Mountain Views News          Saturday, August 28, 2010

Homes & Property

11

SAN MARINO, Calif.—The 
Nuremberg Laws bearing 
Hitler’s signature, deposited 
at The Huntington Library, 
Art Collections, and Botanical 
Gardens in 1945 by Gen. George 
S. Patton Jr., will be transferred 
to and permanently placed in the 
National Archives in Washington, 
D.C., according to Steven S. 
Koblik, Huntington president. 
The decision was 
made at the June meeting of The 
Huntington’s Board of Trustees 
and following conversations 
between the archivist of the United 
States, David S. Ferriero, and 
the director of The Huntington 
Library, David Zeidberg. 
“The National Archives 
is the appropriate permanent home 
for this material,” said Koblik.“The 
Archives is the repository for an 
abundance of U.S. Army records 
from World War II, including 
those related to war crimes. These 
documents comprise an extremely 
important part of that narrative.” 
The original four-page typewritten 
documents (there are two sets at The 
Huntington), signed by Hitler and dated Sept. 
15, 1935, are the only ones known to exist in the 
United States. The transfer of both sets to the 
National Archives takes place immediately. 
Gen. Patton brought the documents home 
with him to San Marino, Calif., at the close 
of the war. He deposited them in June 1945 
at The Huntington, an institution with close 
personal ties to the Patton family. (Patton’s 
father owned the property next door.) 
Shortly thereafter, Patton returned to Europe; 
he died there in a car accident in December. 
Patton left no instructions for how 
he wanted the documents treated. Given the 
circumstances—that they were not expressly 
gifted to The Huntington—the documents 
were never formally accessioned into the 
collections. In the months before his death, 
Patton had sent U.S. Army material related 
to his war experience to The Huntington, as 
well as a handful of other captured Nazi items. 
Patton also presented the institution with a 
confiscated deluxe edition of Mein Kampf. 
In the late 1990s, the Skirball 
Cultural Center opened in Los Angeles, 
dedicated to exploring and presenting Jewish 
culture and heritage. Following a tour of that 
new institution, then-Huntington president 
Robert Skotheim determined, along with 
Skirball president Uri Herscher, that the 
Skirball offered the most appropriate venue 
for the temporary display of 
the Nuremberg Laws. Those 
documents and Mein Kampf 
were loaned to the Skirball in 
1999 and put on public view; 
in late 2009, the Nuremberg 
Laws were removed from 
display for conservation 
analysis; the copy of Mein 
Kampf is still on display there. 
“Taking them off 
exhibition gave us a new 
opportunity to revisit the 
question of a permanent 
home,” said Zeidberg. “The 
Huntington had acted as a 
longtime caretaker, providing 
safekeeping, but given 
the national and, indeed, 
international significance of 
these historical documents, 
we felt it appropriate to 
examine the issue of whether 
this was the right place to 
keep them in permanent 
residency.” Staff and members 
of The Huntington’s Board 
of Trustees concluded that 
it made sense to explore the 
prospect with the National 
Archives of transferring 
permanent custody of the 
documents to them.

 Once conversations ensued between the 
two institutions, staff at the National Archives 
located 1944 and 1945 SHAEF (Supreme 
Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force) 
policy directives issued by Gen. Dwight D. 
Eisenhower indicating that captured Nazi 
Party and German government documents 
be held for administrative, intelligence, and 
war crimes trial uses. Since 1947, the Nazi 
Party and German government records that 
were used as evidence at the Nuremberg 
and subsequent trials have resided at 
the National Archives. Ferriero agreed: 
The Nuremberg Laws belonged there. 
“Had Gen. Patton not taken the 
copies of the Nuremberg Laws back to 
California, undoubtedly they would have 
been used as evidence at the International 
Military Tribunal at Nuremberg and been 
accessioned by the National Archives with 
the other IMT records,” said Ferriero. “We 
are very grateful that the Huntington Library 
is now providing these historically important 
documents to the National Archives, where 
they will join other original documents 
relating to horrors of the Third Reich.” 
The Nuremberg Laws set in motion 
a legal process that would eventually lead to 
the systematic extermination of more than 6 
million Jews in Europe. The laws comprise 
three decrees: “Law for the Safeguard 
of German Blood and German Honor,” 
prohibiting marriage, cohabitation, and 
relations between “Aryans” 
and Jews; “The Reichs Citizen 
Law,” defining a citizen of 
the German Reich as “of 
German . . . blood”; and “The 
Reichs Flag Law,” defining 
the flag of the Nazi state. 
“What my predecessor 
did was courageous,” said 
Koblik. “He set in motion 
a process that would bring 
these documents to light and 
put them in proper historical 
context. We are proud to have 
stewarded and safeguarded 
them for 65 years. This next 
step—of moving them to 
Washington—completes 
the process, placing them in 
the nation’s most important 
historical repository.”

About The Huntington

The Huntington Library, Art 
Collections, and Botanical 
Gardens is a collections-based 
research and educational 
institution serving scholars 
and the general public. 
More information about The 
Huntington can be found online 
at www.huntington.org.

A BIT OF HISTORY LEAVES THE SAN 
GABRIEL VALLEY

Documents signed by Hitler Deposited at The Huntington in 
1945 by Gen. George S. Patton Jr. Go To Washington

 Mountain Views News Saturday, August 28, 2010 


The painful truth: Sellers who 
do not price their property 
competitively are the most likely 
targets of lowball offers. In soft 
markets, buyers are more prone 
to make low offers on listings 
seen to be priced too high. 
Listings that don’t sell usually 
require price reductions, which 
in turn often mean ultimately 
accepting an offer lower than 
you could have received by 
pricing aggressively from Day 
One. 

Since selling your home can 
be such an emotional and subjective experience, 
it’s easy to understand why you’d be reluctant 
to counter an offer below your asking price. 
But rather than feel insulted, try to see it as the 
beginning of a dialogue that could ultimately 
produce a sale. 

If you feel any of the terms or conditions of the 
offer are unacceptable, ask your agent to present a 
counter-offer. Sometimes buyers and sellers don’t 
really know beforehand what price they’ll accept 
until they’ve begun the negotiations. For example, 
a buyer might agree to a higher price than planned 
if interest rates suddenly drop. 

If you’ve received a lower than expected offer, 
but the buyers have proven their qualifications 
and commitment by securing loan pre-approval, 
you have grounds for serious consideration. The 
process of counter-offering can be swiftly settled 
or carry on ad nauseam. Be prepared to explore 
all options and act quickly before letting your 
negotiations fail. 

Luther Tsinoglou has just been named the top 
producing sales agent in Dickson Podley Realtor’s 
Sierra Madre office for 2009, making the top 10% at 
the company overall. Luther has been licensed and 
practicing real estate since 1992. He specializes 
in residential and income property in Southern 
California. Luther can be reached at his direct line 
(626) 695-8650 or at luther@tsinoglou.com. 


The Nuremberg Laws in German (above) and the English 
translation (below) Images courtesy Huntington Library


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com