{"id":53806,"date":"2026-05-19T13:57:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T17:57:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/?p=53806"},"modified":"2026-05-19T13:57:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T17:57:52","slug":"from-nazi-germany-to-the-united-states-the-werner-h-von-rosenstiel-papers-at-arb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/2026\/05\/from-nazi-germany-to-the-united-states-the-werner-h-von-rosenstiel-papers-at-arb\/","title":{"rendered":"From Nazi Germany to the United States: The Werner H. Von Rosenstiel papers at ARB\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Does the name Werner H. Von Rosenstiel ring a bell? If you have been inside the University of Cincinnati\u2019s Arts & Sciences Hall, it just might. The Werner H. Von Rosenstiel Reading Room is named after a former student who donated his library to the University in 2001. His papers were later donated to the University\u2019s Department of History by Von Rosenstiel\u2019s daughter and were transferred to the Archives and Rare Books Library in 2024 as a part of the German-Americana collection so that the collection could be organized and made accessible for research.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph
Von Rosenstiel at his desk, 1964. From the Werner H. Von Rosenstiel papers at the Archives and Rare Books Library<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

ARB\u00a0is celebrating the publication of the\u00a0finding aid for the\u00a0Werner H. Von Rosenstiel papers<\/a>\u00a0which can\u00a0now\u00a0be accessed\u00a0online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Who was Von Rosenstiel?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Werner Hans Von Rosenstiel (1911-2008)\u00a0was born and raised\u00a0in Anklam, Germany.\u00a0He followed\u00a0in his father’s footsteps and studied law at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universit\u00e4t in Berlin (now known as the Humboldt University of Berlin) and\u00a0participated\u00a0in a student exchange program at the University of Cincinnati from 1935-1936. During his time in the United\u00a0States,\u00a0he met his future wife Marion Ahrens and learned Adolf Hitler’s true plans for Germany. Von Rosenstiel decided once he finished his law degree, he would immigrate to the United States, marry Marion, and start a new life. His parents did not agree with his decision to leave Germany but aided him in obtaining the necessary documents to do so.\u00a0
\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Group
Von Rosenstiel with his law classmates in Germany, 1937. From the Werner H. Von Rosenstiel papers at the Archives and Rare Books Library<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


When he arrived back in Germany in 1937, Von Rosenstiel had two more years of studying and legal clerk work before completing his law degree. He was studying\u00a0in Breslau when he was drafted into the German Army (Wehrmacht). He served for eight weeks and then in 1939, Von Rosenstiel passed the bar exam. He was offered a position in the Nazi Party’s judicial department. He accepted the position with the stipulation he needed a month in the United States to freshen up his English skills for this position. He was then able to escape Germany and get a visa to the United States.\u00a0
\u00a0
Once in the United States. he married Marion Ahrens on August 12,\u00a01939,\u00a0and began working as a laborer for a German pharmaceutical business in New Jersey\u00a0until\u00a0he\u00a0received his draft notice for service in the United States Military.\u00a0Von Rosenstiel passed the U.S. bar exam in 1943 and was inducted into the military.\u00a0He was initially assigned\u00a0to the 1576th Service Unit at Fort Indiantown Gap Military Reservation in Pennsylvania\u00a0for\u00a0KP or kitchen patrol duty for three months until he received his citizenship. He was then\u00a0reassigned to the\u00a067th Quartermaster Laundry battalion in Elkins, West Virginia,\u00a0for a few weeks before being transferred to the 23rd Machine Records Unit at Fort DuPont, Delaware. He stayed in this post for half a year working on IBM machines and later writing legal briefs and court martial opinions for the Corps Judge Advocate.\u00a0
\u00a0
In July 1944, Von Rosenstiel was shipped overseas to England with the XVIII Airborne Division where he learned how to\u00a0operate\u00a0a glider. With the Airborne, he was transferred to France in December 1944 and sent alongside other Judge Advocate support staff to\u00a0the\u00a0Battle of the Bulge and later Epernay, France. In April 1945, Von Rosenstiel returned to Germany for the first time in six years.\u00a0
\u00a0
He continued working on court martial cases until Germany surrendered and he\u00a0assisted\u00a0in collecting documents and interviewing witnesses for the upcoming war crimes trials. This included surveying the records of the German Ministry of Justice for evidence to be used in the trials and to learn as much as he could about the operation of the Nazi court system. During the Nuremburg Trials, Von Rosenstiel was chosen to interpret for 11 of the 21 defendants including Hermann G\u00f6ring, Karl Brandt, Walther Von Brauchitsch, Otto Ohlendorf, Albert Speer, Hjalmar Schacht, and Konstantin Von Neurath. During his time in Germany after the war, Von Rosenstiel also\u00a0located\u00a0his displaced family members and ensured their safety.\u00a0
\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph
Von Rosenstiel with his wife and children on a visit to Germany, 1947. From the Werner H. Von Rosenstiel papers at the Archives and Rare Books Library<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


