Robert Wolfe to Assist Historical Research Effort
Press Release · Monday, March 5, 2001

College Park, MD

Nazi War Criminal Records Interagency Working Group

Contacts:
Giuliana Bullard, 703-532-1477
Susan Cooper, 301-837-1700

Steven Garfinkel, Chairman of the War Crimes Records Interagency Working Group (IWG), announced the addition of Robert Wolfe to the IWG's historical research staff. The group advises the IWG regarding the historical context of newly declassified materials. It comprises researchers and other historians, including Richard Breitman, Timothy Naftali, and Edward Drea.

Garfinkel said, "Bob Wolfe is uniquely qualified for this position, with thirty-four years of service at the National Archives as an archivist specializing in captured German and related records." Wolfe headed several military records units during his long career with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). He is an expert in war crimes records, postwar occupation records, and in World War II and postwar military records.

A Purple Heart veteran of World War II in both the Pacific and European theaters, Wolfe served as an official in the U.S. Army occupation of Germany from April 1945 to November 1948.

He taught history at Brooklyn College, at George Washington University, and at Wesleyan University, where he presented a course on the Nuremberg trials. He has lectured at American and European universities and historical institutions.

In 1961, upon concluding service as a member of the American Historical Association team microfilming captured German records at the World War II Records Center in Alexandria, Virginia, he joined the National Archives. His work with NARA included serving as archival consultant to the Department of State for the Berlin Document Center and as Special Adviser to Eli Wiesel for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Among his publications are two major edited works: Captured German and Related Records: A National Archives Conference (1974) and Americans as Proconsuls: U.S. Military Government in Germany and Japan, 1944-52 (1984).

The Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act created the IWG to oversee declassification and public release of U. S. Government records related to war criminals and crimes committed by the Nazi government and its allies during World War II. In enacting the "Japanese Imperial Government Disclosure Act of 2000," the U.S. Congress renamed the IWG, extended its mission through 2003, and emphasized the need to find, review, and declassify U.S. Government records pertaining to Japanese Imperial Government war crimes and war criminals. The IWG public members are former Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman, Thomas Baer, and Richard Ben-Veniste. The IWG website address is www.archives.gov/iwg/.

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