäcken. [about Manfred Roeder]. Der Spiegel, Hamburg,#18, 27-4-1998.
https://magazin.spiegel.de/EpubDelivery/spiegel/pdf/7870264

Sven Felix Kellerhoff. Die Vordenker der "Reichsburger"? Terroristen! Welt, Berlin, 25-10-2016.

https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article159036380/Die-Vordenker-der-Reichsbuerger-Terroristen.html

Authentic Dönitz signature. Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin.
https://www.dhm.de/

Authentic Dönitz letters. History for sale. Las Vegas, Nevada (USA).
https://www.historyforsale.com/grand-admiral-karl-donitz-typescript-signed-12-07-1974/dc253913#
https://www.historyforsale.com/grand-admiral-karl-donitz-autograph-letter-signed-05-17-1975/dc283422
https://www.historyforsale.com/grand-admiral-karl-donitz-autograph-letter-signed-08-16-1976/dc283425
https://www.historyforsale.com/grand-admiral-karl-donitz-autograph-letter-signed-08-26-1978/dc283423
https://www.historyforsale.com/grand-admiral-karl-donitz-autograph-letter-signed-03-20-1979/dc1373

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