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Senior Editor
Pictures of feared Hitler henchman to be sold
Pictures of feared Hitler henchman to be sold after almost 60 years in British home
An extraordinary insight into the private life of one of Hitler's most feared henchmen has come to light after more than 60 years hidden in a British home.
Viktor Lutze was a key figure in the Nazi leader's rise to power and served as chief of staff of the reviled SA - more commonly known as the brownshirts.
Yet intimate pictures seized from his house by Allied forces cast him in the unlikely role of a family man who enjoyed day trips and games of table-tennis.
Almost 100 private photographs once treasured by the one-eyed thug reveal the wealthy and care-free existence he was able to enjoy away from the Fuhrer.
They offer a stark contrast to the misery Lutze and his cohorts inflicted on millions after Hitler launched his brutal purges and plunged the world into war.
The photos were removed from an album by senior allied officers who searched Lutze's home in Bevergen, Germany, in 1944, a year after his death.
One of them later took the set back to Britain and for decades kept it as an incredible memento - but now, 68 years later, it is set to go to auction.
Charles Hanson, a regular on TV's Bargain Hunt, is putting the collection under the hammer after being approached by the officer's granddaughter.
Mr Hanson said: "To think that these pictures have been tucked away in a home in the Midlands for all these years is truly astonishing.
"There's a real poignancy about many of them, as they show Lutze in everyday situations and obviously enjoying a well-to-do and happy family life.
"Looking at them now, it's hard to imagine the same man was a vital part of the regime responsible for many of the worst evils of the 20th century."
Lutze was also a key figure in the Night of the Long Knives in 1934
The son of a peasant craftsman, Lutze worked in the post office before joining the army in 1912, losing his left eye during fighting in World War One.
Having risen to the rank of company commander, he joined the Nazi party and became an associate of Franz Pfeffer von Salomon, the SA's first leader.
He later helped structure the organisation, which acted as the Nazis' "stormtrooper" paramilitary section and was crucial to Hitler's ascent to power.
In 1934 Lutze was also a key figure in the Night of the Long Knives, when Hitler "purged" the SA by killing 85 members - including leader Ernst Rohm.
The Fuhrer rewarded Lutze by making him chief of staff and ordering him to clean up the SA, saying "leaders, not ludicrous apes" should be in charge.
Almost 100 private photographs once treasured by the one-eyed thug reveal the wealthy and care-free existence he was able to enjoy away from the Fuhrer
Always held in high esteem by Hitler, Lutze was supposedly mobbed by an adoring crowd after addressed the Nazi Party Congress at Nuremberg.
And in 1938 his SA helped the SS during Kristallnacht, the massacre that marked the start of the Third Reich's systematic campaign against the Jews.
Yet in the photographs Lutze cuts an almost anonymous figure as he relaxes with his wife and children at their home and during family's outings.
In one picture, apparently taken outside his house, he is incongruously dressed in a waistcoat, shirt and tie as he enjoys a game of ping-pong.
In another he appears anything but a proud example of the Aryan "master race" as he poses in an ill-fitting bathing costume on a jetty next to a lake.
And in a third he is crouching on a beach next to a row of smiling children - probably members of the Hitler Youth - waving tiny Swastika flags.
Other pictures are truer to Lutze's image, including shots of him at Nuremberg and a snap of him cradling a child while dressed in full Nazi uniform.
There are also photos of his beloved Fuhrer, who made a rare personal appearance at Lutze's funeral after his death in a car crash in Berlin in 1943.
Though once dismissed by Joseph Goebbels as of "unlimited stupidity", Lutze was posthumously awarded the Highest Grade of the German Order.
Mr Hanson, of Derby-based Hanson's Auctioneers, said: "These photos offer a real snapshot of Nazi society's wealth and influence in the 1930s.
"It is terrifying to think, looking at some of these family shots, that it was this wealth and influence that broke up Europe and caused mass devastation."
The pictures, whose seller wishes to remain anonymous, are expected to fetch several thousand pounds at an auction in Derby on April 24.
Mr Hanson added: "I would expect them to be bought by a serious collector or maybe even an institution or museum that wants to put them on display."
