Copyright Holder: Estate of Herbert Markow
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Herbert L. Markow was born on December 10, 1915 in New York and traveled to Nuremberg in 1946 to work as an attorney advisor in the Office of Chief of Counsel for War Crimes. He was assigned to U.S. Military Tribunal Case 4, United States v. Oswald Pohl et al. From September-December 1946, Markow worked in the document room, culling the mountain of evidence into an intelligible narrative. The original captured German documents were first translated and reviewed by German-speaking research analysts who prepared reports summarized the contents, subject matter, and people implicated in each document, which Markow used to prepare the evidence for trial. Markow was honorably discharged from the military in February 1947, started his own law practice in Florida, and retired in 1996.
boxes 3
The collection is arranged as 4 series: Series 1: Evidentiary Documents, 1945-1946 Series 2: Nuremberg Ephemera, approximately 1945-1949 Series 3: Goering et al, 1945-1946 Series 4: Weizsaecker et al, 1949
Herbert L. Markow served as attorney advisor in the Office of Chief of Counsel for War Crimes in Nuremberg, where he was assigned to U.S. Military Tribunal Case 4, United States v. Oswald Pohl et al, which Markow calls the “Concentration Camp Case.” His primary duties were to review analyses of captured German documents in order to prepare the evidence for the trial. His papers include translations and staff evidence analyses of captured German documents; additional materials acquired during his service as attorney advisor in Nuremberg; documents related to the International Military Tribunal USA, France, UK, and USSR v. Hermann Goering et al; documents related to the National Military Tribunal USA v. Ernst von Weizsaecker et al; correspondence files; a directory from the 1996 reunion of Nuremberg lawyers; and materials related to 1996 and 1997 conferences about the Nuremberg trials. Evidentiary documents from the Nuremberg trials include extracts of testimony about Albert Speer; handwritten notes about the evidence; a partial list of Nuremberg documents; Staff Evidence Analysis reports on captured German documents; and translations of captured German documents. Additional records documenting Markow’s time in Nuremberg include his streetcar and bus pass, telephone directories, his authorization for travel and final salary payment, two empty envelopes evincing correspondence between Markow and prosecutor H.W. William Caming of the Political Ministries Division, and four French news agency photographs of concentration camps including Bergen Belsen and Buchenwald. Although Markow was not involved in the International Military Tribunal case USA, France, UK, and USSR v. Hermann Goering et al, he was in Nuremberg when the judgment was read and the sentences carried out. His papers include copies of the indictment in the case, the opening statement by Robert H. Jackson, the judgment, and the dissenting opinion by the USSR. This series also includes a newspaper clipping announcing the arrival of the defendants in Nuremberg; a photograph of the courtroom; telegraphs reporting Hermann Goering’s suicide and the executions of Joachim von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Alfred Rosenberg, Hans Frank, Wilhem Frick, Julius Streicher, Fritz Sauckel, Alfred Jodl, and Arthur Seyss-Inquart; and a transcript of Arthur Gaeth’s report of the same events. Although Markow was also not directly involved in U.S. Military Tribunal Case 11, USA v. Ernst von Weizsaecker et al, known as the “Ministries Case,” his papers include the judgment in that case as well as the dissenting opinion by Judge Leon W. Powers. Correspondence files document Markow’s unreturned loan of “two whiskey boxes” of Nuremberg documents to the American Jewish Committee in 1960 and include letters from trial participants, a collector of World War II uniforms, the Nazi War Criminals Records Interagency Working Group, and the World Jewish Congress. Materials related to Nuremberg conferences document the 1996 Nuremberg reunion in Washington, DC and the 1997 conference “The Nuremberg Prosecutors Reflect on the Triumph of Justice and Morality” at the University of South Carolina. The Washington, DC reunion of Nuremberg lawyers is represented by a directory providing the status of trial participants. Materials related to the 1997 University of South Carolina conference include the conference program, correspondence with conference creators and participants about Markow’s Nuremberg experiences with and reflections on Nuremberg, newspaper https://collections.ushmm.org Contact reference@ushmm.org for further information about this collection https://collections.ushmm.org clippings about the conference, Markow’s handwritten notes in preparation for the conference, and photographs of Markow and other participants.
Herbert L. Markow papers