An A-Z directory listing the name and rank of every Nazi member of the SS which a British spy STOLE from Hitler is expected to fetch thousands of pounds at auction.
The 425-page Who’s Who-style book, entitled ‘Seniority list of the SS’, contains over 30,000 names of the most feared monsters of World War Two.
It also includes the names of SS officers who died prior to the book being published on December 31, 1938, in a tribute to their contribution to the Nazi cause.
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Listed at number one in the book is Adolf Hitler’s right hand man – Heinrich Himmler, the despised leader of the SS.
Himmler, whose SS number is 168, is regarded as the architect of the Nazi’s ‘Final Solution’, which led to the mass murder of 11 million people, including the slaughter of six million Jews.
The book, which is set out like a telephone directory, lists the name of each SS member, their decorations and awards, their division, party number, SS number, date-of-birth and
promotion details.
It is owned by the son of a real-life James Bond agent who worked for the British Special Operations Executive during the 1930s and 1940s.
He was tasked with infiltrating German high command to spy on the Nazis during the war.
Incredibly, the spy, who has not been identified, stole the directory from Nazi officials and smuggled it back to Britain before handing it to the intelligence services.
It is going under the hammer at Mullocks Auctioneers in Shropshire next month and is expected to fetch at least £2,000.
Auctioneer Richard Westwood-Brookes said: “This book is extremely rare and the story of how it was stolen from under the noses of the Germans is also highly intriguing.
“It is very difficult to tell how well it will do at auction, but if you are a researcher of the Third Reich, which many people are, it is worth its weight in gold.
“It really wouldn’t take much for a researcher to trace the people in the book, it could show the missing pieces to someone’s puzzle.
“Some people may be surprised at some of the names in the book, a lot of people wouldn’t have known that a friend or local man was in the SS, but this will confirm it all.
“Former members of the SS would have wanted to conceal their identities, but this book will show them for what they once were, this sort of information is priceless in my opinion.
“The book is in very good condition, it is not damp, dust stained or anything like that, it has been well looked after which will help it sell better.
“Some of the men, most of the men in this book were monsters, people such as Himmler, a man very close to Adolf Hitler, they put people through hell.
“I expect it to reach it’s valuation of between £1,000 and £2,000 when it goes up for auction, although you never know what could happen on the day.”
Also present in the book, listed under number 6448 is Adolf Eichmann – who, alone, was responsible for the murder of three million Jews.
He was tasked with managing the logistics of mass deportation of Jews to ghettos and extermination camps in German-occupied Eastern Europe during the war.
In 1960, Eichmann was caught in Argentina by Israeli secret service agents and brought back to Israel to be put on trial where he was found guilty and hanged.
Another famous SS officer featured in the book was Reinhard Heydrich, one of the darkest figures in the Nazi elite.
Described by Hitler as “the man with the iron heart” he was the founding head of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), an intelligence organisation charged with seeking out and neutralising resistance to the Nazi Party via arrests, deportations, and killings.
In the book, names such as Heydrich and Eichmann are lower than other SS members because they had not yet made a name for themselves in the organisation.
Another notorious member of the SS was Rudolph Hoess, SS number 19202, who went on to manage Auschwitz concentration camp which saw the extermination of 1.1 million Jews.
Hoess, who was found guilty of war crimes and hanged at the concentration camp in 1947, aged 45.
Jakob Frank Denzinger, 90, who slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Jews, is also listed in the directory.
Earlier this month it was reported that he was found in the eastern Croatian town of Osijek and he is expected to be tried for war crimes.
Hitler, who despite being head of the Nazi Party, does not appear in the directory on account of him never being a member of the SS, which is abbreviated from the German word Schutzstaffel – meaning Protection Squad or Defence Corps.
The directory will be auctioned at Ludlow Racecourse, Shropshire, on March 18.
