(1900 - 1945?) Head of the Nazi Party Chancellery and private secretary to Adolf Hitler, by the end of World War II Bormann had become second only to Hitler himself in terms of real political power. Excellent content partial T.L.S. signed with a huge signature by Bormann, 2pp. legal folio, Jan. 5, 1945, on his official letterhead to HANS LAMMERS (1879-1962), Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery, ordered arrested by Hitler in the final days, and ultimately sentenced to twenty years imprisonment for war crimes. In part: ‘…and after the sleepless nights in the F.H.Qu. [Fuhrer Headquarters], I usually went to bed around 10:00pm. It was quite good that I was able to recover a little there, because the exertions here have not become any less. If I did not telephone you from my present restrictions and the continual telephone disruptions. Today once again all the better-known places in our surrounding area have been bombed; since then my duties have become not more pleasant. Traffic conditions here in the West require the most extensive deployment of the Volksaufgebot [civilian labor mobilization]; we are no longer digging entrenchments but are working on restoring railway lines and other transportation routes. For your information, I am enclosing the relevant directives. In addition, we are now supposed to use the Volksaufgebot to enlarge airfields for high-performance aircraft and to undertake all sorts of other work. Added to this are the effects of the air attacks, about which I would rather not write in detail. As soon as you come here, I can tell you more about it in person. I shall ask the Fuhrer as soon as possible when you will be permitted to come. I myself, however, will be going to Munich on Sunday for a week of consultations, etc.; but perhaps I shall come back via Berlin on return journey, provided me do not meet at the Headquarters. I thank you for all your good wishes…’. Staple hole at top left, else very good. At the time of this letter, the Reich was crumbling on several fronts: the Russian winter offensive was about to begin; the Ardennes offensive in the West was collapsing; and most importantly – as mentioned in this letter, Allied bombings were devasting German transportation works requiring the restoration of critical railway lines.