Years of missing private letters written by Heinrich Himmler, a top Nazi who ran the SS security service, have been rediscovered in Israel, a German newspaper says.
The hundreds of letters had been kept there for years in a private household and were now held by a private archive, Die Welt reported on its website.
Germany's Federal Archives, which employs experts on Nazi documents, had pronounced the letters genuine, Die Welt said.
The letters were written to Himmler's wife, Marga, from 1927 until a date just five weeks before Himmler committed suicide in Berlin in 1945.
Himmler was in charge of the SS, which ran the Nazi death and concentration camps, as well as the Gestapo.
Die Welt said it had copies of the letters.
The cache includes many previously unknown photos, documents belonging to Himmler's foster son and other papers.
Many of the letters were signed Daddy or Heini, a diminutive of Heinrich.
They matched letters sent by Marga to her husband, which are kept in the German federal archives and gave an unusual insight into the private thoughts of a man who oversaw some of the Nazi's worst atrocities.
The early letters seem to be "perfectly normal love letters", the newspaper said, but Himmler's virulent anti-Semitism also came through.
Himmler and Marga officially separated in 1940, and Himmler lived after that with his secretary.
Himmler was one of the main lieutenants to Adolf Hitler. He was captured at the end of World War II but swallowed a poison capsule to kill himself.
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