Bequest Theo Berger

The Fritz Bauer Institute acquired the bequest of Theo Berger from one of Berger's nieces in 2008. Theo Berger was born on January 8, 1925. His parents were Theo Berger senior and Margarete Berger. The family lived in Frankfurt (Main), initially in the district Rödelheim, then after the Second World War shortly in the district Sachsenhausen and later in the district Bornheim. Theo Berger trained to be a precision engineer at Hartmann & Braun AG. In 1942, he was conscripted into the Reich Labor Service. On March 15, 1943, he became a member of the Waffen-SS. He then stayed at the SS casern in Nuremberg probably for basic training. In 1944, he was trained at the SS-Junkerschule in Bad Tölz and became Untersturmführer. Berger was appointed to the 6th SS mountain division "north". Since May 11, 1945, he was a French prisoner of war. Some comments in the letters suggest that Berger had already returned to his family in Frankfurt and had been denounced there. Initially, he was interned at Mulsanne prisoner-of-war camp. However, the camp was dissolved in June 1947 and Berger and other former officers and SS members were transferred to POW camp Larzac. In August 1948, Berger eventually was released. He returned to Germany and was classified as a Follower at his denazification trial. The bequest Theo Berger covers after description, demetallization, and filing 15 archival units with a total extent of 0.15 running meters. Since the record group did not have an inner structure upon the acquisition the processor Inga Steinhauser completely reorganized the holding during indexing in April and May 2023. It follows the "rules for the description of personal papers and autographs" (RNA, Regeln zur Erschließung von Nachlässen und Autographen. The holding is now structured in two sections: "correspondence" ("Korrespondenzen") and "personal documents" ("Lebensdokumente"). The section "correspondence" ("Korrespondenzen") contains some third-party letters but mostly correspondence between Theo Berger and his family. These include some military letters and mainly letters from Berger's time in French war imprisonment. The section "personal documents" ("Lebensdokumente") covers several membership and achievement books, passes, certificates, and calendars. It also contains some records concerning Berger's discharge from war captivity.