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Dr. Peter Black served as Staff Historian and later Chief Historian from 1978 to 1997 for the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) in the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice, where he helped investigate and litigate alleged participants in Nazi-era racial, religious, and political persecution. Dr. Black then served as Senior Historian and Director of the Division of the Senior Historian at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum from 1997 to 2015. Dr. Black has held various teaching positions at George Mason University, Catholic University, American University, and Columbia University. He received his B.A. from the University of Wisconsin (Madison) in 1972 and his Ph.D. in History from Columbia University in 1981.
Peter Black papers
The Peter Black papers consist of writings by Dr. Black; materials collected by Dr. Black while researching and writing his doctoral dissertation about Austrian Nazi leader Ernst Kaltenbrunner; reports compiled by Dr. Black while working for the Office of Special Investigations in the U.S. Department of Justice; material compiled for war crimes cases for which Dr. Black served as an expert witness; and source material documenting Dr. Black’s career as a Holocaust scholar. The collection particularly emphasizes the denaturalization and deportation cases for which Dr. Black served as an expert witness in the United States, Canada, and England and the roles of local ethnic German collaborators in the Holocaust in German-occupied Eastern Europe. The collection particularly emphasizes the denaturalization and deportation cases for which Dr. Black served as an expert witness in the United States, Canada, and England and the roles of local ethnic German collaborators in the Holocaust in German-occupied Eastern Europe. Writings and writing projects by Dr. Black (Series 1) consists of a master’s thesis, dissertation proposal, student papers, presentations, and articles written by Dr. Black about the Holocaust. Kaltenbrunner research (Series 2) consists of correspondence, index cards, printed material, publication files, and source material documenting Dr. Black’s research for his dissertation on Ernst Kaltenbrunner (1903-1946), the Austrian-born SS general who served as Chief of the Reich Main Security Office from 1943 to 1945. Research material in this series includes extensive correspondence with Kaltenbrunner’s son Hansjörg Kaltenbrunner, correspondence and interviews with other people who knew Ernst Kaltenbrunner, and correspondence with archival repositories holding original source material. Index cards contain Dr. Black’s notes for his dissertation. This series includes a single original Holocaust-era document: Ernst Kaltenbrunner’s April 20, 1944 postcard to his son. The remaining source material is copied from repositories such as the Berlin Document Center, Bundesarchiv Koblenz, Institut für Zeitgeschichte Munich, and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and documents Kaltenbrunner, the Third Reich, the Nazi party, the SS, and the administration of Nazi-occupied territories. This series also includes related secondary source printed materials. Publication materials document the production of Dr. Black’s dissertation and its subsequent publication. Series 3 consists of reports written or co-written by Dr. Black for the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) about accused Holocaust perpetrators and collaborators Conrad Schellong, Otto von Bolschwing, Viorel Trifa, [Misc. Trawniki Concentration Camp Investigations], and Kurt Waldheim. This series also includes two OSI reports about Robert Jan Verbelen and Josef Mengele that were not written by Dr. Black. Expert witness cases (Series 4) consists of Dr. Black’s expert reports and testimony, correspondence, court records, and source material related to denaturalization and deportation cases for which Dr. Black served as an expert witness in the United States, Canada, and England. The cases relate to men who illegally or fraudulently entered the United States, Canada, or England after World War II by disguising their identities or lying about atrocities they committed or abetted during the Holocaust. The cases documented in this series include Jaroslaw Bilaniuk, Johann Breyer, Peter Egner, Jacob Fast, Mychailo Fostun, Fedir Kwoczak, Iwan Mandycz, Jakiw Palij, Michael Seifert, [KdS Warsaw Investigation], Mikola Wasylyk, and Vladas Zajanckauskas. Subject files and source materials (Series 5) consist of additional source materials that complement source materials found in Series 2 and Series 4. Topics include Otto von Bolschwing, German-occupied Ukraine, Odilo Globocnik, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Wasyl Lytwyn, Arthur Nebe, Schutzstaffel, Selbstschutz, Sonderdienst, Trawniki, Viorel Trifa, and Yugoslavia. Sources include the Berlin Document Center (BDC), Bundesarchiv, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and the Institut für Zeitgeschichte, Munich. This series also includes index descriptions of records from FSB Archive Moscow; court records from the Berezowskyj, Kwoczak, Demjanjuk, and Mandycz cases; research notes; and reference files. Only boxes 37-40 and 52 have been digitized.
The Peter Black papers are arranged as 5 series and 35 subseries: Series I: Writings and writing projects by Dr. Black, 1972-2014; Series II: Kaltenbrunner research, 1940-2002 (subseries 1: Correspondence and notes, 1972-1996; subseries 2: Index cards, approximately 1975-1980; subseries 3: Printed material, 1940-2002; subseries 4: Production and publication, approximately 1976-1992; subseries 5: Source material, 1944, 1970s-1980s); Series III. Department of Justice, Office of Special Investigations, Reports, 1980-1992; Series IV. Expert witness cases, 1963-2011 (subseries 1: Bilaniuk, approximately 2003-2005; subseries 2: Breyer, 1984-2002; subseries 3: Egner, 1963-2011; subseries 4: Fast, 1988-2003; subseries 5: Fostun, 2003-2004; subseries 6: Kwoczak, 1998-2002; subseries 7: Mandycz, 1988-2006; subseries 8: Palij, 1993-2003; subseries 9: Seifert, 1989-2010; subseries 10: [KdS Warsaw Investigation], approximately 2000; subseries 11: Wasylyk, 1988-2001; subseries 12: Zajanckauskas, 1981-2009); Series V. Subject files and source materials, 1958-2015 (subseries 1: Bolschwing material, 1980-1981; subseries 2: German-occupied Ukraine, approximately 2000; subseries 3: Globocnik material, approximately 1980-2005; subseries 4: Index cards, approximately 2000; subseries 5: Kaltenbrunner material, approximately 2000; subseries 6: Lytwyn materials, 1995; subseries 7: [Misc. Trawniki Concentration Camp Investigations] materials, 1999; subseries 8: Nebe materials, approximately 1997-1998; subseries 9: [Misc. Trawniki Concentration Camp Investigations] materials, 1992; subseries 10: Records research notebooks, 1981-1985; subseries 11: Reference and subject files, 1958-2015; subseries 12: SS files, approximately 2000; subseries 13: Selbstschutz and Sonderdienst, approximately 2000; subseries 14: Trawniki material, approximately 1990-2010; subseries 15: Trifa material, approximately 1970s-1980s; subseries 16: Volunteer Selbstschutz in Slovakia, approximately 1990s; subseries 17: Yugoslavia material, approximately 2000s; subseries 18: Miscellaneous source materials, approximately 1990s
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum