Joseph N. Switkes collection

Documents, correspondence, awards, photographs, ephemera, collected by Joseph Switkes while serving in the U.S. Army in World War II, in France, Belgium, and Germany. Material includes World War I-era French postcards; photographs of Nazi party members from the regions surrounding Aachen, Cologne, and Bonn, including photographs depicting such party members attending rallies in Nuremberg in 1934; photographs of various of Nazi party activities in the same region, including participation of young women at gatherings of the Bund Deutscher Mädel and men at events of the Deutsche Arbeitsfront; and examples of printed propaganda. All materials were acquired by Switkes during his time as a soldier in France and Germany during World War II. Copyright Holder: Nancy Switkes Joseph Switkes (1923-2007) was born on 29 March1923, and served in the United States Army, VII Corps, in Battery C, 981st Field Artillery during World War II. He landed at Normandy on June 14, 1944, and served in campaigns in France, Belgium and Germany, in the latter, primarily in the Rhine River region near Cologne, Bonn, and Aachen. Born in Connecticut to Russian immigrant parents, he grew up in Washington, DC and spent most of his life there, where he pursued a career as a certified public accountant. He died in Silver Spring, Maryland on 6 January 2007.