The SS Family: Procedure for Conducting Family Celebrations

One of a numbered edition limited to 1000 copies, this being No. 310.  66pp, with black and white illustrations and decorative page borders.  Glossy, stiff card covers.  8vo.  A little gentle shelf wear to card covers, one corner very slightly rubbed.  Internally neat, clean, bright and tight.  

From the introduction: “This book is an English translation of a book written by SS-Obergruppenführer Fritz Weitzel published [ca. 1939] under the title ‘Die Gestaltung der Feste im Jahres- und Lebenslauf in der SS-Familie’. Although some additional photographs and information have been added, the text is an exact translation of Weitzel’s words”. 

The SS (Schutzstaffel; “Protection Squad”) was the elite paramilitary organization of the German Nazi Party in the 1930s, a key instrument of terror, and the main force responsible for the Holocaust. It was led by Heinrich Himmler from 1929 until the end of World War II in 1945.  As well as security and policing, the SS grew into something like a religion, its ideology founding on a belief in the superiority and purity of the Aryan race.  Members were required to prove their ancestry and procedures and rituals – set out in this volume – were proscribed for daily lives and family relationships.

Very hard to find title.