Alvin W. Hall collection certificate of marriage, private will, political testament

A bound volume containing photostat copies of Adolf Hitler's marriage certificate, private will, and his last political testament dated April 29, 1945; includes translations and a cover letter written by Secretary of War Robert Patterson to President Truman, dated March 19, 1945. In December 1945 an officer with the Counter Intelligence Corps of the U.S. Third Army recounted some activities in which he and members of the British Counter Intelligence had been involved. Based on a tip they received, they went to the residence of a former SS officer who had worked with Martin Bormann, Nazi Party secretary and close aide to Adolf Hitler. In the officer's home, they found the originals of the documents contained in this volume, and the documents were taken into custody by the Americans in December 1945. The documents were then sent to the U.S. War Dept. which sent them to the FBI lab for testing and authentication. On March 18, 1946, Dwight Eisenhower sent a memo to Secretary of War Robert Patterson stating that the documents had been authenticated and that they should be placed on display. The following day Secretary Patterson sent the original documents along with a letter echoing Eisenhower's memo to President Truman. On March 22, 1946, Truman wrote a memo thanking Secretary Patterson for sending him the Hitler papers, notifying him that they would be sent to the Captured Records section of the Departmental Records Branch of the War Dept. and that photostat copies would be made, and offering Patterson one of the photostat copies. This volume is one of the photostat copies that was made in 1946, and it was given to Alvin W. Hall, Sr. who was director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing from 1924 to1954.