Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has issued a press release about parts of a Nazi-Era diary that has been turned over to the
Holocaust Museum for preservation and study.
While I’m happy that the “Rosenberg” Diary is going to the
U.S. Holocaust Museum rather than being repatriated to Germany as some in the
archaeological blogosphere have demanded, I think it’s wrong for ICE to blacken the reputation of a refugee German lawyer
and Nuremberg Prosecutor to justify doing so.
Here is what ICE says about the lawyer, Robert Kempner, who held the diary in his papers:
Robert
M.W. Kempner
Dr.
Robert M.W. Kempner was a German lawyer who fled Germany for the United States
during the war. At the conclusion of the war, Kempner served as the deputy
chief counsel and was the chief prosecutor in the "Ministries Case"
at the Nuremberg Trials. In this role, Kempner had access to seized Nazi
documents in his official capacity as an employee of the U.S. government. At
the conclusion of the Nuremberg Trials, Kempner returned to the United States
and lived in Lansdowne, Pa. Contrary to
law and proper procedure, Kempner removed various documents, including the
Rosenberg Diary, from U.S. government facilities in Nuremberg and retained them
until his death in 1993.
But the Holocaust Museum’s website tells a different story:
As the Nuremberg trials drew to a close, Kempner
received permission from the Office of the Chief of Counsel of War Crimes to
retain unclassified documents “for purposes of writing, lecturing and study.”
He returned home with an unknown number of documents in his possession.
Why then is ICE claiming Kempner misappropriated the diary?
Let’s keep in mind Kempner preserved it and other Nazi papers for decades before his heirs turned over a major trove of such documents to the
Holocaust Museum. Government procedures of the late 1940’s were
likely not as clear as ICE now claims. Nor is it likely that as much historical significance would be attached to the diary back then as today.
Under
the circumstances, shame on ICE for suggesting that Kempner—who can no longer
defend his own reputation-- was a crook rather than a hero in the fight against
Nazism.
One can only hope that the cultural property cops at ICE issue a “clarification” and
soon.
Arthur Houghton asked me to post this comment:
ReplyDeletePeter, it warms the heart that the Rosenberg diaries are where they should be, at the Holocaust Museum, never to be returned to their origin. They were properly seized, and whether or not they were properly removed from the Nuremberg archives, they are now a visible reminder of the sacrifices of Americans and others to put an end to the Nazi regime, in the bosom of the United States.
A
This most certainly belongs in the Holocaust Museum. Those that think otherwise are notoriously anti-American.
ReplyDelete