New book spotlights 300 letters addressed to Hitler

BERLIN – At first glance, the letter carefully printed in a child’s hand seems innocuous, nothing more than the expression of a young crush: “I love you so much. Write me – please. Many greetings. Your Gina.”\nBut the note takes on a more sinister tone when its recipient is known: Adolf Hitler.\nThe 1935 letter is one of 300 in a new book “Briefe An Hitler” – “Letters to \nHitler” – by German historian Henrik Eberleby. He examined more than 20,000 letters in \nRussian archives.\nThe letters give a unique glimpse into the minds of Germans during the Nazi era, from party sycophants and ordinary citizens to political opponents and Jews suffering under the Nazi regime.\nEberle stumbled on the letters when researching an earlier book on Hitler.\n“It is important to show the whole picture,” he said. “There are totally normal people’s feelings, and then there are also the thoughts of the \nprominent people.”\nThe Nazis kept meticulous records, and the letters had been carefully stored in Berlin. They were seized by the Soviet army at the end of World War II and taken to Moscow.\nWhile some individual letters have been previously published, such as one from World War I hero Gen. Erich Ludendorff complaining of diminishing freedoms under the Nazis, the vast majority have never been seen by the public.\n“It was known that there was this archive, it was known it was available to be seen, but there hasn’t been a book that’s brought them all together,” \nEberle said.\nThe 476-page book, which is being presented this week at the Frankfurt International Book Fair, is only available in German. Publishers Gustav Luebbe GmbH & Co. said there are no immediate plans for an \nEnglish edition.