Jeremiah (Jerry) Tax papers

Copyright Holder: Judith Tax Jeremiah "Jerry" Tax (1916-1999) was born in Northampton, Massachusetts on 31 January 1916, but raised in Brooklyn, New York. On 2 March 1941, he married Deborah Billig (1917-1997), who he had met when they both were students at the University of Maryland. Their daughter, Judith, was born in 1942. After joining the United States Army, Tax was sent to serve as a radio operator with the Signal Corps of the 71st Infantry Division, which landed in Le Havre, France, and saw action in France, Germany, and Austria between that time and the end of the war. Tax remained in Austria with Allied occupation forces until 1946, when he returned to the United States and was discharged from military service. In the post-war years Tax was a journalist, serving as a writer with the Washington Post, an editor with Reader's Digest, and from 1955 to 1981, he was both a writer and editor at Sports Illustrated, eventually becoming executive editor of that publication. Tax died in Great Neck, New York on 5 June 1999. Correspondence from Jeremiah (Jerry) Tax to his wife, Deborah, and to his parents, Clara and Ben, while Tax was stationed with the 71st Infantry Division, U.S. Army, in the European Theatre, World War II. Includes correspondence describing Tax's impressions of occupied Germany and Austria and of liberated concentration camps, as well as newspaper clippings, a greeting card, and a booklet titled "The 71st Came to Gunskirchen Lager," commissioned by Maj. General Willard G. Woman, for which Tax authored piece titled "And Afterwards . . .." Also includes a map of the 71st Infantry Division's movements in Europe, 1944-1945, copies of photographs of Tax, and a cartoon drawing of a soldier, modeled on Tax.