Charles Deibel collection
Extent and Medium
boxes
oversize box
folders
2
1
4
Creator(s)
- Charles B. Deibel Jr.
Biographical History
Charles Bond Deibel, Jr. (1914-1973) was born on March 5, 1914 in St. Louis, MO. A graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, he married Jane Stern on June 25, 1938 in Clayton, MO. He graduated with a law degree from the City College of St. Louis in 1939. Deibel remained in the United States during most of World War II, but was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Third Army in early 1945. Soon after the war ended, Deibel was sent to Germany, where he served as a defense attorney during the Dachau war crimes trials. He returned to the United States in late 1946. Deibel passed away on November 11, 1973.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of William Harris
William Harris donated this collection to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2013. He purchased the collection at an estate sale of Deibel's daughter Mary's possessions.
Scope and Content
This collection relates to an attorney with the United States military who served as a defense attorney at the Dachau War Crimes trials, which were run by the Judge Advocate General’s Department of the United States Third Army. Charles B. Deibel, Jr. served in this role between 1945-1946, spanning the trials of personnel from the Dachau, Mauthausen, and Flossenbürg concentration camps. The collection includes original photographs and photographic negatives of images taken during the trials and candid photographs of Deibel and the rest of the defense team. The collection also includes interesting series of correspondence, including letters from Florence Minners, a member of Deibel’s extended family who, though born in the United States, spent the war in Germany and requested Deibel to use his resources to help the family during the American occupation of Germany. Extensive correspondence with John Szeptycki, a Holocaust survivor who aided the United States military during the trials—including information about Szeptycki’s desire to reunite with his family and emigrate, and Deibel’s desire to assist Szeptycki—are also included.
System of Arrangement
The Charles Deibel collection is arranged in four series. Series 1: Photographs, 1930-1950 Series 2: Correspondence, 1944-1951 Series 3: Scrapbook pages, 1930-1939 Series 4: Photographic negatives
People
- Deibel, Charles.
Corporate Bodies
Subjects
- Dachau Trial, Dachau, Germany, 1946.
- Dachau (Germany)
- Military occupation.
- War crime trials--Germany--Dachau.
Genre
- Photographs.
- Negatives.
- Document
- Letters.