Descriptive Summary |
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| Creator: | Silver, Alan, 1914-1988 |
| Title: | Guide to the Alan Silver Papers |
| Dates: | 1934-1987 |
| Quantity: | .4 cu. ft. (1 manuscript box) |
| Abstract: | The Alan Silver Papers, 1934-1987 comprise the private collection of Rutgers alumnus Alan Silver, relating to his involvement in the Bergel/Hauptmann affair of the 1930's. Silver, a Rutgers student from 1931 to 1935, was instrumental in the formation of the Special Trustees Committee to Investigate the Charges of Lienhard Bergel. This case, involving the alleged firing of a New Jersey College for Women professor for anti-Nazi symapthies, raised doubts about the political alignment of some Rutgers administrative officials. Silver helped to bring nationwide attention to the affair, and succeeded in having the case reopened 50 years later. The files are arranged in a single series, Papers 1934-1987. |
| Collection No.: | R-MC 023 |
| Language: | English |
| Repository: | Rutgers University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives |
Alan “Buddy” Silver was born on January 3, 1914 in Rochester, NY. He attended Rutgers University from 1931 to 1935, where he witnessed the Bergel/Hauptmann incident firsthand. During this controversial period in the history of Rutgers University, Lienhard Bergel, a German Professor at the New Jersey College for Women (later to become Douglass College), was removed from his position by German Department Chair Friederich Hauptmann. Though the reason given for his firing was “incompetence,” Bergel believed that Haputmann had targeted him for his anti-Nazi sympathies.
Although Silver never studied under either professor, he became interested in the case because of his extracurricular involvement in the National Student League and the Targum newspaper.`In May 1935 he challenged Rutgers Dean of Men Fraser Metzger to open an investigation of Bergel's firing, threatening to contact the New Jersey State Legislature if his plea was ignored. Silver's ensuing meeting with College for Women President Robert C. Clothier led to the formation of the Special Trustees Committee to Investigate the Charges of Lienhard Bergel. Silver also contacted a World Telegram reporter and the American Civil Liberties Union about the case, bringing nationwide attention to the Bergel/Hauptmann affair. The investigation concluded with the committee upholding Hauptmann's decision.
Silver graduated with honors, double-majoring in economics and history. In 1963, he went on to establish a management and consulting firm, of which he was Chief Executive Officer. The firm of Alan Silver & Associates, Inc. was a pioneer in the design and development of inventory control systems for the hard goods distribution agency. He wrote numerous articles that were published in the industry's major periodicals, such as Supply House Times, The Wholesaler, and The Plumbing, Heating, & Air Conditioning Wholesaler.
In 1985, Silver demanded that Rutgers University reopen the Bergel/Hauptmaan case. After meeting with some resistance from President Edward J. Bloustein, Silver contacted the American Association of University Professors, as well as numerous reporters, politicians and alumni. His efforts resulted in the forming of a second committee, made up of historians, to investigate the causes of Bergel's firing. Between the years of 1985 and 1988, this group collected information on the case, and published their findings in 1989 as the book The Case of the Nazi Professor.
Alan Silver married Alice Moolten Silver and had three sons, Thomas, Daniel, and Paul. He was also a World War II army veteran, stationed in Hawaii. Alan Silver died on Tuesday, March 29, 1988, at the age of 74, from cancer.
The Alan Silver Papers consist of nineteen file folders and one photograph taken by Sylvia Bergel. All relate to the Bergel/Hauptman case of 1935 and the subsequent re-investigation that was undertaken because of Silver's renewed investigation of the issue in 1986. The papers are a collection of the personal correspondence of Alan Silver, Sylvia Bergel and Lienhard Bergel; unpublished manuscripts written by Silver; interviews with Alan Silver, Lienhard Bergel, Dean Albert Meder, and Emil Jordan( the faculty member of the German Department that was promoted instead of Bergel); and a vast number of government documents pertaining to Bergel and Hauptman from the late 1930's to the early 1940's.
The Papers include correspondence between Silver, the Bergels, and the following individuals:
The original order and titles of the Alan Silver Papers have been retained (except that his correspondence was divided into three files and the government documents in the BUFILE 65-28688 were divided into two files). Although there were numerous duplications, very little was discarded because many documents contain different hand-written notes by Silver.
Records of the Special Trustees Committee are arranged into one series.
