7162 - Fritz Sauckel Autograph Letter Signed to His Nuremberg Defense Counsel, Robert Servatius

Fritz Sauckel Autograph Letter Signed to His Nuremberg Defense Counsel, Robert Servatius ALS in pencil, in German, signed “Sauckel,” one page both sides, 8 x 11.75, July 13, 1946. Handwritten letter to his defense counsel, "Dr. Servatius," in full (translated): "I am requesting you herewith to call on me yet once again today. I should like to put you in possession of some important points." On the reverse, Sauckel writes a second note in broken English: "Please give those lettre to my lawore, Dr. Servatius," signing twice, "Sauckel." In very good to fine condition, with intersecting folds. Dr. Robert Servatius was Sauckel's defense counsel at the main IMT trial and would go on to represent Adolf Eichmann at his 1961 trial in Jerusalem. This letter falls just five days before Servatius delivered Sauckel's closing defense argument on July 18, 1946, built around the claim that Sauckel's forced labor program was comparable to a seaman's employment agency, not responsible for what happened to the workers once deployed. The Tribunal did not accept it. Sauckel was convicted on two counts, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and hanged October 16, 1946, the man who ran what has been called the largest program of forced labor deployment in history.