This is an authentic period hand-signed (in ink) photo/post card of Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler.
The back features a vintage appearance postcard from Photo-Hoffmann, the studio famously associated with Heinrich Hoffmann, who served as Hitler's official photographer. The text further provides the address of Hoffmann's studio and publishing house in Munich (Theresienstrasse 74).
The postcard further provides a German legal notice (Nachdruck verboten) which means reproduction is prohibited, indicating the image on the front was copyrighted.
"Echte Fotografie" translates to "Real Photography" confirming the image on the front is a real photo post card (RPPC), meaning the image was printed directly onto photographic paper rather than being a mass-produced lithograph.
About Hoffmann:
Heinrich Hoffmann (1885–1957) played a central role in Nazi propaganda. His studio produced millions of postcards, books, and portraits of Nazi leadership. After WW2, he was classified as a "main offender" (Hauptschuldiger) by a denazification court, resulting in a prison sentence and the seizure of much of his photographic archive, which is now largely held by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Bavarian State Library).
About Himmler:
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was a German
politician who was the 4th Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel (Protection
Squadron; SS), a leading member of the German Nazi Party, and one of the
most powerful men in Nazi Germany. He is primarily known for being a principal
architect of the Holocaust. After serving in a reserve battalion during the First
World War without seeing combat, Himmler went on to join the Nazi Party in
1923. In 1925, he joined the SS, a small paramilitary arm of the Nazi Party that
served as a bodyguard unit for Adolf Hitler. Subsequently, Himmler rose steadily
through the SS's ranks to become Reichsführer-SS by 1929. Under Himmler's
leadership, the SS grew from a 290-man battalion into one of the most powerful
institutions within Nazi Germany. Over the course of his career, Himmler
acquired a reputation for good organisational skills as well as for selecting
highly competent subordinates, such as Reinhard Heydrich. From 1943
onwards, he was both Chief of the Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Police) and Minister
of the Interior, which gave him oversight of all internal and external police and
security forces (including the Gestapo). He also controlled the Waffen-SS, a
branch of the SS that served in combat alongside the Wehrmacht in World War
II. As the principal enforcer of the Nazis' racial policies, Himmler was
responsible for operating concentration and extermination camps as well as
forming the Einsatzgruppen death squads in German-occupied Europe. In this
capacity, he played a central role in the genocide of an estimated 5.5 to 6 million
Jews and the deaths of millions of other victims during the Holocaust. A day
before the launch of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, Himmler commissioned
the drafting of Generalplan Ost, which was approved by Hitler in May 1942 and
implemented by the Nazi regime, resulting in the deaths of approximately 14
million people in Eastern Europe. In the last years of the Second World War,
Hitler appointed Himmler as Commander of the Replacement Army and General
Plenipotentiary for the administration of the Third Reich
(Generalbevollmächtigter für die Verwaltung). He was later given command of
the Army Group Upper Rhine and the Army Group Vistula. However, after he
failed to achieve his assigned objectives, Hitler replaced him in these posts.
Realising the war was lost, Himmler attempted, without Hitler's knowledge, to
open peace talks with the western Allies in March 1945. When Hitler learned of
this on 28 April, he dismissed Himmler from all his posts and ordered his arrest.
Thereafter, Himmler attempted to go into hiding but was captured by British
forces. He committed suicide in British custody on 23 May 1945.
