Joseph G. Rowley collection

Joseph G. Rowley collection 

Joseph G. Rowley collection 

folders oversize folder 12 1 

The Joseph G. Rowley collection contains documents and photographs related to Joseph Gilmor Rowley (1915-2004) a Special Agent with the Counterintelligence Corps who served in central Europe at the time of German surrender. His collection is comprised of material presumably collected during his tour in Germany and France between 1944 and 1945. Included is a series of photographs which document the liberation of Dachau, images of Allied forces at Adolf Hitler’s “Eagle’s Nest” (Kehlsteinhaus), and one image of the German surrender at Brest, France, among others. Also comprised in this collection is an affidavit given by Manfred Rommel (1928-2013) in April 1945 certifying his father, German General Field Marshall Erwin Rommel’s (1891-1944) death and the circumstances surrounding it, various postcards from Nazi Germany, identification cards, and identification papers belonging to German nationals, one of which is a soldier's identification book, Deutscher Volkssturm. The Joseph G. Rowley collection is comprised of documents and photographs presumably collected by Joseph during his tour in Germany and France between 1944 and 1945. Included in his collection is a series of photographs which document the liberation of Dachau sometime after 1945, images of Allied forces at Adolf Hitler’s “Eagle’s Nest” (Kehlsteinhaus) months after its capture in June 1945, one image of the German surrender at Brest, France in 1944, among other images of Germany and France toward the end of the Second World War. Also comprised in this collection are documents identifying Joseph as a Special Agent for the Counterintelligence Corps, several postcards from Nazi Germany’s “Winter Help Work” (Winterhilfswerk or WHW) charity campaign, a German propaganda postcard, and an affidavit given by Manfred Rommel (1928-2013) in April 1945 certifying his father, German General Field Marshall Erwin Rommel’s (1891-1944) death and the circumstances surrounding it. A United States passport and certificate of United States Citizenship for a German man by the name of Wilhelm Weiss is also included in this collection, as well as a soldier’s identification book for a man by the name of Frank Wilhelm who was conscripted into the Deutscher Volkssturm in 1944. Newspaper clippings about the war are also comprised in this collection. 

The Joseph G. Rowley collection is arranged as a two series: •Series 1: Papers, 1931-1946 and undated •Series 2: Photographs, 1944-1945 and undated