Walter Materna war diaries and personal documents

The Walter Materna war diaries and personal documents includes Materna’s World War I diaries (four volumes); World War II and immediate post-war diaries, including inserted World War II photographs (volumes 1-3, 5-10, 13-17); and World War II and immediate post-war documents such as leaflets, telegrams, and personal documents. Materna’s World War II diaries describe events in Poland (Generalgouvernement), Ukraine (Kharkiv, Berdychiv, Donetsk, Dnipro), and Russia (Voronezh, Livny). The diaries include numerous antisemitic statements and descriptions of local Jewish populations by Materna, including a description of a mass shooting of Jews inside the citadel of Berditchev (Berdychiv) dated July 28, 1941. The diaries also include a description of an execution by martial law of non-Jewish civilians over which Materna presided as the rank highest officer of his unit. The war diaries are supplemented with several photographs, including, significantly, a photograph depicting the mass shooting of Jews in Berdychiv by SS, labeled on the back by Materna with the description "Ende Juli 1941. Hinrichtung von Juden durch SS in der Zitadelle von Berditschew. 28. Juli 1941." A poor copy of this photograph has been on display in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s permanent exhibition, in section 3.15 Mobile Killing Units, which describes the location as Vinnytsia. In his diary entry of July 28, 1941, Materna writes the following: "July 28, 1941 - A comrade, accompanied by a second comrade, happened to pass by the citadel in Berditchev just as an execution of Jews was taking place. He recounts the following, which is also confirmed by the second comrade: each Jew whose name was read out aloud had to step out of the group of the condemned towards the edge of the pit which already contained the corpses of those who had been previously shot. He had to kneel down in such a manner that his hands were resting against the edge of the pit. At that point, an SS man with a pistol stepped behind him and delivered a shot to the lower back of his head, the so-called neck shot ("Genickschuss"), whereupon the body rolled into the pit. At that point another SS man sprung into action with a machine gun and delivered a few shots into the executed. Then the next one's turn came. One of the condemned jumped immediately into the pit so that the man with the machine gun had to chase him around in order to shoot him. There were approximately 70 Jews and one Aryan, an aspiring Political Commissar. The Jews had in part been picked up further towards the front, in part they had been reported by the Ukrainians. There even was a German emigrant among them. Next [to the pit] the Ukrainians were already shoveling the next grave and, because it was not being completed quickly enough, 4 men were commanded out of a contingent of nearby Russian prisoners. Because they were having dinner, they were not eager to go to work. However, when they heard that the work consisted of excavating a pit for the execution of Jews, they readily abandoned their food and excitedly proceeded with the task at hand. The Ukrainians, too, enthusiastically swung pickaxes and shovels. Yesterday some 180 Jews were shot, the day before about 300. [...]" Additional photographs include two images of Materna and his men celebrating Christmas evening 1941 in a former synagogue, two images of Materna interrogating two locals before their execution, an image of Hitler's limousine in Berdychiv ("Der Fuehrer in Berditschew. 6.VIII.41"), and an image of General von Rundstedt. The collection also contains eight volumes of miscellaneous booklets and ledgers, such as an address book and an accounting ledger, and miscellaneous ephemera such as newspaper clippings and leaflets.