Von Rosenstiel returned to the United States in January 1946 and was discharged from the military as a Second Lieutenant.\u00a0He\u00a0and his family settled in Pennsylvania\u00a0where he worked in advertising and law for several different companies\u00a0before\u00a0finally practicing law full-time starting in 1971.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the last 20 years of his life, Von Rosenstiel gave many lectures and interviews on his upbringing in Germany and his military service to promote education and awareness of the events he witnessed. In 2000, he published one portion of his eight-volume memoir, Tales of an American Soldier<\/em> which detailed his military service during World War II. 
 
Werner H. Von Rosenstiel passed away on July 6, 2008, at 97 years old. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Treasure trove of documents<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Werner H. Von Rosenstiel papers\u00a0contain\u00a0primary and secondary sources which document his upbringing in Germany during the rise of Nazism, his experiences attending\u00a0the University of Cincinnati, his World War II service with the United States military, and his involvement with the adjunct general’s office at the Nuremberg Trials.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Scan
Von Rosenstiel’s War Crimes Branch investigator badge, 1945. From the Werner H. Von Rosenstiel papers at the Archives and Rare Books Library<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


His papers are\u00a0comprised\u00a0of five series covering 1828-2003.\u00a0A significant portion\u00a0of his collection is from 1930-1998. This includes correspondence, photographs, military documents, family history, documents related to his legal education, Nazi propaganda, newspaper articles, and personal writings.\u00a0Within the collection are typed notes\u00a0in English\u00a0from Von Rosenstiel explaining specific documents.\u00a0However,\u00a0there\u00a0are\u00a0many\u00a0documents\u00a0in German, most notably newspapers and\u00a0material created prior to his move to the United States.\u00a0
\u00a0
Von Rosenstiel\u2019s papers provide details about his life in an\u00a0eight-volume\u00a0unpublished autobiography along with copies of his published memoir,\u00a0Tales of an American Soldier<\/em>. There are also photographs of Von Rosenstiel\u2019s time in in Cincinnati and in the United States prior to World War II, his travels during the war, his time in Germany after\u00a0the war\u00a0(which includes photos of war-torn Germany),\u00a0and his return to Germany six years later.\u00a0
\u00a0
There is a large amount of correspondence in the collection including correspondence regarding his witnessing Kristallnacht, case files copied from the Germany Ministry of Justice, 19th century correspondence in German from his wife’s family in Cincinnati to relatives in Germany, original newspaper articles before and during World War II, doctoral theses, immigration documents, personal accounts on his siblings’ experience in Germany throughout the war, war crimes investigator identification, his wife’s unpublished manuscript on her visit to Germany after World War II, photographs\u00a0of\u00a0Nazi rallies in Germany, a large collection of German inflation money issued after World War I, and audio interviews with Von Rosenstiel.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Scan
Letter sent to Von Rosenstiel from the United States Attorney concerning his Alien Enemy Hearing Board hearing, November 23, 1943. From the Werner H. Von Rosenstiel papers at the Archives and Rare Books Library<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Werner Von Rosenstiel\u2019s eye-witness account of the rise of Nazism in Germany and his experience with the United States Military first as an \u201cenemy alien\u201d then trusted interpreter during World War II serves as one of the many unique collections within ARB\u2019s German-Americana Collection. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Does the name Werner H. Von Rosenstiel ring a bell? If you have been inside the University of Cincinnati\u2019s Arts & Sciences Hall, it just might. The Werner H. Von Rosenstiel Reading Room is named after a former student who donated his library to the University in 2001. His papers were later … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":469,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,31,13],"tags":[2358,2934,37,2966,36,66,896],"class_list":["post-53806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arb","category-uc","category-uclibraries","tag-archives-and-rare-books","tag-german-immigrants","tag-library-news","tag-nuremberg-trials","tag-uc-libraries","tag-university-archives","tag-world-war-ii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/469"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53806"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53812,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53806\/revisions\/53812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}