Alfred Rosenberg's Nuremberg war crimes trial headphones

Alfred Rosenberg was born in Reval (now Talinn), Estonia, on January 12, 1893, into a family of German Baltic merchants and artisans. Rosenberg joined the Nazi Party in 1920. He eventually became editor of the "Voelkischer Beobachter.," He was the author of many works elaborating the philosophical views behind the Nazi movement, in particular, its antisemitic and anti-religious views, in well knownworks sich as "Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts" (The Myth of the 20th Century). He became a Reichstag deputy for the Nazi Party after the election of Sept. 14, 1930, and was assigned to the Party Office on Foreign Affairs. In 1933, Rosenerg became head of the Party's Office on Foreign Relations.Shortly thereafter, he was appointed Deputy of Ideology and Education. On January 24, 1934, Hitler promoted Rosenberg to the rank of Reichsleiter (National Leader) for the Office for Supervision of the Total Intellectual Schooling of the Party. On July 17, 1941, he was made Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories. In 1942, he became Commissioner for the Safeguarding of the National Socialist Philosophy for the Party and State, which included the indoctrination of the Armed Forces. He was the founder of the National Socialist Cultural Community, forerunner of the Militant Association for German Culture (Kampfband für Deutsche Kultur) in 1927 and the Reich Organization for Early German History. Rosenberg was arrested by the Allies at the war's end in May 1945. He was one of the defendants in the Nuremburg Internatioanl Military Tribunal, Trial of Major German War Criminals. Rosenberg was found guilty on all four counts of the indictment for conspiracy to commit aggressive warfare, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to death and hanged on October 16, 1946.

The headphones were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1996 by the IBM Corporation.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the IBM Corporation