Additional finding aids to collections in Special Collections and University Archives relating to the Bergel-Hauptmann Case include the Inventory to the Records of the Rutgers University Special Trustees Committee to Investigate the Charges of Lienhard Bergel, 1934-1935 (RG 03/C2); Rutgers University. Board of Trustees. Records of J. Edward Ashmead, 1912-1919; 1928-1936; and "A Guide to Sources Relating to the Bergel-Hauptman Case, 1925-1948," compiled by Michael Greenberg.
The Richard P. McCormick Papers (R-MC 050) include sixteen folders of research materials related to the reopening of the Bergel/Hauptmann affair. Included in the McCormick Papers are interviews with Alan Silver, a 1987 article on Bergel's firing, and the Committee's 1986 report on the Bergel/Hauptmann case. For more information, see the Guide to the Richard P. McCormick Papers, 1929-2006.
Researchers can facilitate access to related materials in other collections by searching the Rutgers University Libraries' online public catalog (IRIS) and other union catalogs under the following index terms used for people, organizations, and subjects represented in these records.
Alan Silver Papers, 1934-1987 (R-MC 023), Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries.
McCormick, Richard P. Rutgers: A Bicentennial History. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1966
Oshinsky, David M., McCormick, Richard P., and Horn, Daniel. The Case of the Nazi Professor. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1989
Schmidt, George P. Douglass College: A History. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1968
This section provides descriptions of the materials found within each series. Each series description is followed by a container list, which gives the titles of the folders and their locations in the numbered boxes that comprise this collection.
| I. Papers, 1934-1987 | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 1 | 1 | Alan Silver Correspondence and Corwin-Hauptmann-Clothier Correspondence, Nov 1940 - Dec 1986 | |||||||||
| Contains notes by Silver, correspondence to Steinback, Bloustein, Burns, Oshinsky, Horn, Edelstein, McCormick, and Bergel, discussing the reopening of the case and Hauptman's Nazi views and crimes, as well as photocopies of parts of Depression and War, the Home News, Rutgers: A Bicentennial History, Begin the Haunted Prophet, and The New York Times, among other documents. | |||||||||||
| 2 | Alan Silver Correspondence, Jan 1986 - Dec 1986 | ||||||||||
| Discusses the Nazi connection of Fred G. Tauber, Hauptmann's counsel, at the 1935 hearings; and a document allegedly showing that the German Consulate paid Hauptmann's passage to Germany. There is also a great deal of correspondence to Oshinsky requesting to view documents concerning Hauptmann's activities in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, and correspondence to Dr. Nathaniel Pallone, Vice President for Academic Policy and Research at Rutgers. The file also contains other documents related to the Bergel/Hauptmann case. | |||||||||||
| 3 | Alan Silver Correspondence, Jan 1987 - Dec 1987 | ||||||||||
| Correspondence to Simmons requesting information on Hauptman's passing of the Statsexamen and to Oshinsky refuting the panel's findings. It also contains correspondence from Burns agreeing with Silver's conclusions, among other documents. | |||||||||||
| 4 | Alan Silver Interview by Oshinsky and McCormick, Nov 27 1985 | ||||||||||
| Silver discusses his memories of, and involvement with, the Bergel/Hauptmann case of 1935. He talks about his conceptions of the personalities of Bergel and Hauptmann, his extracurricular activities as they pertained to the case, Sidney Kaplan, his counsel at he 1935 hearings, and President Clothier's firing from Mellon University, among other topics. | |||||||||||
| 5 | Lienhard Bergel Interview by Oshinsky, Nov 13 1985 | ||||||||||
| Bergel discusses his work with the FBI, his anti-Nazi stance, how Hauptmann expected him to distribute Nazi propaganda in his classroom, his correspondence with the army requesting Hauptmann's whereabouts, how Steven Birmingham, agent of the Un-American Activities Committee, gave him money after the trial, and Alan Silver, among other topics. | |||||||||||
| 6 | Army and Navy maneuvers in NJ, 1934-1935 | ||||||||||
| Contains photocopied pages from various editions of the Army & Navy Journal, which discuss information on the 1934 maneuvers that Hauptmann was allegedly spying on, although it makes no mention of any espionage activities. The file also contains correspondence to McCormick and a report to the Secretary of War, among other documents. | |||||||||||
| 7 | Hauptmann at Gettysburg - Before Rutgers, undated | ||||||||||
