ich index your Himmlerindex Hitler “expert” Prof. Jäckel From the papers of Jean Vaughan, American authoress [Translated by Maria K Shnell. No German text available] Lina Heydrich to Jean Vaughan, Burg/F[ehmarn], February 16, 1952 1. I do not know a Prof Höttl [ Website: presumably Wilhelm Höttl ]. In the meantime I wrote to Schellenberg and hope to get an answer.
Is it possible that there is a confusion between Prof Höttl and Prof Höhn ?: The latter was a collaborator of my husband for a long time. He came to see me in Plön last summer. I do not think much of him and think it possible that there is some connection between then, esp. as I got Schellenberg’s address from him. […] 3. I also wrote to Herr Karl Wolff and asked him for informations. It might be possible that I get a satisfactory answer from him on the Jew-problem [ Judenfrage ].
But you will have to have still some patience. 4. I still got some valuable details about the conditions [circumstances?] that led to the assassination of my husband, above all news in connection with Lidice. […] And now details to Herrn [Paul] Leffler’s report : MY husband began his service in the Braunes Haus in München in August 1931. There was no fundamental material whatsoever on which to base his work. He had to create it all himself.
Within the SA, to which the SS still belonged at that time, there was a kind of intelligence service, the head of which was a certain Graf Dumoulin [du Moulin?]. But his work must have been unsatisfactory, for in the course of time he disappeared, and was not heard of again. Soon my husband moved with his office into a room that he had rented from the widow Victoria Edrich . She kept a boarding home, where she served dinner mostly to SS-men.
She was an enthusiastic member of the Partei; she was always ready to bring personal sacrifices, and she showed much courage and intelligence in critical moments. In times, when the Partei was forbidden, she used to hide the first flag in her sideboard behind cups and plates. Her actions were free from selfishness, or hopes of rewards.
One day an acquaintance of my husband’s Richard Hildebrandt , was [sic. who] has been sentenced to death in Poland now, but who was Stabsführer of Sepp Dietrich at that time, wanted to see my husband. He rang the bell at the appartement door of Mrs Edrich, as he had been told by my husband. A little window in the wall opened. There appeared Mrs Edrich in her dressing gown, “What do you want?” — “I’d like to see Mr Heydrich.” “Heydrich?? — My name is Edrich,” and peng the window closed.
He rang the bell anew. Nobody opened. Hildebrandt goes away. After a little time he comes back, rings the bell and asks urgently to be allowed to enter, to see Mr Heydrich. Still in addressing gown, Mrs Edrich answers that she is a decent person and a widow, and would he pleased let her alone and stop talking about Herr Heydrich, she did not know anybody with the name of Heydrich, her name being Edrich.
Herr Hildebrandt did not yet succeed in entering, and he only wanted to fetch this typewriter, that he had lent to my husband. — Once my husband was informed that the police had become interested in the apartment of Mrs Edrich. A secret-policeman (a policeman not wearing uniform) had been posted at the entrance-gate and scrutinized everybody who entered Türkenstrasse 23. My husband took a snapshot of him and sent that into his bureau.
But soon the apartment Türkenstr. became too small, my husband having three co-operators [colleagues] at that time. My husband and I had married in Dec 1931 and lived in a little village Lochhausen (see photo) near München. My husband had to ride to the city every morning. In October 1932 we moved. Himmler had rented a house in Nymphenburg (a suburb of München). The office moved into this house too, and a few rooms were left for private use (see photo). This house was ideal for its purpose.
It was the last but one house in a lane that had no thoroughfare. So nobody could pass that lane without being noticed. The Münchener police never came to know about us. (All this happened in the time when the organizations of the SA and SS were forbidden). During this time also Herr L [ Leffler ] entered the service. At that time the service was not called SD but PJ (Presse Information).
It was the time of the beginning, of building, – and of starvation. — Goodness me, what a famishing time and that! — Never any money, – at last we had to lay off some of the fellow-workers who had to provide for a family. Mr L. wrote about the office work.
My husband had built up this service, after the pattern of the British Intelligence service, because he was of the opinion that no nation could do without such an institution and that many mistakes and unsuccessful deeds of the German Government resulted from the lack of such an institution, for a minute knowledge of the meaning and thoughts of the own people and of the foreign people is the base of a successful politic [ foundation of political success ].
Therefore there can be no question of such an institution being criminal. But as it is the fundamental element for politics, it is and remains always a key position; and that fact perhaps may have been the most secret reason for the assassination of my husband, in Prague [May 27, 1942]. The chief of the SD as intelligence-centre and the Gestapo as the governmental executive were more than ever key positions for decisions concerning conduct of war, during the war.
The elimination of my husband had to create a state of entire pêle mêle [sic]. And the time after the assassination proved more than enough that it did. This may at the same time be a proof and a historical acknowledgment of the quality of his work. But let us go