Russell Kowalyshyn papers

The Russell Kowalyshyn papers document Kowalyshyn’s army service in Germany following World War II. The collection primarily consists of German and American printed materials documenting Nazi Germany, the Allied victory, Dachau concentration camp, and the war crimes trials in Nuremberg. The collection also includes Kowalyshyn’s Dachau pass and obituary, blank letterhead from the Mayor of Dachau and an unknown coat of arms, signed letters from Adolf Hitler and Paul von Hindenburg thanking the Mayor of Dachau for making them honorary citizens, a Hitler Youth sports award signed by Hitler, a speech promoting National Socialism by Josef Bürckel on the occasion of the reoccupation of Saarland, and an Office of Military Government report documenting the denazification of Stuttgart and the installation of a new mayor. Russell Kowalyshyn (1918-1988) was born in Northampton, Pennsylvania to Anna and Stephen Kowalyshyn. He was attached to the 7th U.S. Army during World War II, served with a unit that escorted official visitors through Dachau after its liberation, and was posted to Stuttgart for a year to assist with denazification and the establishment of local civil government. Following the war, he practiced law and served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.