| Correspondence to Oshinsky from Charles E. Glassick, President of Gettysburg College, stating that he was unsure why Hauptmann left, but that if may have had something to do with a policy that was in place at that time of letting "“promising” scholars go after working at Gettysburg for a few years. The file also contains other information pertaining to Hauptman's career there. | |||||||||||
| 8 | Hauptman War Crimes, 1945-1947 | ||||||||||
| Contains government documents on Hauptman's arrest and interrogation, photocopies of articles from the New Jersey newspapers the Trenton Times and the Newark News, as well as a 1947 letter from Bergel to the War Crimes/Civil Affairs Division inquiring about Hauptmann's war papers from 1946-1947. There is also a detailed inventory list of the property of the Deutsche Akademie aur Wissenscaftenlichen Erforschund Underzur pflege des Deutchtumbs (German Academy for Learned Research and Cultivation of Germaneness), of which Hauptmann was the “national leader” in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, among other documents. | |||||||||||
| 9 | Emil Jordan Interview & Notes by McCormick, Feb 1986 | ||||||||||
| Jordan discusses the personalities of Bergel and Hauptmann, his conflicts with Hauptmann over other problems, as well as his memories of the Bergel/Hauptmann case, among other topics. | |||||||||||
| 10 | Dean Meder Interview by Oshinsky and McCormick, undated | ||||||||||
| Meder talks about Mr. and Mrs. Hauptmann's personalities and debt, the “three year rule”, Mabel Douglass' refusal to hire Jews, and Bergel's low interest in extracurricular activities. He also relates the events that happened after the trial of 1935, among other topics. | |||||||||||
| 11 | Bergel Family Correspondence, 1985-1987 | ||||||||||
| Correspondence to Silver, Oshinsky, Bloustein, and Sol Chaneles, professor of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University, discussing the Bergel/Hauptmann case of 1935, Corwin's honorary master's degree, and Bergel's work for the FBI after the trials. The file also includes a clipping from The Wall Street Journal, curriculum vitae of Lienhard Bergel and a black and white photograph of an anonymous couple, among other documents. | |||||||||||
| 12 | AAUP File, 1935-1936 | ||||||||||
| American Association of University Professors. Correspondence between Ralph E. Turner and other members of the AAUP and Bergel discussing his case and the inconsistencies of Hauptmann, Corwin, and Mender's reasons for his dismissal. The file also contains letters to the Rutgers Trustees from the AAUP rejecting their decision, among other topics. | |||||||||||
| 13 | ACLU File, May 1935 - Dec 1935 | ||||||||||
| American Civil Liberties Union. Photocopies from Princeton Library. Contains correspondence between Clothier, Silver, and Lucille B. Milner, Secretary of the ACLU, concerning the Bergel/Hauptmann case, and notes from Ellen Donahue, who attended the trial, discussing Clothier's listing of the necessary qualifications of faculty member, among other documents. Document 10 missing. | |||||||||||
| 14 | Bergel Report Rebuttals/Writings by Silver on Bergel/Hauptman Report of 1986, 1987 | ||||||||||
| Discusses the economic and administrative considerations in the Bergel/Hauptmann case, the “three year rule”, dismissing Mrs. Hauptmann instead of Bergel and Jordan, among other topics. | |||||||||||
| 15 | Bergel's FBI File, Hauptman's FBI File, 1939-1950 | ||||||||||
| Mostly FBI files on Hauptmann from the 1940's, with some information on Bergel. The file discusses the Hauptmann family, alleged espionage, the Hauptmanns' relationship with Richard Frolinger, among other topics. | |||||||||||
| 16 | Government Documents BUFILE 65-55662, 1945-1948 | ||||||||||
| Discusses safe opening and examination of files at the old German Embassy, among other topics. The file also includes some memoranda written by J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI. Many of the documents are illegible. | |||||||||||
| 17 | Government Documents Main File, 1939-1949 | ||||||||||
| Discusses information on a thirty-day mail cover placed on Hauptmann's correspondence by the FBI, Hauptmann's observations of the army maneuvers in Sandy Hook, NJ, Hauptmann's travels to NYC preceding the sailing of German ships, and information on a shack in the woods near Hauptmann's house, among other documents. Much of the information in the documents is blacked out. | |||||||||||
| 18 | Government Documents BUFILE 65-28688, First ½, 1940 | ||||||||||
| Contains information on the German Embassy and on the activities of certain German citizens or German-American citizens. The file does not seem to have any direct information about Bergel or Hauptmann. | |||||||||||
| 19 | Government Documents BUFILE 65-28688, Second ½, 1940 | ||||||||||
| Contains information on the German Embassy and on the activities of certain German citizens or German-American citizens. The file does not seem to have any direct information about Bergel or Hauptmann. | |||||||||||