Peter Clapham collection
Extent and Medium
folders
9
Creator(s)
- Peter Clapham
Biographical History
Major Peter Clapham, British Army, served as a postwar governor of penal institutions that housed Nazi war criminals. From June 1 to December 12, 1945, he served as governor of Lüneburg, which held accused Belsen S.S. war criminals for pre-trial and trial. On December 13, 1945, he was appointed governor of Hameln Zuchthaus, where convicted Belsen S.S. war criminals were executed. From January through September 1949, Clapham served as Penal Inspector for Land Niedersachsen, and from October 1949 through August 1952, he served as Deputy Governor of Werl Zuchthaus and Allied National Prison, which held the major war criminals in the British zone, including the highest-ranking officers and S.S. war criminals of all nationalities. Clapham immigrated to Canada in the late 1950s.
Archival History
Canadian War Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Canadian War Museum
Major R.K. Malott, Executive Director of the Organization of Military Museums of Canada, donated photocopies of the Peter Clapham collection to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1993.
Scope and Content
The collection consists of photocopies of hand written personal letters, prison documents, and memorabilia relating to accused Nazi war criminals for crimes committed at Bergen Belsen, Auschwitz, and other concentration camps as well as to other major war criminals in the British zone who were imprisoned, tried, and/or hanged at Lüneburg, Hameln Zuchthaus, and Werl Zuchthaus and Allied National Prison.
System of Arrangement
The Peter Clapham collection is arranged as a single series.
People
- Aurdziej, Antini.
- Gallenkamp, Curt.
- Tomczyk, Wiktor.
- Klieger, Bernard.
- Mengele, Josef, 1911-
- Von Mackensen, Eberhard.
- Bini, Louis.
- Manstein, Erich von, 1887-1973.
- Schmitz, Oskar.
- Borrmann, Johanna.
- Meyer, Kurt.
- Hoessler, Franz, 1906-1945.
- Grese, Irma, 1923-1945.
- Clapham, Peter.
- Montgomery of Alamein, Bernard Law Montgomery, Viscount, 1887-1976.
- Bruchhardt, Reinhold.
- Klein, Fritz.
- Wolff, Kurt, 1887-1963.
- Kopper, Helena.
- Falkenhorst, Nikolaus von, 1886-
- Olatzky, Kurt.
- Simon, Max.
- Hoessler, Maria.
- Maelzer, Kurt.
- Muhlan, Else.
- Kramer, Josef, 1906-1945.
- Ehlert, Hertha.
- Herrmann, Wilhelm.
- Volkenrath, Elisabeth.
Corporate Bodies
Subjects
- War criminals--Germany.
- War crime trials.
- World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps.
- Concentration camps--Germany.
- World War, 1939-1945--Atrocities.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
- War (International law)
- War crimes--History--20th century.
- Criminal justice, Administration of.
- Concentration camps.
- Executions and executioners.
Genre
- Document
- Correspondence.