Copenhagen, 10.8.1943. Folio (295 x 205 mm). Original typewritten letter, single leaf, 10 lines. Adressed ""Sehr verehrte Frau Baronin"", Signed ""W. Best"" lines. Horizontal fold, otherwise fine and clean. 1 ff.
Original signed typewritten letter from Werner Best, SS-Obergruppenführer, Nazi Party official and head of Department I of the Gestapo, here acting as the civilian administrator of occupied Denmark, to the Danish author Karen Blixen, giving her permission to forward American and English reviews of her recently published ""Winter’s Tales"" to Sweden.Werner Best - the highest civilian authority during the occupation of Denmark - oversaw censorship and permissions concerning publications and foreign press material. Much have been said about Blixen and Hitler, and Nazi-Germany in general, and the present letter does not not nessecarily confirm any close ties, but direct correspondence between Werner Best and Karen Blixen indicates that her case was handled at the very highest administrative level, not just routine bureaucracy, of the German occupation. Not every author would have matters handled at Best’s level.