Germany, Third Reich. The Personal Photo Album Of Ss-Obergruppenführer Arthur Seyss-Inquart

(Arthur Seyss-Inquart Fotoalbum). The personal photo album of SS-Obergruppenführer Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Reichskommissar for the occupied Netherlands. Constructed of a padded fibre binding with a faux brown leather exterior liner, the cover bears a detailed embossed coat of arms of the Seyss-Inquart family within a rectangular floral frame. The interior of the cover is fully lined by a maroon rayon liner. The contents of the album are presented on 37 black card stock pages, each separated by wax paper dividers bearing spider web designs. It features 340 photographs of various sizes, with examples in both colour and black-and-white.

The photographs begin in 1940 and show Seyss-Inquart at work in various capacities with the NSDAP and occupation authorities in Germany and the Netherlands, respectively, as well as family photographs of his wife and children. It concludes with photographs that, while lacking the handwritten captions seen during the war years, are presumably postwar images added by Gertrud Seyss-Inquart and their children. Many of the wartime photographs also depict Wehrmacht and SS personnel, as well as several images of HJ and Bund Deutscher Mädel personnel, with members of the Seyss-Inquart family absent from depiction. The album itself is unmarked and measures approximately 410 mm (w) x 300 mm (h). An extremely rare personal album of a prominent NSDAP official, the album demonstrates some issues consistent with age and use. This includes extensive material fatigue of the cover, the spine of which has largely separated.

Additionally, the drawstring formerly binding the interior pages has been lost, and there is material fatigue evident to the pages, as well as the wax paper dividers.

Finally, a small but unknown number of photographs have been lost, and some of those present have loosened.

The album is a unique example in an overall very fine condition.

Footnote: Arthur Seyß-Inquart was born on July 22, 1892 in the village of Stannern (present-day Stonařov, southern Czech Republic) near the town of Iglau (Jihlava). This was a German speaking community within a Czech dominated area in Moravia, at the time part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. The family moved to Vienna in 1907.

Seyß-Inquart began to study law at the university of Vienna, and earned his degree during the First War in 1917 while recovering from being wounded. As a soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army he saw action in Russia, Romania, and Italy. He received several bravery decorations and at the end of the war held the rank of Oberleutnant (first lieutenant). 

After the war, Seyß-Inquart developed close ties with several right wing and fascist organisations, among them the Vaterländische Front (Fatherland Front). He became a successful lawyer and had his own practice since 1921. In 1933, Seyß-Inquart went into Austrian politics and joined the cabinet of chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß.

Through growing influence and support by non other than A.H. himself, Seyß-Inquart eventually became Austrian Minister of the Interior in February of 1938. With the looming annexation of Austria by Germany in March of the same year, Austrian chancellor Schuschnigg stepped down. Seyß-Inquart was chosen as his successor due to immense pressure applied on the Austrian government by the NSDAP. 

He served in this position for less than two days, until the Anschluss was completed. Seyß-Inquart signed the documents that legalised the annexation of Austria by Germany. After his office had ceased to exist, he was named Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) of the Ostmark, the newly created province that Austria had become as part of Greater Germany. 

Being a fanatical anti-Semite, Seyß-Inquart almost immediately ordered the confiscation of Jewish property and had the Austrian Jews sent to concentration camps. He received the honorary SS rank of Gruppenführer in May of 1939, and would go on to become an SS-Obergruppenführer in 1941.

After the attack on Poland at the beginning of the Second War, Seyß-Inquart was named deputy to Hans Frank, the General Governor of occupied Poland. He supported Frank in the deportation of Polish Jews. Seyß-Inquart was also aware of the systematic murder of Polish intellectuals by the German secret service “Abwehr”.

In May of 1940, A.H. named Seyß-Inquart Reich Commissioner of the Netherlands. His policies concerning the Dutch Jews were no different than his policies had been concerning the Jews in Austria and Poland, in that they were ousted from governmental, and leading press and industry positions, their property seized, before being sent to concentration camps. Of the 140,000 Jews that were registered in the Netherlands in 1941, only 30,000 survived the war.

During his reign of terror, Seyß-Inquart also authorized the execution of at least 800 people, ranging from political prisoners to resistance fighters. At the end of the war, he was arrested by Allied forces and became one of the 24 defendants during the Nuremberg trials against the major war criminals. Seyß-Inquart was found guilty in three out of four charges and executed by hanging on October 16, 1946.

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