A document representing the end of one of history’s most brutal regimes sold Wednesday night at RR Auction for $166,333, surpassing its pre-auction estimate of $100,000.
Following Adolf Hitler’s suicide April 30, 1945, as the Red Army closed in on Berlin, Karl Dönitz was named Hitler's successor as Germany's leader. Barely a week later, Dönitz, having received Gen. Eisenhower’s ultimatum of “unconditional surrender,” issued an order to Oberkommando der Wehrmacht Chief of Operations Staff Alfred Jodl: Negotiate a military surrender with the Allied forces.
Jodl was sent off with two similar documents. One, which sold Wednesday at RR and is signed by Dönitz along with a stamped seal of the Nazi Party, authorized Jodl to "discuss the conditions for concluding an armistice.”
The other, currently kept in the National Archives, authorized Jodl to “conclude an armistice agreement.”
At first, Jodl attempted to arrange a separate armistice with the Americans and British while continuing the battles on the Eastern Front with the Soviets. As he found this option to be untenable, he settled for a backup plan; delaying the time between formal surrender and the “fixing in place” of Nazi forces in order to allow for the millions of Germans in the east to escape to the west, avoiding Soviet occupation. He successfully arranged for a 48-hour delay.
This document was later kept in the collection of Maj. Gen. Sir Kenneth William Dobson Strong, who was a leading figure during the negotiations.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture.