Looking for abstracts to von Rohden collection at NARS in the 1960's

[Richard T. Eger]

Dear All,

Is anyone familiar with the von Rohden documents held during the 1960's at the National Archives Records Service at the old torpedo factory in Alexandria, Virginia? The accession numbers of documents I have, which were likely applied by our National Archives, run:

4376-163
4406-493
4376-323
4376-394
4376-436
etc.

These documents were researched by Richard P. Bateson during a joint research trip to Washington, D.C. in the mid-sixties. Many are compilations of documents. I will either have to deduce the common thread for each, short of finding an abstract, which would be far easier to use to properly label them into my collection.

My guess is that NARA retains the microfilms and that any hard copues were long ago returned to German archives where they may still bear a cross reference to the NARS accession numbers.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Regards,
Richard

[DavidIsby]

http://www.archives.gov/research/cap...ofilm/t971.pdf

The Library of Congress has found its Von Rohden collection microfilms, which were missing in action for a number of years. This is the research equivalent of the return of Elvis.

It does have less microfilm rolls than that held at NARA, College Park.

[Richard T. Eger]

Dear David,

Bless you! Wow, that saves me a lot of effort! I checked one of my documents, 4376-2715, and that was precisely what I had surmised it to be.

The von Rohden collection, whether in duplicates or different parts, is held by the AFHRA, NARA, and, as you say, the Library of Congress.

Regards,
Richard

[Larry deZeng]

At the great risk of appearing immodest in this world of pious modesty that we all live in today, I am the researcher who "discovered" the missing DLC (Library of Congress) von Rohden reels way back in 1988-89. I made use of them then and they were again used a few years later by Dr Richard R. Muller, Professor of Military History and Dean of Academics, USAF School of Advanced Air and Space Studies. And David Isby is correct: the DLC collection consists of fewer reels than do the NARA and AFHRA collections, but 7 or 8 of them are different and not duplicated in the other collections. The DLC reels are in the Microfilm Reading Room, of course.

I might add that rumors were rampant back in the 1980's and 1990's that many more von Rohden reels along with abundant other Luftwaffe documentation were stored in long-forgotten crates and boxes in a DLC warehouse in Landover, Maryland. I and several others wrote inquiries to DLC asking for confirmation but their response was essentially evasion and denial. According to some, the warehouse is poorly organized, so poorly that DLC has no real idea of what is there. Crates and boxes are piled high on top of one another and some of those on the bottom have been there and unopened for 50 or 60 years.

That's the story to date as I know it.

L.

[John Beaman]

So, Larry, the final scene in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is true!

[Richard T. Eger]

Dear Larry and David,

Ah, the old rumor surfaces again!

I used the T971 file index you connected me to, David, but there were about 30% of the documents I have that aren't listed there. Is there another index for the von Rohden collection that either of you know of that might fill in the blanks?

Regards,
Richard

[Larry deZeng]

There is n o "master" index that I know of. It seems that each repository made their own to reflect just what they each held. It seems that the so-called von Rohden documents were filmed in different places at different times, so their trail of custody is uncertain at best. The archivist who had the best understanding of the von Rohden collection was NARA's George Wagner, but he retired in the early 1980's and is probably no longer with us.

Since the von Rohden collection is nothing more than the surviving documents of the 8.Abt./Genst.d.Lw., the most complete holding of them is probably at BA-MA Freiburg. But I don't know if BA-MA has them indexed or inventoried.

L.

[Norbert Schuchbauer]

Try this link and then you can browse the microfilm catalogue

https://eservices.archives.gov/order...s.archives.gov

Regards,
Norbert

[Richard T. Eger]

Dear Norbert,

While your link got me to NARA's website and I was able to see the 1-page coverage of T971, I didn't see a way to get to the compilation page. However, had I been able to, I think it would have been the page David directed me to.

NARA's site has always been an enigma to me. Sometimes I have better luck finding something there through Google.

Regards,
Richard

[Norbert Schuchbauer]

Hi Richard,
I was frustrated too, but here we go: search for T971 , once the site comes up to the right there is a PDF symbol that states: view important publication details. This file will have some more detailed descriptions. Let me know if this worked.

Regards,
Norbert