Peter Rosen papers

The Peter Rosen papers contain training materials from the Military Intelligence Training Center at Camp Ritchie; drafts, correspondence, and research created during the production of a 1945 handbook titled The German Police prepared by MIRS (London Branch) and SHAEF’s Evaluation and Dissemination Section (EDS); two Gestapo files; and a Sicherheitsdienst (SD) file. Camp Ritchie training materials include handouts on the organization and tactics of the French and German armed forces; recognizing the uniforms of allies and enemies; technical instruction in aerial photography, signal communications, and covert recording; and military intelligence classification, operating procedures, organization, and training. The drafts, correspondence, and research related to a handbook on the German police under the Nazi regime titled The German Police document collaboration among SHAEF’s Evaluation and Dissemination Section (G-2, Counter Intelligence Sub-Division), the Military Intelligence Research Section, and MI 14, the German department of the War Office's Military Intelligence Division. The handbook was created to provide an intelligence background for the Allied armies as they advanced into Germany, subdued resistance, and took control of the administration of the country. Records include an advance copy of the handbook, and drafts, correspondence, comments, research, and revisions created during the production of the handbook. Research files include a report on the partial interrogation of two German concentration camp inmates. Gestapo records include files on Gerda Götz and the British propaganda radio stations Gustav Siegfried Eins (GS1) and Kurzwellensender Atlantik. The Götz files document the Köln Gestapo’s investigations into the activities of Gerda Götz, a well-connected fortune-teller. Of particular interest to the Gestapo were Margret Winkelnkemper (wife and then widow of Köln’s Lord Mayor Peter Winkelnkemper) and Franz Thalhammer. Documents include memoranda, interrogation transcripts, and typescripts of intercepted mail. Transcripts of interrogations with Götz in October 1944 and with Thalhammer in November 1944 describe Thalhammer’s involvement with an Einsatzgruppe on the eastern front. The Götz files also mention the assassination attempt against Hitler in July 1944 and the arrest of Konrad Adenauer. The files on Gustav Siegfried Eins and Kurzwellensender Atlantik documents the Köln Gestapo’s investigations into accusation made by two of the British Political Warfare Executive’s black propaganda radio stations. Names mentioned include Major General von Glaise-Horstenau, Margret Winkelnkemper, and Geneva Stribling Wolff-Limper. Documents include correspondence and memoranda. The Sicherheitsdienst (SD) file documents investigations into the favorable treatment of Wolf Lippmann, the Jewish man running the Hotel Lippman in Beilstein. Lippmann, the son of the hotel’s former owner, received contracts from the German film company UFA during the filming of Wenn wir alle Engel wären (1936) and Das Verlegenheitskind (1938). Documents include correspondence and memoranda.

The Peter Rosen papers are arranged as four series: 1: Camp Ritchie Training Materials, 1943 2: German Police Handbook, 1939-1945 3: Gestapo Files, 1942-1944 4: Sicherheitsdienst File, 1938