Charles Deibel collection

This collection relates to an attorney with the United States military who served as a defense attorney at the Dachau War Crimes trials, which were run by the Judge Advocate General’s Department of the United States Third Army. Charles B. Deibel, Jr. served in this role between 1945-1946, spanning the trials of personnel from the Dachau, Mauthausen, and Flossenbürg concentration camps. The collection includes original photographs and photographic negatives of images taken during the trials and candid photographs of Deibel and the rest of the defense team. The collection also includes interesting series of correspondence, including letters from Florence Minners, a member of Deibel’s extended family who, though born in the United States, spent the war in Germany and requested Deibel to use his resources to help the family during the American occupation of Germany. Extensive correspondence with John Szeptycki, a Holocaust survivor who aided the United States military during the trials—including information about Szeptycki’s desire to reunite with his family and emigrate, and Deibel’s desire to assist Szeptycki—are also included.

The Charles Deibel collection is arranged in four series. Series 1: Photographs, 1930-1950 Series 2: Correspondence, 1944-1951 Series 3: Scrapbook pages, 1930-1939 Series 4: Photographic negatives