Joseph Maier collection
Extent and Medium
boxes
2
Creator(s)
- Joseph Maier
Biographical History
Joseph Maier (1911-2002) was born in Leipzig, Germany. After finishing university in Leipzig he immigrated to the United States in September 1933. His parents and brother had already immigrated to America. Joseph received his M.A. (1934) and his Ph.D. (1939) from Columbia University. From 1940 to 1943 he was assistant editor for a New York German-Jewish newspaper, and in 1944, he worked in the American embassy in Britain as a propaganda analyst. In 1946, he volunteered for service in Germany after World War II and participated in the Nuremberg Trials, becoming chief of the analysis section of the Interrogation Division. In 1947 he was appointed professor of sociology at Rutgers University and became chairman of the department until his retirement in 1980. Maier was a specialist in the sociology of religion and became widely known as the author of a weekly column in the New York German-language Jewish newspaper Aufbau dealing with the application of halakhic wisdom to contemporary social problems. With Werner Cahnman, Maier established the organization for the Preservation of Jewish Cultural Monuments in Europe, later called the Rashi Association (1978). From 1980 on, he served as its president, helping to establish such projects as the Institute of Judaic Studies at the University of Munich.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
Joseph Maier donated the collection to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1992.
Scope and Content
This collection contains sworn testimonies of war criminals tried at Nuremberg, 1945-1946, and various correspondence, memoranda, notes, articles, and clippings relating to the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, Germany, from circa 1945 to 1946. Also contains the work of Joseph Maier as an interrogator during the trials and a copy of the handwritten confession of Rudolf Hoess concerning the number of Jews killed at Auschwitz concentration camp.
System of Arrangement
The Joseph Maier papers are arranged as two series: Series 1: Sworn testimonies of war criminals, 1945-1946 Series 2: Documents relating to the war crime trials at Nuremberg, 1939-1976
People
- Maier, Joseph, 1911-
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- International Military Tribunal
Subjects
- War crimes.
- Interrogatories--Germany--Nuremberg.
- Nuremberg War Crime Trials, Nuremberg, Germany, 1946-1949.
- Preliminary examinations (Criminal procedure)
- War criminals.
- War crime trials.
Genre
- Document