Pictures of feared Hitler henchman to be sold after almost 60 years in British home
An extraordinary insight into the private life of one of Hitler's most feared henchmen has come to light after more than 60 years hidden in a British home.
Viktor Lutze was a key figure in the Nazi leader's rise to power and served as chief of staff of the reviled SA - more commonly known as the brownshirts.
Yet intimate pictures seized from his house by Allied forces cast him in the unlikely role of a family man who enjoyed day trips and games of table-tennis.
Almost 100 private photographs once treasured by the one-eyed thug reveal the wealthy and care-free existence he was able to enjoy away from the Fuhrer.
They offer a stark contrast to the misery Lutze and his cohorts inflicted on millions after Hitler launched his brutal purges and plunged the world into war.
The photos were removed from an album by senior allied officers who searched Lutze's home in Bevergen, Germany, in 1944, a year after his death.
One of them later took the set back to Britain and for decades kept it as an incredible memento - but now, 68 years later, it is set to go to auction.
Charles Hanson, a regular on TV's Bargain Hunt, is putting the collection under the hammer after being approached by the officer's granddaughter.
Mr Hanson said: "To think that these pictures have been tucked away in a home in the Midlands for all these years is truly astonishing.
"There's a real poignancy about many of them, as they show Lutze in everyday situations and obviously enjoying a well-to-do and happy family life.
"Looking at them now, it's hard to imagine the same man was a vital part of the regime responsible for many of the worst evils of the 20th century."
Lutze was also a key figure in the Night of the Long Knives in 1934
The son of a peasant craftsman, Lutze worked in the post office before joining the army in 1912, losing his left eye during fighting in World War One.
Having risen to the rank of company commander, he joined the Nazi party and became an associate of Franz Pfeffer von Salomon, the SA's first leader.
He later helped structure the organisation, which acted as the Nazis' "stormtrooper" paramilitary section and was crucial to Hitler's ascent to power.
In 1934 Lutze was also a key figure in the Night of the Long Knives, when Hitler "purged" the SA by killing 85 members - including leader Ernst Rohm.
The Fuhrer rewarded Lutze by making him chief of staff and ordering him to clean up the SA, saying "leaders, not ludicrous apes" should be in charge.
Almost 100 private photographs once treasured by the one-eyed thug reveal the wealthy and care-free existence he was able to enjoy away from the Fuhrer
Always held in high esteem by Hitler, Lutze was supposedly mobbed by an adoring crowd after addressed the Nazi Party Congress at Nuremberg.
And in 1938 his SA helped the SS during Kristallnacht, the massacre that marked the start of the Third Reich's systematic campaign against the Jews.
Yet in the photographs Lutze cuts an almost anonymous figure as he relaxes with his wife and children at their home and during family's outings.
In one picture, apparently taken outside his house, he is incongruously dressed in a waistcoat, shirt and tie as he enjoys a game of ping-pong.
In another he appears anything but a proud example of the Aryan "master race" as he poses in an ill-fitting bathing costume on a jetty next to a lake.
And in a third he is crouching on a beach next to a row of smiling children - probably members of the Hitler Youth - waving tiny Swastika flags.
Other pictures are truer to Lutze's image, including shots of him at Nuremberg and a snap of him cradling a child while dressed in full Nazi uniform.
There are also photos of his beloved Fuhrer, who made a rare personal appearance at Lutze's funeral after his death in a car crash in Berlin in 1943.
Though once dismissed by Joseph Goebbels as of "unlimited stupidity", Lutze was posthumously awarded the Highest Grade of the German Order.
Mr Hanson, of Derby-based Hanson's Auctioneers, said: "These photos offer a real snapshot of Nazi society's wealth and influence in the 1930s.
"It is terrifying to think, looking at some of these family shots, that it was this wealth and influence that broke up Europe and caused mass devastation."
The pictures, whose seller wishes to remain anonymous, are expected to fetch several thousand pounds at an auction in Derby on April 24.
Mr Hanson added: "I would expect them to be bought by a serious collector or maybe even an institution or museum that wants to put them on display."