India – Autograph – Jawaharlal Nehru the albums of Baron H G Von Studnitz a German jo

India – Autograph – Jawaharlal Nehru the albums of Baron H G Von Studnitz a German journalist operating in India in the late 1930s. Included is an important typewritten letter from Nehru written from London and dated September 7th 1938 in which he comments first on his daughter’s health which prevents him from travelling far but then adds : ‘...in any event the present international situation would come in the way of my going to Germany. As you know I am not at all in sympathy with the Nazi philosophy and aims. I am grateful however to you and to the German authorities for the invitation...’ The album also includes two important typed letters of Mahadev Desai discussing Ghandi and his political views:’...I shall explain to you by just one illustration how you entirely failed to understand what Mr Ghandi said. He said ‘we have not entered upon this new experiment lightly’...you understood to mean ‘heaviness of heart’. Do you see what a cruel distortion it makes? The denial that you suggest seems to add insult to the injury... you will remember that Mr Ghandi gave you no formal interview. Elsewhere in the album is an autograph letter signed of Ernst Vom Rath together with a picture of him. It was his assassination in Paris in 1938 by a Jewish youth Herschel Grynszpan which gave the Nazis the excuse to carry out the notorious ‘Kristallnacht’. There is also a series of fine photographs of Sir Mirza Ismail in Bangalore together with a typewritten letter signed from him to Studnitz. The albums also contain a wealth of superb photographs of India leading figures shots of an ‘untouchables’ village a snake charmer a Sadhu at Chamundi Hill the preparation of elephants for a Royal ceremony and some photographs of Freda Aykroyd who inspired the wartime poems of Alun Lewis. An outstanding collection.