The sender of this letter can be identified from the letterhead as the Chef der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD (Chief of the Security Police and SD [Security Service of the SS]). At the beginning of 1942 this post is held by Reinhard Heydrich. The name of the section within the Reich Security Main Office that drafted the text has been typed below the letterhead: “IV B 4”. This is the section that organised the deportation of the Jews. It is headed by Adolf Eichmann. Eichmann thus writes the letter in consultation with his superior and gives it to him on 26 February 1942 to be signed.
It is unusual for the date to have been added by hand. Eichmann evidently did not know precisely when he would be able to submit the letter to Heydrich.
