box 1
The Joe Friedman papers consist of military records; occupation, military, and displaced persons camp life materials; photographs; and printed materials documenting Joe Friedman’s work with displaced persons for the Third Army and Military Government, life as part of the occupation force and in the displaced persons camps, the repatriation displaced persons, and Holocaust memorial events held between 1978 and 1982. Military records include correspondence, memoranda, reports, bulletins, and authorizations documenting Friedman’s work with displaced persons for the Third Army and Military Government. They include records documenting Friedman’s work as a supply officer for the Coburg displaced persons camp, a German truck battalion composed of members of a surrendered Panzer division, payments for disarmed German forces working for the allies, communications from Third Army headquarters, and Friedman’s military commendations. Additional records documenting occupation, military, and displaced persons camp life include the notebook Friedman used to record notes about supplies and tasks, lists of hospital medical personnel and Polish officers, a patch labeled “DPTA 10 Staff Officer Poland Camp Administration,” a supplement to a German shopkeeper’s denazification questionnaire, and a humorous memorandum guiding the behavior of American soldiers returning home. Photographs primarily date from approximately 1945‐1946 and depict Friedman; the displaced persons camps at Bamberg and Coburg; children, sports, entertainment, supplies, hospitals and a wedding at the camps; UNRRA, Russian, and French personnel; Russian facilitation of the repatriation of eastern European displaced persons through Lichtenfels; and members of the Palestinian Brigade of North Africa. They are accompanied by pages of description provided by Friedman and are arranged according to those page numbers. An additional photograph depicts Joe Friedman and other liberators at a Holocaust remembrance event in 1982. Printed materials include a handout from the International Military Tribunal, a map tracing the Third U.S. Army’s actions during World War II, a U.S. Army publication about Nazi history, and a Chicago Sun supplement containing World War II maps, dated 1945‐1947, and correspondence, programs, and clippings documenting Holocaust memorial events and Friedman’s participation in some of them, dated 1978‐1982.
Joe Friedman papers
Joe Friedman (1920- ) was born in St. Joseph, MO. He joined the Army in 1942, was assigned to the Medical Administrative Corps, and landed at Le Havre in December 1944. His unit fought in the Battle of Bastogne and participated in the liberation Ohrdruf. After the German capitulation, Friedman volunteered to remain in Europe to work with displaced persons. He received training at Bamberg, spent two weeks at Wildflecken, and then was sent to Coburg where he witnessed the Soviet forced repatriation of eastern European displaced persons through Lichtenfels. He was then sent to Ansbach and put in charge of several DP camps and the exchange point at Hof. He worked discreetly with the Jewish underground to bring eastern European Jews into the American zone until he was caught and sent home. He worked first as a podiatrist before changing careers, becoming an actor, and adopting Joel Frederick as his stage name.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The Joe Friedman papers are arranged as four series: I. Military records, 1945-1946, II. Occupation, military, and camp life, 1945, III. Photographs, 1945-1982 (bulk 1945-1946), IV. Printed materials, 1945-1982